1. Here are some headings for paragraphs in the text. Write the number(s) of the paragraph(s) for each title against the heading. The first one is done for you.
| Heading |
Paragraph Number(s) |
| (i) Einstein's equation |
9 |
| (ii) Einstein meets his future wife |
7 |
| (iii) The making of a violinist |
3 |
| (iv) Mileva and Einstein's mother |
10 |
| (v) A letter that launched the arms race |
15 |
| (vi) A desk drawer full of ideas |
8 |
| (vii) Marriage and divorce |
11 |
2. Who had these opinions about Einstein?
(i) He was boring. His playmates
(ii) He was stupid and would never succeed in life. A headmaster (to his father)
(iii) He was a freak. His mother
3. Explain what the reasons for the following are.
(i) Einstein leaving the school in Munich for good.
He felt stifled by the school's extreme regimentation and often clashed with his teachers.
(ii) Einstein wanting to study in Switzerland rather than in Munich.
Switzerland was more liberal than Munich.
(iii) Einstein seeing in Mileva an ally.
He found her to be a "clever creature" and saw in her a fellow spirit against the "philistines" (the conventional people in his family and university with whom he was constantly at odds).
(iv) What do these tell you about Einstein?
These instances show that Einstein was an independent, non-conformist thinker from a young age. He valued intellectual freedom and sought out environments and people who were open-minded and intellectually stimulating.
4. What did Einstein call his desk drawer at the patent office? Why?
He jokingly called it the "bureau of theoretical physics" because, while he was supposed to be assessing other people's inventions, he was secretly developing his own ideas there.
5. Why did Einstein write a letter to Franklin Roosevelt?
He wrote to warn the American President that the Nazis could build an atomic bomb and to urge the United States to start its own nuclear research.
6. How did Einstein react to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
He was deeply shaken by the extent of the destruction.
7. Why does the world remember Einstein as a "world citizen"?
The world remembers him as a "world citizen" because, after the war, he used his popularity to campaign for peace and democracy, agitated for an end to the arms buildup, and even proposed the formation of a world government.
8. Here are some facts from Einstein's life. Arrange them in chronological order.
- Einstein is born in the German city of Ulm. (1879)
- Einstein's family moves to Milan. (1894)
- Einstein attends a high school in Munich.
- Tired of the school's regimentation, Einstein withdraws from school. (1895)
- Einstein joins a university in Zurich, where he meets Mileva. (1896)
- He works in a patent office as a technical expert. (1902)
- Einstein publishes his special theory of relativity. (1905)
- He provides a new interpretation of gravity. (1915)
- He is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. (1921)
- When Hitler comes to power, Einstein leaves Germany for the United States. (1933)
- Einstein writes a letter to U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and warns against Germany's building of an atomic bomb. (1939)
- Einstein dies. (1955)
I. Here are some sentences from the story. Choose the word from the brackets which can be substituted for the italicised words in the sentences.
1. A few years later, the marriage faltered. (failed, broke, became weak).
2. Einstein was constantly at odds with people at the university. (on bad terms, in disagreement, unhappy)
3. The newspapers proclaimed his work as "a scientific revolution." (declared, praised, showed)
4. Einstein got ever more involved in politics, agitating for an end to the arms buildup. (campaigning, fighting, supporting)
5. At the age of 15, Einstein felt so stifled that he left the school for good. (permanently, for his benefit, for a short time)
6. Five years later, the discovery of nuclear fission in Berlin had American physicists in an uproar. (in a state of commotion, full of criticism, in a desperate state)
7. Science wasn't the only thing that appealed to the dashing young man with the walrus moustache. (interested, challenged, worried)
II. Complete the sentences below by filling in the blanks with suitable participial clauses. The information that has to be used in the phrases is provided as a sentence in brackets.
1. Working round the clock, the firefighters finally put out the fire.
2. She watched the sunset above the mountain, noticing the colours blending softly into one another.
3. The excited horse pawed the ground rapidly, neighing continually.
4. Having taken the wrong train, I found myself in Bangalore, instead of Benaras.
5. Not having bathed for two days, I was desperate to get to the bathroom.
6. The stone steps, worn down, needed to be replaced.
7. The actor received hundreds of letters from his fans, asking him to send them his photograph.
Write a report which has four paragraphs...
Student Unearths Einstein Manuscript
21 August 2005. An original handwritten Albert Einstein manuscript has been unearthed at a university in the Netherlands.
The manuscript was unearthed by a student named Rowdy Boeynik on 21 August 2005. Boeynik was conducting research on papers that belonged to an old friend of Einstein.
The 16-page document, dated 1924, contains Einstein's work on his last theory. This work dealt with the behaviour of atoms at low temperature, which is now known as the Bose-Einstein condensation. The manuscript also bears Einstein's fingerprints.
The precious manuscript will be kept at Leyden University, the same institution where Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize.
Paragraph 1:
In 1931 Charlie Chaplin invited Albert Einstein, who was visiting Hollywood, to a private screening of his new film, City Lights. As the two men drove into town together, passersby waved and cheered. Chaplin turned to his guest and explained: "The people are applauding you because none of them understands you and applauding me because everybody understands me."
Paragraph 2:
One of Einstein's colleagues asked him for his telephone number one day. Einstein reached for a telephone directory and looked it up. "You don't remember your own number?" the man asked, startled. "No," Einstein answered. "Why should I memorise something I can so easily get from a book?" (In fact, Einstein claimed never to memorise anything which could be looked up in less than two minutes.)