研究生英语精读教程课文原文+翻译+短文unit4.doc

Einstein's Painful RomanceWalter SullivanThe story of an anguished love affair between Albert Einstein and the woman who would later become his first wife has emerged in newly disclosed correspondence between them.新近披露的艾伯特 ·爱因斯坦与意中人 (此人后来成为他的元配 )之间的来往信件，向人们展示了这对情侣饱含辛酸的爱情经历Many of the letters describe the love between the young scientist and his future wife, Mileva Maric; the pain associated with his mother's vehement disapproval of the relationship; and their excitement over the impending birth of a child.有许多信件都叙述了这位年轻科学家和他未婚妻米莱娃 ·玛丽克之间的爱情，叙述了因为爱因斯坦的母亲拼命反对这门亲事而引起他俩的痛苦心情，还叙述了他俩为孩子的即将出世油然而生的兴奋心情。

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.然而，这个女孩后来的命运如何依然是个谜她是在这对夫妇于 1903年结婚前生下的，而且对她后来的情况显然没有记载Intertwined with the disclosures of a difficult romance are fragments of Einstein's thought as he struggled toward confidence in his concept of relativity.与所披露的艰难的罗曼史交织在一起的是爱因斯坦满怀信心地为自己的相对论概念而努力奋斗的思想片断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 Einstein's efforts to find work and Maric's visits home caused many separations.爱因斯坦与玛丽克 (她出生在当时匈牙利的塞尔维亚地区，现为南斯拉夫的一部分。

)是在 1896年交上朋友的当时他俩正一起在苏黎世的联邦理工学院学习，在后来的许多岁月中，因爱因斯坦为找工作奔波，玛丽克为回家探亲而造成多次分离，所以他们通信频繁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.爱因斯坦在信中向玛丽克吐露，自己在投身于许多物理学领域 (其中包括光的特性、相对运动和分子现象 )内发生的革命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 board" than a contributor to Einstein's ideas.据波士顿大学物理学教授、爱因斯坦论文集的编辑约翰 ·施塔赫尔博士说，看起来，与其说玛丽克是爱因斯坦思想的贡献者，不如说是爱因斯坦思想的 “共鸣者 ”。

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”.1899年爱因斯坦 20岁在给玛丽克的一封信中，他提前谈论了自己 6年后发表的早期相对论思想当时许多物理学家仍然认为空间充满着一种能使光波传播的不可见的介质他们将这种介质称之为“传光的以太”Einstein's letters also reveal his family's disdain for Maric. In July 1900 he had been warned by his sister that his parents were bitterly opposed to him marrying Maric. When he told his mother of his intention, "Mama threw herself on the bed, buried her head in the pillows, and cried like a child," he wrote to Maric.爱因斯坦的信还透露了他家里的人对玛丽克的鄙视态度。

1900年 7月，他事先得到姐姐的警告说，父母竭力反对他与玛丽克结婚当他把自己的打算告诉母亲后，“妈妈一下子扑倒在床上，把头埋在枕头下，哭得像孩子似的”，他在给玛丽克的信中写道"After she had recovered from the initial shock, she immediately switched to a desperate offensive," Einstein continued. He quoted his mother as saying, "You are ruining your future and blocking your path through life."爱因斯坦继续写道，“当她从开头的打击中恢复过来后，便立即转换方式，发起猛烈攻势他还援引母亲的话说，“你是在毁掉自己的前途，你是在阻塞自己的人生道路Although Einstein's family looked down on Maric's background, another problem was the couple's meager income. As Einstein wrote to a friend, "Neither of us two has gotten a job and we support ourselves by private lessons - when we can pick up some, which is still very questionable."虽然爱因斯坦的家人瞧不起玛丽克的出身，另外一个原因也是因为这对未婚夫妇的微薄收入。

就像爱因斯坦在给一个朋友的信中所写的那样，“我们俩都还未找到工作我们只靠给私人上课为生 (如果我们能找到一些这样机会的话 )，但这还是很成问题的Interspersed among Einstein's repeated expressions of love were discussions of scientific questions with which both were concerned.在爱因斯坦的那些情意缱绻的信中也掺带着对他们双方都关心的科学问题的讨论While visiting the Swiss town of Aarau "a good idea occurred to me, " he wrote, "about a way of investigating how a body's relative motion with respect to the luminiferous ether affects the velocity of propagation of light in transparent bodies. Also a theory on this matter occurred to me, which seems to be highly probable."在游览瑞士的阿劳城时，“我心中产生了一个好主意，”他写道，“即关于研究一个物体与传光以太的相对运动如何影响光在透明物体中的传播速度的方法。

在这个问题上我头脑里还产生了一种似乎十分有可能成立的理论He also was pondering "the definition of absolute rest", a paradox that led him to his initial theory on relativity. The theory ruled out the possibility of absolute rest, since all objects are considered to be in motion relative to other objects. He also was contemplating the electrodynamics of moving bodies which, he said, "promises to be a capital paper."他还在思考着“绝对静止的定义”，一种导致他产生最初相对论的悖论这种理论排除了绝对静止的可能性因为一切物体对于其他有关物体来说都被看作是处在运动之中的他还对移动物体的电动力学冥思苦想，他说，“这有希望成为一篇优秀论文"I wrote to you that I doubted the correctness of the idea s about relative motion," he wrote. "But my doubts were based solely on a simple mathematical error.Now I believe in it more than ever." “我曾写信给你，谈到过我。