今天，继续每日一篇英文精读。
Inside Einstein’s Love Affair With ‘Lina’-His Cherished Violin（爱因斯坦的情人“Lina”）
[1]The famed physicist rarely left home without his music, and it inspired him as he developed some of the most elegant theories in science.
[2] He would one day develop the theory of relativity and the most famous equation ever written, E=mc2.
[3] He would help lay the foundations for modern quantum theory, win a Nobel Prize, and become synonymous with the word “genius.”
[4] But Elsa Einstein once confided to a visitor that she fell in love with her handsome cousin Albert for quite a different reason: “because he played Mozart so beautifully on the violin.”
[5] Or maybe it wasn’t such a different reason.
[6] Music was far more than a sideline to Einstein’s work; it was central to everything he thought and did.
[7] “Music helps him when he is thinking about his theories,” said Elsa, who became his second wife in 1919.
[8] “He goes to his study, comes back, strikes a few chords on the piano, jots something down, returns to his study.”
[9] The great physicist himself once
said that if he hadn’t been a scientist, he would certainly have been a musician.
[10] “Life without playing music is inconceivable for me,” he declared.
[11] “I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music … I get most joy in life out of music.”
[12] It was a love affair that required time to truly spark.
[13] Einstein was six when his mother Pauline, herself an accomplished pianist, arranged for him to take violin lessons.
[14] But the instrument was a dutiful chore until he discovered the violin sonatas of Mozart at age 13.
[15] From that moment on, music became an enduring passion.
[16] Mozart continued to be his favorite composer, along with Bach, for the rest of his life.
[17] That was probably no coincidence: As many of Einstein’s biographers have pointed out, the music of Bach and Mozart has much the same clarity, simplicity, and architectural perfection that Einstein always sought in his own theories.
[18] That may also explain his distaste for the less organized, more emotive music of late 19th-century figures such as Wagner.
[19](“For the most part, I can listen to him only with disgust,” Einstein once said of the German composer.)
[20] In those pre-iTunes days, Einstein took pains to carry his music with him in physical
form.
[21] He rarely went anywhere without his battered violin case.
[22] It wasn't always the same instrument inside—Einstein owned several throughout his life—but he reportedly gave each one in turn the same affectionate nickname: "Lina," short for violin.
[23] On his travels, he would frequently bring Lina along for an evening playing
chamber music in someone’s home, and he had many musical friendships.
[24] In the 1930s, he and Elsa settled
in Princeton, New Jersey, rather than go home to Nazi Germany, and they hosted
chamber music sessions at their own home every Wednesday night.
[25] Those sessions were sacrosanct: Einstein was forever rearranging his schedule to make sure he could be there.
[26] On Halloween evenings, he was
known to come outside and surprise trick-or-treaters with impromptu violin serenades.
[27] And at Christmastime, he would come out to play along with groups of carolers.
[28] Because there are no authenticated recordings of Einstein’s playing, a lively debate continues to rage about how good he was.
[29]One photograph shows him exhibiting
terrible form, with his violin sagging downward, his bow crossing the strings
at an angle instead of being perpendicular—all the faults that make violin teachers cringe.
[30] Einstein was also notorious for
not staying in sync.
[31] Legend has it that when he missed yet
another entrance while playing in a quartet with Fritz Kreisler, the great violin virtuoso turned to him and asked, “What’s the matter, professor? Can’t you count?”
[32] Still, the evidence suggests that
Elsa wasn’t being sentimental about the quality of his playing.
[33] At 16, her cousin took a music examination at his local school, and the inspector wrote that “a student called Einstein shone in a deeply felt performance of an adagio from one of the Beethoven sonatas.”
[34] Much later, a friend wrote that
“there are many musicians with much better technique, but none, I believe, who
ever played with more sincerity or deeper feeling.”
[35] Einstein continued playing almost
until the very end.
[36] Only when his aging left hand could no
longer manage the fingering did he put Lina away for good.
[37] But he never lost that passion for music.
[38] In a profile published a few months after Einstein’s death in April 1955, the writer Jerome Weidman recalled being at an opulent dinner party where he was trapped listening to chamber music.
[39] During a lull, he confessed to the man seated next to him that he was virtually tone deaf.
[40] “You will come with me,” declared
Einstein, who immediately dragged the chagrined Weidman out of the concert and
led him upstairs to a study that contained an extensive collection of phonograph records.
[41] There, Einstein played snippets of Bing Crosby, Enrico Caruso, and more — the 1950s pop equivalents of Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga.
[42] He insisted that Weidman sing each snippet back to him as a way of training his ear.
[43] Once Einstein was satisfied, they
returned downstairs—where, to Weidman’s astonishment, he was able to appreciate
Bach’s aria “Sheep may safely graze” for the first time.
[44] Afterward, the hostess asked where the two men had gone.
[45] They had been engaged “in the greatest activity of which man is capable,” Einstein replied, “opening up yet another fragment of the frontier of beauty.”
文章梗概：爱因斯坦是著名的物理学家。他生命中的挚爱情人是“Lina”-他钟爱的小提琴。他生命中的乐趣和奇思妙想的灵感来源。
此篇属于中等难度的文章，写作要长句和短句相结合，长句避免双谓语。
详解
1.6组词汇
1）inside（题目）
Inside(in)Einstein’s Love Affair with ‘Lina’-his cherished Violin in 和inside都表示静态。题目中的inside有揭秘的意思。In表示在某个空间内，inside还有掩盖、受保护的意思。如：Inside the castle, we’ll be safe from the enemy.
2)famed(1)
famed比famous 更正式、更文艺，
同义词distinguished
3)confide to (4)与in confide to 的意思是：tell (a secret)to sb 向某人倾诉（秘密）如：he confided his troubles to a friend.他向朋友诉说烦恼事。She confided to me that she had a boyfriend.她秘密告诉我她有男朋友了。
Confide in 意思是share secrets and intimate matters with 向..吐露秘密或心事；如：Helen has a great many friends indeed, but she does not think she has any she can confide in.海伦固然有许多朋友，可是她认为没有一个是可以谈贴心话（信任）的。
4）inconceivable(10):难以置信的
同义词unthinkable, unimaginable, unbelievable, incredible,.
Until now ,the devaluation of BMB yuan seems inconceivable.直到现在，人民币的贬值似乎都无法想象。
5）perpendicular(29):垂直vertical
Perpendicular to 和..垂直或构成直角
The z-axis is perpendicular to the plane.Z轴跟平面是垂直的关系。
Vertical用来形容“垂直的”想对应的 horizontal.
垂直加速度、水平加速度the acceleration in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction.
6)与音乐相关的词汇：
Chamber music:室内乐（相当于大型管弦乐）
Impromptu:即兴的，unprepared, unrehearsed.
Serenade:小夜曲songs sang out of a woman’s window.
Caroler:唱圣诞颂歌的人a person who sings carols.
Sync:同时，同步（short for synchronize）harmonize
Quartet：四重奏foursome
Virtuoso:演奏家、艺术家expert, artist
Adagio:慢板slow and graceful
Aria:咏叹调，唱腔
2.5个双重否定+一句改写
1）The famed
physicist rarely left home without his music=the famed physicist often left home with his music.
5)Or maybe it wasn’t such a different
reason.=or maybe it was such a same reason.
10)Life without playing music is inconceivable for me =life with playing music is conceivable for me.
21)He rarely went anywhere without his
battered violin case =he often went somewhere with his battered violin case.
37) But he never lost that passion for
music. = but he always kept that passion for music.
改写成双重否定35.
Einstein continued playing almost until the
very end= Einstein never stopped playing until the very end.
Lover：在英文中指非婚的情人。
3.1个倒装句
36)Only when his aging left hand could no
longer manage the fingering did he put Lina away for good.= when his aging left hand could no longer manage the fingering, he put Lina away for good.他从未…直到…/直到…他才
