BILL GATES

WE can say that the computer world and William Henry Gates III are
synonymous. Born in Seattle in 1955, Bill Gates is not only the richest
American (his fortune is worth $23.9 billion, according to numbers
made public by the news magazine Time in January 1997), but also one
of the men who control new information technologies. Indeed, he is one
of the masters of the universe and the man who is supposed to be
shaping our future.

While at high school, he wrote his first programs when he was

only 13. At 14 he was already the president of Traf-O-Data Company
which used computers to analyse and chart traffic data for the city of
Seattle. At 15 (attending the tenth grade), he was teaching computers
and writing a class scheduling program which had a very special
function: placing him in the right classes, that is, together with the girls
he liked most.

When he was a 19-year-old student at Harvard (The oldest and

most famous
American University), he joined his high school pal Paul Allen to write
the software for the worlds first home computer, the Altair 8800.

His triumph made him drop out of Harvard, in the second year of
study (1975), to found MICROSOFT, a software company, again with
Paul Allen. They created Microsoft to write versions of BASICS for the
first personal computers. After Allen quit the company, Gates became
Microsofts sole powerful chairman

Microsoft controls the market of personal computers. Eight out of

tem of the worlds PCs depend on Microsofts software: first DOS in
1980 (created for IBM computers) and then Windows, ten years later.
1995 was a highly successful year for Gates: Windows 95 was launched
and his book The Road Ahead, with his own view of the future, was
published and became a best seller.
 ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

a. Why is Bill Gates so famous?

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b. How old was Gates when he wrote his first program?

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c. What was the first company he ran? What kind of company was
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d. Why did Gates drop out of Harvard?

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e. What was Microsoft created for?

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f. Is Microsoft a successful company?

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FIND SENTENCES IN THE TEXT THAT PROVE:

a. Bill Gates is a billionaire

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b. He is a very powerful man.
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c. At fifteen he was already a very keen, smart computer expert.
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YOUR OPINION:

a- Bill Gates should ______________________________________________

b. He shouldnt __________________________________________________

c. Microsoft should be in my country because_____________________

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d- If I were Bill Gates, I would ____________________________________