Lesson67 Bill Gates
Most high school students would be delighted to be accepted by Harvard University， but Harvard had little to offer to young Bill Gates． After several semesters， he dropped out and went to work． Finally he made himself the richest man in the world．
Actually， his career started in high school where he discovered the amazing world of computers． He quickly learned the programming language called BASIC． He spent hours finding out what a computer could do． Before long， he and Paul Allen， a classmate， became local experts on computer programming．
After they graduated from high school， the friends went separate ways． Allen stayed in Seattle and Gates went to Boston to attend Harvard． At Harvard， however， Gates was not a serious student． He spent most of his time in the university computer centre．
The two young men decided to form a small company in 1975．
They called it Microsoft． They let the computer company license their operating system for $30 per computer． In their first year， they earned $16，000． This was enough to convince Gates to quit Harvard and work full-time．
Microsoft became a public company in 1981． The company grew quickly and Gates became very rich． Gates may have slowed down a little， but he still works hard to stay ahead of computer hardware， creating operating systems for computers that are not yet in the stores．
semester 学期(美国英语)
drop out 辍学
career ? 事业
programming 编程
operating system 操作系统
convince 说服
quit ? 放弃
比尔•盖茨
若能被哈佛录取，大部分的高中学生都会很高兴，但是哈佛却没有给小比尔•盖茨多少。几个学期后，他辍学了，出去工作。最终他使自己成为了世界上最富裕的人。
事实上，他的事业从高中时就开始了，那时他发现了令人着迷的电脑世界。他很快学会了叫做BASIC的编程语言。他花费很多时间去探究计算机能做些什么。不久以后，他和他的一个同班同学保罗•爱伦就开始成为当地电脑编程的专家。
高中毕业后，这对朋友走上了不同的道路。爱伦呆在西雅图而盖茨去了波士顿读哈佛。然而在哈佛，盖茨并不是一个认真的学生。他将绝大多数的时间花在了学校计算机中心里。
1975年这两个年轻人决定开一个小公司。他们将它叫做微软。他们以每台计算机30美元的价格向电脑厂商授权他们的操作系统。第一年他们赚了16 000美元。这足以说服盖茨放弃哈佛的学业去开始全职工作。
1981年微软成为了一家上市公司。公司发展很快，盖茨变的非常富有。盖茨可能已经放慢了脚步，但他仍努力工作以保持领先于电脑硬件的发展，开发市场上还没有的电脑操作系统。 |