Maharashtra Board Class 10 English Kumarbharti Unit Three Chapter 3.3 Stephen Hawking PDF Download

Stephen Hawking

Warming Up!

Get into pairs and match the prominent personalities with the disabilities they had:

Teacher's Note

Many great people have disabilities but they still work hard and become successful. Like Sudha Chandran is a famous Indian dancer who dances even without one leg.

Exam Trick

Remember: Disability does not mean you cannot do anything. Stephen Hawking could not move his body but he became a great scientist. Focus on what you CAN do, not what you CANNOT do.

Points to Remember

Many famous people in the world have disabilities.
John Milton was a blind English poet.
Beethoven was a deaf German musician and composer.
Sudha Chandran is a famous Indian dancer who has no legs but still dances.
Stephen Hawking is a great scientist who cannot move his body.

Word Building

(a) Reduplication: The root or stem of a word is repeated exactly the same or with a slight change.

For example: tweet-tweet, pitter-patter, chit-chat, bang-bang, riff-raff.

(b) Blending: Parts of two or more words combine to form a new one.

For example:

breakfast + lunch = brunch

smoke + fog = smog

motor + hotel = motel

(c) Clipping: Reducing a word to one of its syllables or a part of it.

For example:

Mathematics - Maths

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Laboratory - Lab

(d) Acronym: Words formed from the first letter of each of the words involved.

For example:

radar, scuba, UNICEF, NASA

BBC, CID, USA, ATM, VIP

DOB, KYC, PM, GN, TY etc.

In your notebook, write five examples of each of the above types of word-building devices. You may take the help of a Dictionary or Internet.

Teacher's Note

Word building is how we make new words in English. Like we say "Maths" instead of "Mathematics" to save time. This is just like how we say "ATM" instead of saying the full name.

Exam Trick

Remember: Acronym = first letters. Like "CBSE" is made from the first letters of Central Board of Secondary Education. NASA is made from first letters of National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Points to Remember

Reduplication means repeating a word twice or with a small change.
Blending means joining parts of two words together to make a new word.
Clipping means making a long word short by cutting it.
Acronym means using the first letter of each word to make one short word.
All these are ways to make new words in English.

Who Is Stephen Hawking?

Stephen Hawking was born on January 8, 1942. He is a British scientist, professor and author. He has done very important work in physics and cosmology. His books help make science easy for everyone to understand. When he was 21 years old, he was studying at the University of Cambridge. At that time, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This is a serious disease. Part of his life story was shown in the 2014 film called The Theory of Everything.

Stephen Hawking is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He is an author. He is Director of Research at the centre of theoretical cosmology within the Cambridge University. Hawking was the first to explain a theory of cosmology. This theory combined the general theory of relativity and quantum machines. Hawking is an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). He is a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This is the highest civilian award in the US.

This lesson teaches us about this great scientist. We learn about his life and his works.

Teacher's Note

Stephen Hawking was a very intelligent scientist even though he had a bad disease. In India, we have many scientists who work hard and make discoveries. They show us that hard work can help us succeed in life.

Exam Trick

Remember: Stephen Hawking = British scientist + ALS disease (could not move body) + many books on science + think in 11 dimensions. These are the key things to remember about him.

Points to Remember

Stephen Hawking was born on January 8, 1942 in Britain.
He is a scientist and author who made science easy for normal people.
He got a serious disease called ALS when he was 21 years old.
He wrote or co-wrote 15 books about science.
A film called The Theory of Everything was made about his life in 2014.

His Important Books

Over the years, Stephen Hawking has written or co-written a total of 15 books. Here are some of the most important ones:

In 1988, Hawking became very famous. He published a book called A Brief History of Time. This book is short and informative. It became a book about cosmology for normal people. It gave an overview of space and time. It talked about the existence of God and the future. The book was very successful. It stayed on top of the London Sunday Times bestseller list for more than four years. Since it was published, it has sold millions of copies all over the world. It has been translated into more than 40 languages.

A Brief History of Time was not easy to understand for some people. So in 2001, Hawking wrote another book. This book was called The Universe in a Nutshell. This book had more pictures and drawings. It was a guide to the big theories of cosmology. It was easier to understand than the first book.

Teacher's Note

Stephen Hawking wrote books to help ordinary people understand science. Like in India, scientists write books in simple Hindi or English so that everyone can learn. This is very good work.

Exam Trick

Remember: A Brief History of Time = 1988 = became very famous. The Universe in a Nutshell = 2001 = easier version with pictures. A Briefer History of Time = 2005 = even simpler version.

Points to Remember

A Brief History of Time was published in 1988 and was very successful.
The Universe in a Nutshell came out in 2001 and was easier to understand.
A Briefer History of Time came out in 2005 with even simpler ideas.
These books together show Hawking's search for a big unifying theory of science.
Hawking believes time travel is possible and humans can live on other planets.

In 2005, Hawking wrote an even more simple book. It was called A Briefer History of Time. This book made the original work's main ideas even simpler. It talked about the newest discoveries in science like String theory. Together, these three books show Hawking's personal search. He searches for science's Holy Grail. This is a single unifying theory. It can combine cosmology (the study of the big) with quantum mechanics (the study of the small). This explains how the universe began. This kind of big thinking has helped Hawking think in 11 dimensions. He has laid out big possibilities for humankind. He is convinced that time travel is possible. He thinks that humans may colonize other planets in the future.

In September 2010, Hawking spoke against the idea that God could have created the universe. He wrote this in his book The Grand Design. Before this, Hawking had argued that belief in a creator could be compatible with modern scientific theories. His new work, however, concluded that the Big Bang was the inevitable consequence of the laws of physics and nothing more. Hawking said: "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist."

The Grand Design was Hawking's first major publication in almost a decade. In this new work, Hawking set out to challenge Sir Isaac Newton's belief. Newton believed that the universe had to have been designed by God. He thought this because it could not have been born from chaos. Hawking said: "It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."

Teacher's Note

Stephen Hawking's books show us that science and belief in God can be different topics. In India, many scientists also have these kinds of questions and thoughts about how the world works.

Exam Trick

Remember: The Grand Design = 2010 = says Big Bang happened because of physics laws, not God. This was a big change from what Newton thought 300 years before.

Points to Remember

Hawking's three books together show his search for one big unifying theory of science.
The Grand Design was published in 2010 and challenged Newton's ideas about God creating the universe.
Hawking believed the Big Bang happened because of physics laws, not because God created it.
Hawking said the universe can create itself from nothing because of gravity.
Time travel and life on other planets are possible according to Hawking's thinking.

Hawking's Struggle With His Disease

At the age of 21, Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease). In a very simple sense, the nerves that controlled his muscles were shutting down. At the time, doctors gave him two and a half years to live.

Hawking first began to notice problems with his physical health while he was at Oxford. On occasion, he would trip and fall. Or he would slur his speech. He did not look into the problem until 1963. This was during his first year at Cambridge. For the most part, Hawking had kept these symptoms to himself. But when his father took notice of the condition, he took Hawking to see a doctor. For the next two weeks, the 21-year-old college student made his home at a medical clinic. There, he underwent a series of tests.

Hawking once said about these tests: "They took a muscle sample from my arm, stuck electrodes into me, and injected some radio-opaque fluid into my spine, and watched it going up and down with X-rays, as they tilted the bed. After all that, they didn't tell me what I had, except that it was not multiple sclerosis, and that I was an atypical case."

Eventually, however, doctors did diagnose Hawking with the early stages of ALS. It was devastating news for him and his family. But a few events prevented him from becoming completely sad and hopeless. The first of these came while Hawking was still in the hospital. There, he shared a room with a boy suffering from leukemia. Relative to what his roommate was going through, Hawking later reflected, his situation seemed more tolerable. Not long after he was released from the hospital, Hawking had a dream that he was going to be executed. He said this dream made him realize that there were still things to do with his life.

In a sense, Hawking's disease helped him become the noted scientist he is today. Before the diagnosis, Hawking had not always focused on his studies. He said: "Before my condition was diagnosed, I had been very bored with life. There had not seemed to be anything worth doing." With the sudden realization that he might not even live long enough to earn his PhD, Hawking poured himself into his work and research.

Teacher's Note

Stephen Hawking's story shows us that even when bad things happen, we can still do great things. Like many Indian people face difficulties but they keep trying and succeed in life.

Exam Trick

Remember: At 21 = diagnosed with ALS. Doctors said = 2.5 years to live. But he lived for 55 more years and became very famous! This shows never give up.

Points to Remember

Hawking first noticed health problems when he was at Oxford University.
He was diagnosed with ALS at age 21 when he was studying at Cambridge.
Doctors said he would live only 2 and a half more years.
But seeing a boy with leukemia and having a dream changed his mind about life.
His disease made him focus on his studies and work instead of being bored.

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