Class 8 English — Chapter 11: A Visit to Cambridge

What you'll learn

• ▸The Meeting of Kanga and Hawking
• ▸Perspectives on Disability and 'Bravery'
• ▸The Theme of Inspiration
• ▸Kanga's Description of Stephen Hawking
• ▸Communication Through Technology
• ▸Stephen Hawking's Advice for the Disabled
• ▸The Author's Personal Realization
• ▸Use of Metaphors and Imagery

Chapter Summary

--- PAGE 1 --- Before you read This is the story of a meeting between two extraordinary people, both of them 'disabled', or 'differently abled' as we now say. Stephen Hawking is one of the greatest scientists of our time. He suffers from a form of paralysis that confines him to a wheelchair, and allows him to 'speak' only by punching buttons on a computer, which speaks for him in a machine-like voice. Firdaus Kanga is a writer and journalist who lives and works in Mumbai. Kanga was born with 'brittle bones' that tended to break easily when he was a child. Like Hawking, Kanga moves around in a wheelchair. The two great men exchange thoughts on what it means to live life in a wheelchair, and on how the so called 'normal' people react to the disabled. Cambridge was my metaphor for England, and it was strange that when I left it had become altogether something else, because I had met Stephen Hawking there. It was on a walking tour through Cambridge that the guide mentioned Stephen Hawki…

Practice Questions from this Chapter

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1. Explain black holes simply. Get Solution →
2. How do speech synthesizers work? Get Solution →
3. Describe Isaac Newton's discoveries. Get Solution →
4. Who is described as one of the greatest scientists of our time in the provided text? Get Solution →
5. What is the profession of the story's narrator, Firdaus Kanga? Get Solution →
6. What is the title of Stephen Hawking's best-selling book mentioned in the chapter? Get Solution →
7. How does Stephen Hawking communicate? Get Solution →
8. What physical condition was the author, Firdaus Kanga, born with? Get Solution →

Did you know?

• 💡 The first known record of a wheeled chair dates back to ancient China.
• 💡 Early speech synthesizers sounded more like robots than human voices.
• 💡 Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" remained on bestseller lists for years.
• 💡 A black hole's gravity is so powerful that not even light can escape it.
• 💡 Isaac Newton formulated calculus during a plague lockdown in England.

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