Bill Gates

American computer programmer and entrepreneur who cofounded Microsoft Corporation, the world's largest personal-computer software company.

Gates wrote his first software program at the age of 13. In high school he helped form a group of programmers who computerized their school's payroll system and founded Traf-O-Data, a company that sold traffic-counting systems to local governments. In 1975 Gates, then a sophomore at Harvard University, joined his hometown friend Paul G. Allen to develop software for the first microcomputers. They began by adapting BASIC, a popular programming language used on large computers, for use on microcomputers. With the success of this project, Gates left Harvard during his junior year and, with Allen, formed Microsoft. Gates's sway over the infant microcomputer industry greatly increased when Microsoft licensed an operating system called MS-DOS to International Business Machines Corporation—then the world's biggest computer supplier and industry pacesetter—for use on its first microcomputer, the IBM PC (personal computer). After the machine's release in 1981, IBM quickly set the technical standard for the PC industry, and MS-DOS likewise pushed out competing operating systems. While Microsoft's independence strained relations with IBM, Gates deftly manipulated the larger company so that it became permanently dependent on him for crucial software. Makers of IBM-compatible PCs, or clones, also turned to Microsoft for their basic software. By the start of the 1990s he had become the PC industry's ultimate kingmaker.

Largely on the strength of Microsoft's success, Gates amassed a huge paper fortune as the company's largest individual shareholder. He became a paper billionaire in 1986, and within a decade his net worth had reached into the tens of billions of dollars—making him by some estimates the world's richest private individual. With few interests beyond software and the potential of information technology, Gates at first preferred to stay out of the public eye, handling civic and philanthropic affairs indirectly through one of his foundations. Nevertheless, as Microsoft's power and reputation grew, and especially as it attracted the attention of the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust division, Gates, with some reluctance, became a more public figure. Rivals (particularly in competing companies in Silicon Valley) portrayed him as driven, duplicitous, and determined to profit from virtually every electronic transaction in the world. His supporters, on the other hand, celebrated his uncanny business acumen, his flexibility, and his boundless appetite for finding new ways to make computers and electronics more useful through software.

All of these qualities were evident in Gates's nimble response to the sudden public interest in the Internet. Beginning in 1995 and 1996, Gates feverishly refocused Microsoft on the development of consumer and enterprise software solutions for the Internet, developed the Windows CE operating system platform for networking noncomputer devices such as home televisions and personal digital assistants, created the Microsoft Network to compete with America Online and other Internet providers, and, through Gates's company Corbis, acquired the huge Bettmann photo archives and other collections for use in electronic distribution.

It remains to be seen whether Gates's extraordinary success will guarantee him a lasting place in the pantheon of great Americans. At the very least, historians seem likely to view him as a business figure as important to computers as John D. Rockefeller was to oil. Gates himself displayed an acute awareness of the perils of his prosperity in his 1995 best-seller, The Road Ahead, where he observed, “Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.”

 

2. Выберите правильный ответ.

1. Microsoft Corporation

A was found by Bill Gates alone.

B is the world’s largest company.

C is a producer of software.

D engaged Bill Gates as a computer programmer.

2. Bill Gates

A has no higher education.

B has a diploma of Harvard University.

C left Harvard University because of his friend Allen.

D considers higher education unnecessary.

3. America Online

A belongs to Bill Gates.

B is a business rival of the Microsoft Corporation.

C produces computer software.

D is the only Internet provider in the USA.

4. Gates’s huge fortunate bases

A on his boundless appetite.

B on his profound education.

C on the strength of Microsoft’s success.

D on his relations with IBM.

5. What statement is not true? Bill Gates

A is a shareholder of Microsoft.

B does a lot of charity activities.

C prefers to stay in the shadows.

D is described as a driven and duplicitous person by his friends.

 

3. Найдите в тексте английские эквиваленты.

	предприниматель
	система расчета зарплаты
	учет информационного потока
	студент второго курса
	студент третьего курса
	влияние на зарождающуюся индустрию
	поставщик и промышленный лидер
	установить технический стандарт
	вытеснить конкурирующие системы
	ключевое программное обеспечение
	IBM-совместимые компьютеры
	самое влиятельное лицо
	стать богатейшим акционером
	собственный капитал
	по некоторым оценкам
	с неохотой
	увлекающийся, двуличный
	сверхъестественная деловая хватка
	мгновенный отклик
	лихорадочно переориентирует
	программное обеспечение потребителей и предприятий
	ясное понимание опасности
	отвратительный учитель

 

4. Укажите в таблице основные этапы жизни Билла Гейтса, основываясь на тексте /на русском языке/.

 

Дата	Основные этапы
В возрасте 13 лет