Class 9 NCERT Solutions English Chapter 4 - A Truly Beautiful Mind

(i) 9
(ii) 7
(iii) 3
(iv) 10
(v) 15
(vi) 8
(vii) 11

(i) Einstein's playmates thought that he was boring.
(ii) Einstein's headmaster thought that he was stupid and would never succeed at anything in life.
(iii) Einstein's mother thought that he was a freak.

(i) Albert Einstein was not a bad pupil. He went to high school in Munich, and scored good marks in almost every subject. However, he hated the regimentation of school, because of which he often had clashes with his teachers. At the age of 15, when he felt too stifled to continue studying, he left the school in Munich for good.
(ii)  According to Einstein, German-speaking Switzerland was more liberal than Munich. Hence, he wanted to study in Switzerland.
(iii) Einstein had a special interest in Mileva, who was his fellow student. He thought that she was a very clever person. She had come to Switzerland because the University in Zurich was one of the few in Europe where women could get degrees. Einstein instantly realised that she was an ally against all the people in his family and at the university with whom he was constantly at odds with.  In a letter he wrote to her he clearly stated how happy and proud he would be when they both had brought their work on relativity to a victorious conclusion. (iv) All these instances indicate that Einstein was a visionary. He was clever and never hesitated to place his point of view in front of others. He never went with the tide and always did things the way he wanted to. Once he knew that he was right, he was not afraid of being at odds with his teachers or for that matter anyone else. Even though he was doing well in school, he left it because he found it too stifling. He eventually moved to Zurich because he thought that this city was much more liberal than Munich. He liked to mix with people who had the same thinking and attitude as him. He was a strong man who stuck to his principles and ideas and was not afraid of putting them into practice.

Einstein was working as a technical expert in the patent office in Bern. He called his
desk drawer at the patent office the "bureau of theoretical physics." He called it so because while he was supposed to be assessing other people's inventions,  he was actually developing his own ideas in secret and his drawer was  where  he stored these ideas.

When the Nazis came to power in Germany, Einstein emigrated to the United States of America. The American physicists were in an uproar because of the discovery of nuclear fission in Berlin. Many of them, like Einstein had fled from Nazism and were afraid that the Nazis could now build and use an atomic  bomb.  At  the  urging  of  a  colleague,  Einstein  wrote  a  letter  to  Franklin Roosevelt to warn him of the consequences of an atomic explosion. In his letter, he informed the president that if a single bomb of this type was exploded in a port, it could very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory.

The Americans developed the atomic bomb in a secret project and dropped it on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Einstein was deeply shaken by the extent of the destruction caused by the explosions. He wrote a public missive to the United Nations in which he proposed the formation of a world government.  However, his proposal was not paid any attention to.  Over the next decade, he got more involved in politics, trying to agitate people to bring an end to the arms race. He used his popularity to campaign for peace and democracy till his last days.

The world remembers Einstein as a "world citizen" because he was a visionary and a scientific genius. He not only made many discoveries in science but was also deeply concerned about the growing arms race between certain nations in the world.  In a public missive to the United Nations he proposed the formation of a world government. He used his popularity to campaign for peace and democracy till his last days.

1. Einstein is born in the German city of Ulm.
2. Einstein attends a high school in Munich.
3. Einstein's family moves to Milan.
4. Tired of the school's regimentation, Einstein withdraws from school.
5. Einstein joins a university in Zurich, where he meets Mileva.
6. He works in a patent office as a technical expert.
7. Einstein publishes his special theory of relativity.
8. He provides a new interpretation of gravity.
9. He is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
10. When Hitler comes to power, Einstein leaves Germany for the United States.
11.  Einstein writes  a letter  to U.S. President,  Franklin D. Roosevelt, and  warns against Germany's building of an atomic bomb.
12. Einstein dies.

1. Became weak
2. In disagreement
3. Declared
4. Campaigning
5. Permanently
6. In a state of commotion
7. Interested

1. Working round the clock, the firefighters finally put out the fire.
2. She watched the sunset above the mountain, noticing the colours blending softly into one another.
3. The excited horse pawed the ground rapidly, neighing continually.
4. Having taken the wrong train, I found myself in Bangalore, instead of Benaras.
5. Having not bathed for two days, I was desperate to get to the bathroom.
6. The stone steps, being worn down, needed to be replaced.
7. The actor received hundreds of letters from his fans, asking him to send them his photograph.