albert found school very difficult. his teacher would tap her pointer① against the blackboard impatiently② white she waited for him to answer her questions. rut albert always had to think about many things before he could answer. after all, he would say to himself, there are many different things to think about before you can say anything is absolutely certain.

　　when his teacher wasn't asking albert a question, albert would think of a question to ask her. and often when he did, she would get red in the face and angry at albert for thinking up questions she couldn't anthe more albert learned, the more he found to think about. the more he thought about, the more questions he thought of to ask.

　　he knew that the earth, other planets, the moon, and the sun are just a part of what we call the universe. he knew that the universe is also made up of all the stars we can see with our eyes and millions and millions more that we can see only with the largest telescopes and still more----we think----that are so far away that they can't be seen at all. and he also knew that all these stars and our own bodies and everything else are made up of atoms so tiny they can't be seen even with the best microscope③.he thought there must be some rules to explain why everything in the universe, big and little, acts as it does. why don't the stars moving around in the sky bump ④ into each other? what makes the tiny atoms stick together to form all the different things there?

　　albert einstein thought and thought until he believed he had some of the answers. and the people started asking him questions because he had answers for many things that scientists had been trying to figure out for many, many years.

　　① pointer ['p&int ]n. 教鞭

　　② impatiently [im'peim ntli]ad. 不耐烦地

　　③ microscope ['maikr sk up] n. 显微镜

　　④bump[b)mp] v. 碰;撞