Making a difference（The First Period）

ⅱ.teaching goals
1. talk about science and scientists.
2. practise describing people and debating.
3. learn more about the infinitive.
4. write a descriptive paragraph.
ⅲ. teaching time: five periods
iv. background information
1. the beginning of time and a remarkable man called stephen hawking
if you have ever thought about how the universe began and whether time has a beginning or an ending, then you should know about a 55-year-old englishman called stephen hawking.
why? because he is considered to be one of the brainiest men in the world and to be the modern successor of albert einstein.
stephen has spent his life studying and thinking about the origins of the universe and how it can be explained by using the modern theories of physics such as relativity and quantum mechanics. his discoveries and his scientific proposals have been revolutionary. people call him a genius.
just as amazing is the fact that since his early twenties, he has been suffering from an incurable disease of the nervous system which has affected his movements and his speech. but, fortunately, although he must use a wheelchair and other technical aids to do things, his brain functions perfectly. in- deed, it functions better than the vast majority of people’s. so, in spite of a severe disability, he has made tremendous contributions to our understanding of our universe.
so, what does stephen think about the beginnings of our world? well, he thinks (along with others) that it began around fifteen billion years ago. he also thinks that our universe was probably created by an enormous explosion, a “big bang”. this is a view held by many cosmologists (scientists who study the universe).
but scientists hold different views about what the universe was like before the big bang. some people think that there is no way that modern physics can explain or predict anything before the big bang. many other people think that the big bang must have been the work of god.
stephen hawking has his own view on what the universe was like before the big bang. he has suggested that, yes, we can say that the universe and time began at one particular point (a big bang). but, this one point was just an ordinary point in time like, say, the north pole is a point on the smooth surface of the earth. it was not a point of real beginning, just a point.
      stephen believes that if we can use our present knowledge of the laws of physics to understand how the universe began, then we will not have to believe that a “god” or a spiritual force made the big bang.