《研究生英语精读教程》(第三版·上)Unit Four概要1.ppt

《研究生英语精读教程》(第三版·上);Unit Four;Einsteins Painful Romance;anguished△ adj. feeling or expressing very great pain, esp. of mind (尤指心灵 )很痛苦的 correspondence※ n. letter-writing, letters通信，信件 ;[ 2 ] Many of the letters describe the love between the young scientist and his future wife, Mileva Maric①; the pain associated with his mothers vehement* disapproval of the relationship; and their excitement over the impending birth of a child. ;[ 3 ] The fate of the child, a girl, however, remains a mystery. She was born before the couple married in 1903 and there apparently is no record of what became of her. [ 4 ] Intertwined* with the disclosures of a difficult romance are fragments of Einsteins thought as he struggled toward confidence in his concept of relativity①.;[ 5 ] Einstein and Maric, a Serb* born in a region of Hungary* that is now part of Yugoslavia*, became friends in 1896 while studying together at the Federal Technical Institute in Zurich*. In subsequent years they wrote frequently as Einsteins efforts to find work and Marics visits home caused many separations.;[ 6 ] In his letters, Einstein confided* in her his efforts to participate in the revolution taking place in many fields of physics, including the nature of light, relative movement and molecular phenomenon.;[ 7 ] According to Dr. John Stachel, a professor of physics at Boston University who is editor of the Einstein papers, Maric appears to have been more of a sounding board① than a contributor to Einsteins ideas. [ 8 ] In a letter to Maric in 1899, when he was 20 years old, Einstein anticipated his first theory of relativity, published six years later.;It came in a period when many physicists still believed that space was filled with an invisible medium* through which light waves could be propagated*. They called the medium a luminiferous* ether”*.;[ 9 ] Einsteins letters also reveal his familys disdain for Maric. In July 1900 he had been warned by his sister that his parents were