NCERT Class 9 English A Truly Beautiful Mind

A Truly Beautiful Mind

BEFORE YOU READ

• Who do you think of, when you hear the word ‘genius’? Who is a genius — what qualities do you think a genius has?

• We shall now read about a young German civil servant who took the world by storm about a hundred years ago. In the summer of 1905, the 26-year-old published in quick succession four ground-breaking papers: about light, the motion of particles, the electrodynamics of moving bodies, and energy. His work took up only a few pages in scientific journals, but changed forever our understanding of space, time and the entire cosmos — and transformed the name ‘Einstein’ into a synonym for genius.

• Fifty years after his death, Albert Einstein’s genius still reigns.

1. ALBERT Einstein was born on 14 March 1879 in the German city of Ulm, without any indication that he was destined for greatness. On the contrary, his mother thought Albert was a freak. To her, his head seemed much too large.

2. At the age of two-and-a-half, Einstein still wasn’t talking. When he finally did learn to speak, he uttered everything twice. Einstein did not know what to do with other children, and his playmates called him  “Brother Boring.” So the youngster played by himselfmuch of the time. He especially loved mechanical toys. Looking at his newborn sister, Maja, he is said to have said: “Fine, but where are her wheels?”

3. A headmaster once told his father that what Einstein chose as a profession wouldn’t matter, because “he’ll never make a success at anything.” Einstein began learning to play the violin at the age of six, because his mother wanted him to; he later became a gifted amateur violinist, maintaining this skill throughout his life.

4. But Albert Einstein was not a bad pupil. He went to high school in Munich, where Einstein’s family had moved when he was 15 months old, and scored good marks in almost every subject. Einsteinhated the school’s regimentation, and often clashed with his teachers. At the age of 15, Einstein felt so stifled there that he left the school for good.

5. The previous year, Albert’s parents had moved to Milan, and left their son with relatives. After prolonged discussion, Einstein got his wish to continue his education in German-speaking Switzerland, in a city which was more liberal than Munich.

6. Einstein was highly gifted in mathematics and interested in physics, and after finishing school, he decided to study at a university in Zurich. But science wasn’t the only thing that appealed to the dashing young man with the walrus moustache.

7. He also felt a special interest in a fellow student, Mileva Maric, whom he found to be a “clever creature.” This young Serb had come to Switzerland because the University in Zurich was one of the few in Europe where women could get degrees. Einstein saw in her an ally against the “philistines”— those people in his family and at the university with whom he was constantly at odds. The couple fell in love. Letters survive in which they put their affection into words, mixing science with tenderness. Wrote Einstein: “How happy and proudI shall be when we both have brought our work on relativity to a victorious conclusion.”

8. In 1900, at the age of 21, Albert Einstein was a university graduate and unemployed. He worked as a teaching assistant, gave private lessons and finally secured a job in 1902 as a technical expert in the patent office in Bern. While he was supposed to be assessing other people’s inventions, Einstein was actually developing his own ideas in secret. He is said to have jokingly called his desk drawer at work the “bureau of theoretical physics.”

9. One of the famous papers of 1905 was Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, according to which time and distance are not absolute. Indeed, two perfectlyaccurate clocks will not continue to show the same time if they come together again after a journey if one of them has been moving very fast relative to the other. From this followed the world’s most famous formula which describes the relationship between mass and energy:

                      E = mc2

10. While Einstein was solving the most difficult problems in physics, his private life was unravelling. Albert had wanted to marry Mileva right after finishing his studies, but his mother was against it. She thought Mileva, who was three years older than her son, was too old for him. She was also bothered by Mileva’s intelligence. “She is a book like you,” his mother said. Einstein put the wedding off.

11. The pair finally married in January 1903, and had two sons. But a few years later, the marriage faltered. Mileva, meanwhile, was losing her intellectual ambition and becoming an unhappy housewife. After years of constant fighting, the couple finally divorced in 1919. Einstein married his cousin Elsa the same year.

Thinking about the Text

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.

(i) Einstein’s equation

(ii) Einstein meets his future wife

(iii) The making of a violinist

(iv) Mileva and Einstein’s mother

(v) A letter that launched the arms race

(vi) A desk drawer full of ideas

(vii) Marriage and divorce

2. Who had these opinions about Einstein?

(i) He was boring.

(ii) He was stupid and would never succeed in life.

(iii) He was a freak.

3. Explain what the reasons for the following are.

(i) Einstein leaving the school in Munich for good.

(ii) Einstein wanting to study in Switzerland rather than in Munich.

(iii) Einstein seeing in Mileva an ally.

(iv) What do these tell you about Einstein?

4. What did Einstein call his desk drawer at the patent office? Why?

5. Why did Einstein write a letter to Franklin Roosevelt?

6. How did Einstein react to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

7. Why does the world remember Einstein as a “world citizen”?

8. Here are some facts from Einstein’s life. Arrange them in chronological order.

[ ] Einstein publishes his special theory of relativity.

[ ] He is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

[ ] Einstein writes a letter to U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and warns against Germany’s building of an atomic bomb.

[ ] Einstein attends a high school in Munich.

[ ] Einstein’s family moves to Milan.

[ ] Einstein is born in the German city of Ulm.

[ ] Einstein joins a university in Zurich, where he meets Mileva.

[ ] Einstein dies.

[ ] He provides a new interpretation of gravity.

[ ] Tired of the school’s regimentation, Einstein withdraws from school.

[ ] He works in a patent office as a technical expert.

[ ] When Hitler comes to power, Einstein leaves Germany for the United States.

Thinking about Language

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)

Please refer to attached file for NCERT Class 9 English A Truly Beautiful Mind