书名：A Brief Historyof Time 时间简史
难度：Lexile蓝思阅读指数1290
作者：Stephen Hawking史蒂芬·霍金
出版社名称：Bantam
出版时间：2011
语种：英文
ISBN：9780857501004
商品尺寸：12.7 x 1.7 x 19.8 cm
包装：平装
页数：240（以实物为准）

A Brief History Of Time《时间简史》是一部物理通俗化的科普范本，讲述了狭义相对论以及时间、宇宙的起源等宇宙学，作者为著名物理学家史蒂芬·霍金。自1988年首版以来，已成为全球科学著作的里程碑，它被翻译成40种文字，销量近1000万册，成为国际出版史上的奇观。本书适合有一定英文水平的物理学专业学生或宇宙学爱好者阅读。
推荐理由：
1.宇宙学经典科普读物，将高深的理论物理通俗化，很值得推荐的；
2.叙述自然，娓娓道来，并无太多教科书的味道，读起来比较轻松；
3.本书为更新后的新版本，由霍金亲自作序，增加了“虫洞和时间旅行”这一章节的内容；
4.英国原版，内容无删减，含图解及词汇注释，印刷清晰，纸质护眼。
Was there a beginning of time? Could time run backwards? Is the universe infinite or does it have boundaries? These are just some of the questions considered in an internationally acclaimed masterpiece by one of the world’s greatest thinkers. It begins by reviewing the great theories of the cosmos from Newton to Einstein, before delving into the secrets which still lie at the heart of space and time, from the Big Bang to black holes, via spiral galaxies and strong theory. To this day A Brief History of Time remains a staple of the scientific canon, and its succinct and clear language continues to introduce millions to the universe and its wonders.
Review
“This book marries a child’s wonder to a genius’s intellect. We journey into Hawking’s universe, while marvelling at his mind” —Sunday Times
“The most brilliant British scientist of his generation” —New Stateman
“He can explain the complexities of cosmological physics with an engaging combination of clarity and wit... His is a brain of extraordinary power”—Observer
“Master of the Universe... One scientist’s courageous voyage to the frontiers of the Cosmos” —Newsweek
“One of the most brilliant scientific minds since Einstein” —Daily Express

时间有初始吗？它又将在何地终结呢？宇宙是无限的还是有限的？霍金教授遨游到外层空间奇异领域，对遥远星系、黑洞、夸克、大统一理论、“带味”粒子和“自旋”粒子、反物质、“时间箭头”等进行了深入探讨—其出乎意外的含义引起了人们的极大兴趣。他揭示了当日益膨胀的宇宙崩溃时，时间倒溯引起人们不安的可能性，那时宇宙分裂成11维空间，一种“没有边界”的宇宙理论可能取代大爆炸理论和上帝，上帝—也许曾是造万物时主要推动者，也会因这些新发现而日渐范围变窄。
A landmark volume in science writing by one of the great minds of our time, Stephen Hawking’s book explores such profound questions as: How did the universe begin—and what made its start possible? Does time always flow forward? Is the universe unending—or are there boundaries? Are there other dimensions in space? What will happen when it all ends?

斯蒂芬·威廉·霍金（Stephen William Hawking），1942年1月8日出生于英国牛津，出生当天正好是伽利略逝世300年忌日，著名物理学家，现任剑桥大学卢卡斯数学教授（一度曾为牛顿所任），并广被尊崇为继爱因斯坦以来杰出的理论物理学家；CH（英国荣誉勋爵），CBE（大英帝国司令勋章），FRS（英国皇家学会会员），FRSA（英国皇家艺术协会会员）。霍金的著作包括A Briefer History of Time《时间简史》及Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays《黑洞、婴儿宇宙及其他》、The Universe In A Nutshell《果壳中的宇宙》等。
Stephen Hawking held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge, the chair held by Isaac Newton in 1663, for thirty years. Professor Hawking is now Director of Research for the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. He has over a dozen honorary degrees, and was awarded the Companion of Honour in 1989. He is a fellow of the Royal Society and a Member of the US National Academy of Science. His books include the bestselling Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, The Universe in a Nutshell, and A Briefer History of Time. His most recent book, The Grand Design, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Stephen Hawking is regarded as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Einstein. He lives in Cambridge.

Acknowledgments 谢辞
Foreword前言
1Our Picture of the Universe我们的宇宙图像
2Space and Time空间和时间
3The Expanding Universe膨胀的宇宙
4The Uncertainty Principle不确定性原理
5Elementary Particles and the Forces of Nature基本粒子和自然的力
6Black Holes黑洞
7 Black Holes Ain’t So Black黑洞不是这么黑的
8 The Origin and Fate of the Universe字宙的起源和命运
9 The Arrow of Time时间箭头
10 Wormholes and Time Travel虫洞和时间旅行
11 The Unification of Physics 物理学的统一
12 Conclusion  结论
Albert Einstein 阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦
Galileo Galilei 伽利略·伽利雷
Isaac Newton 艾萨克·牛顿
Glossary术语
Index索引

“A WELL-KNOWN SCIENTIST (SOME SAY IT WAS BERTRAND RUSSELL) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: “What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.” The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, “What is the tortoise standing on?” “You’re very clever, young man, very clever,” said the old lady. “But it’s turtles all the way down!”
Most of the people would find the picture of our universe as an infinite tower of tortoises rather ridiculous, but why do we think we know better? What do we know about the universe, and how do we know it? Where did the universe come from, and where it is going? Did the universe have a beginning and if so, what happened before then? What is the nature of time? Will it ever come to an end?” Can we go back in time? Recent breakthroughs in physics, made possible in part by fantastic new technologies, suggest answers to some of these longstanding questions. Someday these answers may seem as obvious to us as the earth orbiting the sun—or perhaps as ridiculous as a tower of tortoises. Only time (whatever that may be) will tell.