Bill Gates 比尔∙盖茨

Bill Gates came from a family of entrepreneurship and high‐spirited

liveliness. William Henry Gates III was born in Seattle, Washington on
October 28th, 1955. His father, William H. Gates II, is a Seattle
attorney. His late mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher, University
of Washington regent, and chairwoman of United Way International.

At the age of thirteen, he became interested in software and began

programming computers. During his teenage years Bill Gates and Paul
Allen ran a small company called Traf‐O‐Data and sold a computer to
the city of Seattle that could count city traffic.

In 1973, Bill Gates became a student at Harvard University, where he

met Steve Ballmer (now Microsoft's chief executive officer). While still
a Harvard undergraduate, Bill Gates wrote a version of the programming language BASIC for the
MITS Altair microcomputer. In 1975, before graduation Gates left Harvard to form Microsoft with his
childhood friend Paul Allen. The pair planned to develop software for the newly emerging personal
computer market. Bill Gate's company Microsoft is famous for their computer operating systems and
killer business deals.

NEW WORDS

entrepreneurship emerging regent undergraduate liveliness

QUESTIONS

1. At what age did Bill Gates became interested in software?

2. What is the first company that he ran?
3. What is the name of his business partner?

CHALLENGE

Microsoft has been widely use all over the world, would you recommend it as the best operating
system? Why or Why not?