Stephen Hawking was born in Oxford, England on 8th January, 1942. He went to school in St Albans, a small city near London. Although he did well. He was never top of his Class.
After leaving school, Hawking went first to Oxford University where he studied physics, and then he went to Cambridge University where he studied OLT cosmology (宇宙论). As he himself admits, he didn't work hard. He was a very lazy student, and did very little work. However, he still got good marks.
It was at the age of 20 that Hawking first noticed something was wrong with him. He started to bump (撞下)into things. When he visited his family at Christmas time, his mother was so worried that she made him see a doctor. Doctors said they had no way to help him. He would die before he was 23.
At first, Hawking became very sad. After a while, though, he began to see his life in a different way. As he later wrote, Before my illness was diagnosed, I had been very bored with life. There had not seemed to be anything worth doing. But shortly after came out of hospital, I suddenly realized that there were a lot of worthwhile things I could do.
Hawking died at 76. He was a man who pushed the limits. He strongly believes that his story shows that no matter how bad their situation is, you just have to do the best you can in your own situation.
