Gates FoundationOn May 4, 2006, the Prince of Asturias Foundation in Spain announced that the 2006 Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation would go to computer entrepreneur Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda French Gates. The international prize was only the most recent honour granted to the pair on behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the philanthropic organization that they directed. On June 15 Bill Gates announced that he would gradually reduce his role at Microsoft, Inc., and would “reorder [his] personal priorities” through 2008, at which time he planned to turn his full attention to the Gates Foundation. One week later billionaire investor Warren Buffett, a personal friend of the Gateses, announced his plan to direct some $30 billion of his fortune to the Gates Foundation in the coming years. William Henry Gates III was born Oct. 28, 1955, in Seattle. He developed an interest in computer programming as a teenager, writing software for his school payroll system and selling a traffic-management program to municipal governments. He dropped out of Harvard University in his junior year to join Paul G. Allen in the development of an operating system for personal computers. Gates played an essential role in licensing the system, MS-DOS, to IBM. Having paired with one of the world's leading computer suppliers, Microsoft grew into the world's dominant software supplier and made Gates the wealthiest person in the world. Melinda Ann French was born on Aug. 15, 1964, in Dallas. She credited her interest in computers to a seventh grade teacher who placed her in an advanced math class. After graduating from the Ursuline Academy (a Catholic girls high school), she studied computer science and economics at Duke University (B.S., 1986; M.B.A., 1987). She joined Microsoft in product development in 1987 and rose to be general manager of information products. French married Gates on Jan. 1, 1994, and when their first child was born in 1996, she left the company to concentrate on her family and the couple's charitable work. Bill and Melinda Gates initiated their charitable endeavours in 1994, largely at the behest of Bill's father, William H. Gates, but also from the example of Bill's mother, a devoted philanthropist who had died earlier that year. Their first effort, the William H. Gates Foundation, pursued global health programs as well as projects in the Pacific Northwest, where they lived. Three years later they launched the Gates Library Foundation (renamed Gates Learning Foundation in 1999) to benefit North American libraries, with a particular focus on bringing Internet technology to public libraries. Next came the Gates Millennium Scholars program (1999), which directed $1 billion toward minority study grants. The couple consolidated their charitable interests in 2000 as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with a reported endowment of $17 billion. By 2006 the foundation was by far the world's largest—counting Buffett's pledge, its assets would total roughly $60 billion. Anticipating its growth needs, the Gates Foundation made two significant changes during the year. It broke ground for a new headquarters in Seattle, and it reorganized into three divisions: global health (including nutrition), global development, and community and education causes in the U.S. Through this change the foundation underscored its commitment to solving health problems around the world, with particular emphasis on developing treatments and vaccines for malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis; controlling insects that transmit diseases; and developing superfoods in the fight against malnutrition. Despite the huge endowment and the Gateses personal wealth, the foundation funded no program single-handedly; instead, it compelled other organizations, firms, and even countries to help underwrite programs. Their collaborative approach evoked an African proverb cited by Melinda Gates and others at the Gates Foundation: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.”
Exercise 13. Match the words from the text with their definitions.
Exercise 14. Read the text again. Write out the key words to describe the activities of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Speak about their charitable endeavours.
9.3. Women in Management Exercise 1. Focus on the topical vocabulary. non-executive director член правления to contradict ["kPntrq'dIkt] v противоречить divorce [dI'vLs] n развод; v разводиться divorce rate(s) процент разводов prone to smth [prqVn] склонный к чему-л. assertive [q'sE:tIv] a чрезмерно настойчивый, самоуверенный, напористый the only ['qVnlI] а единственный to soar [sL] v повышаться Australia [Ps'treIlIq] Австралия; зд.: австралийское отделение компании to resign [rI'zaIn] v отказываться (от должности), уходить в отставку resignation ["rezIg'neISqn] п отказ (от должности); отставка feminist ['femInIst] n феминист(ка), борец за равноправие женщин to betray [bI'treI] v предавать, изменять to bring up ['brIN 'Ap] v воспитывать envy ['envI] n зависть; v завидовать brand [brxnd] n фабричная марка; сорт, качество; торговый знак; товарный знак to adore [q'dL] v обожать, поклоняться relief [rI'lJf] п облегчение, утешение to be offended [q'fendId] быть обиженным to take up v начинать, предпринимать portfolio [pLt'fqVljqV] n (pl -os [-qVz]) портфель; высокая должность to stick [stIk] v застревать, завязнуть convention [kqn'venSqn] п обычай, условность
Exercise 2. Try to understand the meaning of the derivatives. Considerable, considerably; act, enact; disable, disability; tend, tendency; politics, politician; assert, assertive; envy, envious; feel, feeling; govern, government; contradict, contradiction; combine, combined, combination; connect, connected, job-connected, connection; marry, married, marriage; male, female; expect, expecting, expected, unexpected, unexpectedly; resign, resignation; betray, betrayal; busy, business, businesslike; obvious, obviously; brand, branding.
Exercise 3. Guess what these international words mean. To dominate, domination; traditional roles, a professional role; politicians; top positions in companies, company directors, Norwegian companies, the management system of companies; a result, to result from the company policy; the percentage of company directors in Japan, 8 per cent; sex discrimination; restaurant managers; psychologists; to concentrate on a career; a British business lady; to demonstrate; a post; feminists, feminism; ideal; to attack; a dilemma; to balance, a balance; to tick; biological; a leadership position; academic; sporty; a university; a computer analyst; colleagues; culture; a principle; to colour; directors; to lecture; global; normal; meeting; co-directors; a phone; a secretary; portfolio career; roles; to benefit.
Exercise 4. Read the words with the prefix super- ['sjHpq] (сверх-) and say what they mean. Superhuman, superintendent, superman, supermarket, supernatural, supernormal, superpower, superprofit, supertrim, superwoman. Exercise 5. Read the words with the prefix со- [kqV] and guess what they mean. Model 1: co-education совместное обучение лиц обоего пола Co-ownership, co-operate, co-operation, coexist, coexistence, co-ordinate, co-ordination. Model 2: co-operator кооператор, сотрудник Co-author, co-authoress, co-owner, co-director, co-debtor.
Exercise 6. Read the following word combinations and give their Russian equivalents. Developed countries, to make a choice; to reach the top; to run a company; to resign from a post; to be a full-time mother; to be like; the death of Superwoman; to betray the cause; the common thirty-something dilemma; to balance career opportunities; a ticking biological clock; by the time; to be in the top leadership position; to recruit women; to give the rest of one's life to the company; to be brought up; an academic, sporty and smart child; to study chemistry; a computer analyst; to be businesslike and super-trim; to be brisk, sensible and confident; to involve oneself in; at the latest; to stay late at work; to promote people; to establish a work-home balance; to make people "green with envy"; non-executive directorships; to lecture on global branding; to attend board meetings; to call somebody; to answer the (tele)phone; to be offended; to take up portfolio career; to stuck up between conventions and roles.
Exercise 7. Choose the correct form of the verb in brackets. 1. The senior engineer is on business. He ___ (would explain / would have explained) the task to the workers now. 2. You missed yesterday's lecture on management. It ___ (would be / would have been) useful for you. 3. I ___ (would like / would have like) to make an appointment with one of the co-directors. 4. Unfortunately, Mr. Green is ill. He ___ (would be / would have been) happy to be present at the reception today. 5. ___ (Would you like / Should you like) a drink? 6. Why didn't you follow my advice? You ___ (would meet / would have met) many important people at the party. 7. It's hot. I ___ (wouldn't mind / wouldn't have minded) taking a walk. 8. I didn't know you were busy. I ___ (wouldn't phone / wouldn't have phoned) you. 9. Don't you want to offer her the job? She ___ (would accept / would have accepted) the offer. 10. I wasn't here at that time. I ___ (would warn / would have warned) you.
Exercise 8. Read these sentences with the constructions would + Infinitive and used [jHst ] to + Infinitive and express the same in Russian. Model: Helen would often call on us. Элен, бывало, часто заходила к нам. There used to be a food shop in the street. На этой улице был когда-то магазин. 1. My friend used to live in this street. 2. My father would come home late. 3. I used to be an angry young man. 4. At about 4 pm on Fridays, when the working day was short, Penny Hughes would tell colleagues to go home. 5. The manager used to sit in his office and look through documents all day. 6. My family would go to the south in summer. 7. She would be very busy on weekdays. 8. Mr. Brown used to travel a lot. 9. The old man would stay at this hotel. 10. Anna used to be an interpreter at different exhibitions. 11. My mother would get up early and make breakfast. 12. Henry used to discuss important problems with his colleagues. 13. Jane would speak on the telephone for hours. 14. Michael used to work on a computer in his spare time.
Exercise 9. Work in pairs. Describe a woman's duties at home. Use the model and word combinations below. Model A: What does a woman do about the house? B: She… To get up early; to cook meals for the family; to wash up = to wash the dishes; to clear away (убирать посуду со стола); to wash clothes; to clean the house; tidy the flat; to go shopping; to do (the) shopping, to look after her husband and children, to play with her children, to help her children to do their homework.
Exercise 10. Work in pairs. Discribe a manageress's job responsibilities. Use the model and word combinations below. Model A: What are women managers' responsibilities? B: Their duties are the same as men's. They organize the work of their departments. To organize work, to deal with subordinates and the boss; to supervise employees; to take important decisions; to maintain discipline; to encourage employees to work harder and to be creative; to generate ideas. Exercise 11. Is it possible for a woman to hold a high position in a company? Is it easy for her to have a family and be a professional at the same time? Read the text and find out if it proves your point of view.
|
