[听力资料] 霍金《时间简史》英语版

《时间简史：从大爆炸到黑洞》（英语：A Brief History of Time: from the Big Bang to Black Holes）是英国物理学家史提芬·威廉·霍金于1988年编写的一本科普图书。讲述关于宇宙的起源和命运，主要介绍了什么是宇宙、宇宙发展的最新状况和关于宇宙本性的最前沿知识，解释了黑洞和大爆炸等天文物理学理论。2012年出版新时间简史、图解时间简史。

《时间简史》是一本包含了非常多文字的书，连作者自己都说，这是一本很长很长的书，长到几乎要把整个时间都包含进去。然而，时间又是根本没有始终的，它不可能被任何空间所包含。所以，时间的无始无终也就成了书的作者霍金教授在整本书结束的时候要表达的终极意图。《时间简史》这本书可以说是一部写给普通人看的物理学著作，用最简单的语言阐述最深奥的宇宙原理，同时，它也是一本当代青年不可不读的经典名著。

A Brief History of Time (subtitled "From the Big Bang to Black Holes") is a popular-science book written by British physicist Stephen Hawking and first published by the Bantam Dell Publishing Group in 1988.^[1]

popular science 大众科学, 通俗科学

It became a best-seller and has sold more than 10 million copies.^[2]

It was also on the London Sunday Times best-seller list for more than four years.^[3]

A Brief History of Time attempts to explain a range of subjects in cosmology, including the Big Bang, black holes and light cones, to the nonspecialist reader.

Its main goal is to give an overview of the subject but, unusual for a popular science book, it also attempts to explain some complex mathematics.

The 1996 edition of the book and subsequent editions discuss the possibility of time travel and wormholes and explore the possibility of having a universe without a quantum singularity at the beginning of time.

The author notes that an editor warned him that for every equation in the book the readership would be halved, hence it includes only a single equation: E = mc².

Early in 1983, Hawking approached Simon Mitton, the editor in charge of astronomy books at Cambridge University Press, with his ideas for a popular book on cosmology.

Mitton was doubtful about all the equations in the draft manuscript, which he felt would put off the buyers in airport bookshops that Hawking wished to reach.

It was with some difficulty that he persuaded Hawking to drop all but one equation.^[4]

In addition to Hawking's notable abstention from presenting equations, the book also simplifies matters by means of illustrations throughout the text, depicting complex models and diagrams.

by means of adv.依靠

http://player.youku.com/player.php/sid/XMzYwODMzOTY4/v.swf