Word:
Definition:
Word:
Definition:
BEGIN
DAY 2
Literal: What interested Stephen when he was a child?
He was fascinated by bees, fireworks, and how things worked.
Inferential: Why do people compare Hawking to Galileo?
Hawking’s discoveries about black holes and how time works are
as important today as Galileo’s were 300 years ago.
prophetic
having to do with
future events
eccentric
strange, odd, or
unusual
158 Stephen Hawking: A Legendary Scientist and Man
Vocabulary
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A few days before Stephen Hawking was born, his
mother, Isobel, picked up a small book on astronomy at an
Oxford bookshop. It would prove prophetic. Stephen was
born January 8, 1942, exactly 300 years after the death of
Galileo. No one knew then that Hawking’s study of the
universe would change science forever, just as Galileo’s
had centuries before.
There was already one scientist in the family. Stephen’s
father was a well-known research biologist. So it was not
surprising to anyone when Stephen began showing an
interest in science at a very early age. He was especially
fascinated by the bees his father kept in the basement for
scientific research. The fireworks his father stored in the
greenhouse were off-limits. But that didn’t stop a curious
Stephen from trying to get to them.
Stephen was also very good at figuring out how to
solve problems. He and his sister Mary spent many hours
figuring out ways to get in and out of their house. He came
up with eleven different escape routes in all.