Beehive NCERT Class 9 –A Truly Beautiful Mind

                                             A Truly Beautiful Mind

Rewriting the text differently, using some new words and phrases…

  1. Albert Einstein, the Physicist whom the whole world idolizes as a pathbreaker in scientific understanding of the universe, was born with little fanfare in German city of Ulm in March 14, 1979. The baby had a over-sized head that puzzled his mother somewhat. There was no indication that this little baby would one day rise to the zenith of scientific knowledge.
  2. Till he was two and half years in age, the boy didn’t utter a single word. Later, when he began to speak, he repeated everything twice. He was a misfit among his circle of friends. They found him to be drab and boring. So, he played alone. Mechanical toys fascinated him. When his sister, Maja, was born, he looked at her joyfully, and wondered why she hadn’t had her ‘wheels’.
  3. Seeing the young Einstein’s dull mentality and his unusual behavior, his headmaster once told his father that his young son would never make it big in life.
  4. Einstein was coaxed by his mother to learn violin when he was six. He developed a liking for this musical instrument. For the rest of Einstein’s life marked by relentless quest to unravel the vault of Physics, violin remained his choicest companion.
  5. When he was just 15 months old, his family moved to Munich. The young boy started his school studies there and performed very well in examinations scoring high marks in almost all subjects. The school’s rigid environment miffed Einstein. On occasions, he would rebel against his teachers. By the time he became 15 years in age, Einstein’s disenchantment with his school had reached the boiling point, and he left the school permanently.
  6. The two subjects, Mathematics and Physics, held special charm for Einstein. He had enrolled in the University of Zurich for his higher education. He had grown a large moustache. He loved other subjects too.
  7. Mileva Maric, a classmate, attracted Einstein towards her as she appeared to be a ‘clever creature’ to him. The University of Zurich in Switzerland was one among the very few universities in Europe that allowed women to pursue higher studies. This is why Mileva Maries, a Serb, had come to Zurich. Einstein was a non-conformist right from his childhood. He disliked the regimented pattern of life in schools and in his own family that followed traditional ways. Mileva appealed to Einstein so much because she, too, had similar adverse approach to well-set social values. The duo fell in love and exchanged letters expressing their romantic bond and unusual love for Physics. The two young students jointly worked on the topic of Relativity and looked forward to the days when their work would receive universal appreciation.
  8. Albert Einstein finished his graduation in the year 1900. He was 21 then. He couldn’t find a job. To earn his living and keep himself busy, he gave private tuition and worked as a teaching assistant. In the year 1902, he got a job as a Technical Assistant in the patent office in Bern. Although his job was to assist other people to augment their inventions, Einstein was deeply lost in his quest for exploring new avenues in Physics, especially in the field of Relativity. His workplace saw him engrossed in Physics all the time. He often joked about such unusual involvement in activities not connected to his office work. He said that his work desk had become a ‘bureau of theoretical Physics’.
  9. Einstein’s ‘Special Theory of Relativity’ was published in 1905. The ideas expounded in this paper proved that neithter distance, nor time were absolute quantities. Such a theory backed by complex mathematical calculations revolutionised scientific thinking. Einstein’s fame soared to dizzy heights. As an illustration, it showed how two clocks moving away from each other at a speed close to that of light will show the same time even after long hours of travel. Such an illustration baffled the scientific community. The epic equation E = mcformed the basis of this irrefutable conclusion.
  1. Sadly, for this great science genius, when he was immersed in his grueling battle to uncover mathematical secrets, his family life was falling apart. Einstein had wanted to marry Mileva, his sweetheart, but his mother resisted the idea. She was a study-maniac, and three years older than Einstein. This weighed up in Einstein’s mother’s mind when she disapproved of the marriage proposal.
  2. The two young students finally tied the knot in January 1903. The couple were blessed with two sons. Doing household chores and rearing her two children made Mileva’s mathematical mind drifted away from the complex scientific research. Her loss of interest in intense academic pursuits baffled and saddened Einstein. This led to frequent squabbling till they divorced in 1919. Einstein married his cousin Elsa the same year.
  3. As Einstein’s personal life witnessed many momentous events, his meteoric ascent to fame continued unhindered. An eclipse of the sun predicted by Einstein’s formula happened in 1919 vindicating his theory. Einstein had calculated that the light from stationary stars would get deflected by the gravitational pull of sun. When the eclipse happened, Einstein’s theory made headlines in the media worldwide. They concluded that it was a ‘scientific revolution’.
  4. The Nobel Prize for Physics was conferred on Einstein in the year 1921. Felicitations and appreciations poured in on him from every corner of the world.
  5. With the advent of the Nazis in German politics, Einstein, a Jew, escaped to the United States in 1933 to save his life. After five years, it became known that the German scientific establishment directly under Hitler’s watch had discovered the nuclear fission process. This discovery was obviously a precursor of Hitler having a atom bomb in his arsenal.
  6. Einstein was just one of some more German escapees now working for the United States whose president was Franklin D. Roosevelt then. Einstein, alarmed by the possibility of Hitler having the highly destructive atomic weapon in his hand wrote a letter to President Roosevelt on Augst 2, 1939 warning him of the possibility of falling victim to the Nazi bomb. He explained how a single strike on an American sea port could pulverize the whole port city in minutes. Shaken by Einstein’s warning, President Roosevelt went on an overdrive to make an atom bomb with the active participation of the German scientific group. Finally, America could bring the Second World War to an abrupt end by dropping two such bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.
  7. The horrors of the mass annihilation of innocent civilians and the conversion of the two cities to mountains of rubble shook the whole world’s conscience. Einstein was engulfed in grief and foreboding. He didn’t want to see humanity suffer such insane brutality again. He wrote a mournful memorandum to the United etched Nations to dismantle national boundaries and form a world government. In the succeeding years, he became a crusader for peace and harmony in world politics and collective renouncement of the idea of arms race. In a nutshell, from the discoverer of the mass destruction weapon, Einstein became a campaigner for universal peace.
  8. Einstein departed from this world in 1955 at the age of 76. By then, he had his memory in everyone’s heart as a person of astounding merit and a conscience as deep in compassion as the ocean.

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Thinking about the text..

  1. Einstein meets his future wife .. Para 7
  2. The making of a violinist .. ……….Para 4
  3. Mileva and Einstein’s mother ….Para 10
  4. A letter that launched the arms race …. Para 15
  5. A desk drawer full of ideas ……. Para 8
  6. Marriage and divorce …Page 11

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  1. Who had these opinions about Einstein?

(i) He was boring.  … Ans .. Einstein’s classmates

(ii) He was stupid and would never succeed in life. …… Ans..His school’s headmaster

(iii) He was a freak. ………Ans .. His mother

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3. Explain what the reasons for the following are.

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

Ans .. The school was too regimented and the time there didn’t allow the young Einstein to be on his own.

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

Ans .. Einstein’s parents had moved to Zurich.

(iii) Einstein seeing in Mileva an ally.

Ans .. Like Einstein, Mileva had a an intelligent mind, and like him, she, too, was a non-conformist.

(iv) What do these tell you about Einstein?

Ans .. Einstein was an intellectual rebel, who loved to pursue his favorite subjects-Mathematics and Physics- at any cost. Nothing in life charmed him more.

———————————————————————–.

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

Ans.. Einstein worked in the Patent office as an employee, but he was indulging in his mathematical studies all the time. He kept his worksheets in the office table’s drawer and felt that it was a treasure house of Physics.

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

Ans .. Einstein could clearly foresee that his ex-colleagues in the research establishment in Germany had succeeded in the nucle fission experiment and would soon be able to make the dreaded atom bomb. Hitler, then could use such a weapon to attack the Allies.

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

Ans.. Einstein was aghast, and completely heart-broken to see the mutilation two large cities and the innocent civilians living in them. The scale of human suffering plunged him in grief and anxiety. He felt repentant for being a part of the atom bomb making process.

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

Ans.. In the aftermath of the dropping of American atom bombs on Japan, Einstein felt that intense national rivalries was leading the mankind towards senseless destruction. He wrote a letter to the United Nations calling for a world government that could dispel national rivalry for good. So, it was apt to term him as ‘world citizen’.

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

Ans…

[ ] Einstein is born in the German city of Ulm Einstein publishes his special theory of relativity.

[ ] Einstein attends a high school in Munich.

[ ] Tired of the school’s regimentation,

[ ] Einstein withdraws from school.

[ ] Einstein’s family moves to Milan.

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

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

[ ] He provides a new interpretation of gravity.

[ ] He is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

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

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

[ ] Einstein dies.

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Thinking about Language …..

  1. Here are some sentences from the story. Choose the word from the brackets which can be substituted for the italicised words in the sentences.
  2. A few years later, the marriage faltered. (became weak).
  3. Einstein was constantly at odds with people at the university. (on bad terms)
  4. The newspapers proclaimed his work as “a scientific revolution.” (declared)
  5. Einstein got ever more involved in politics, agitating for an end to the arms buildup. (campaigning)
  6. At the age of 15, Einstein felt so stifled that he left the school for good. (permanently)
  7. Five years later, the discovery of nuclear fission in Berlin had American physicists in an uproar. (in a state of commotion)
  8. Science wasn’t the only thing that appealed to the dashing young man with the walrus moustache. (interested)
  9. Study the following sentences.

Complete the sentences below by filling in the blanks with suitable participial clauses. The information that has to be used in the phrases is provided as a sentence in brackets.

1.The firefighters finally put out the fire. (They worked round the clock.)

Ans .. The firefighters finally put out the fire working round the clock.

  1. She watched the sunset above the mountain, (She noticed the colours blending softly into one another.)

Ans .. She watched the sunset above the mountain noticing the colors blending softly into  one another.

  1. The excited horse pawed the ground rapidly, (While it neighed continually.)

Ans .. The excited horse paved the ground rapidly neighing continually.

  1. , I found myself in Bangalore, instead of Benaras. (I had taken the wrong train.)

Ans .. Taking the wrong train, I found myself in Bangalore instead of Benaras.

  1. , I was desperate to get to the bathroom. (I had not bathed for two days)

Ans …Not having bathed for two days, I was desperate to go to the bathroom.

  1. The stone steps, needed to be replaced. (They were worn down).

Ans … Being worn down, the stone steps needed to be replaced.

  1. The actor received hundreds of letters from his fans, (They asked him to send them his photograph.)

Ans .. The actor received hundreds of letters from his fans asking him to send them his photographs.

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