晨读英语美文60篇六级31

人物·绝代风华

BILL GATES IN HIS BOYHOOD

As a child—and as an adult as well—Bill was untidy. It has been said that in order to counteract¹ this. Mary drew up weekly clothing plans for him. On Mondays he might go to school in blue, on Tuesdays in green, on Wednesdays in brown , on Thursdays in black, and so on , Weekend meal schedules might also be planned in detail. Everything time have to set in, Bill Gates hates Everything time ,at work or during his leisure time.

Bill’s contemporaries, even at the age, recognized that he was exceptional. Every year, he and his friends would go to summer camp. Bill especially liked swimming and other sports. One of his summer camp friends recalled, “He was never a nerd or a goof² or the kind of kid you didn’t want your team. We all knew Bill was smarter than us.

Bill was also well ahead of his classmates in mathematics and science. He needed to go to a school that challenged him to Lakeside—an all-boys’ school for exceptional students. It was Seattle’s most exclusive school and was noted³ for its rigorous academic demands, a place where “even the dumb kids were smart.”

Lakeside allowed students to pursue their own interests, to whatever extent they wished. The school prided itself on making conditions and facilities available that would enable all its students to reach their full potential . It was the ideal environment for someone like Bill Gates.

In 1968, the school made a decision that would change thirteen-year-old Bill Gates’s life—and that of many of others, too.

The school to gain access to a computer—a Program Data processor(PDP)—through a teletype machine. Bill Gates was immediately hooked— so was his best friend at the time, Kent Evans, and another student, Paul Allen, who was two years older than Bill.

Whenever they had free time, and sometimes when they didn’t, they would dash over to the computer room to use the machine. The students became so single-minded that they soon overtook their teachers in knowledge about computing⁴ and got into a lot of trouble because of their obsession⁵. They were neglecting their other studies—every piece of word was handed in late. Classes were cut. Computer time was also proving to be very expensive. Within months, the whole budget that had been set aside for the year had been used up.

At fourteen, Bill was already writing short programs for the computer to perform. Early games programs such as Tic-Tac-Toe, or Noughts⁶ and Crosses, and Lunar Landing were written in what was to become Bill’s second language, BASIC.

If Bill Gates was going to be good at something. It was essential to be the best.

Bill’s and Paul’s fascination⁷ with computers and the business world meant that they read a great deal. Paul enjoyed magazines like Popular Electronics, while Bill read business magazines .Computer time was expensive and, because both boys were desperate to get more time and because Bill already had an insight into what they could achieve financially, the two of them decided⁸ to set themselves up as a company: The Lakeside Programmers Group. “Let’s call the real world and try to sell something to it!” Bill announced.

1 counteract   

vt.对…起反作用，对抗，抵消

参考例句：

• The doctor gave him some medicine to counteract the effect of the poison.医生给他些药解毒。
• Our work calls for mutual support.We shouldn't counteract each other's efforts.工作要互相支持，不要互相拆台。

2 goof   

v.弄糟；闲混；n.呆瓜

参考例句：

• We goofed last week at the end of our interview with singer Annie Ross.上周我们采访歌手安妮·罗斯，结果到快结束时犯了个愚蠢的错误。
• You will never be good students so long as you goof around.如果你们成天游手好闲，就永远也成不了好学生。

3 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

4 computing   

n.计算

参考例句：

• to work in computing 从事信息处理
• Back in the dark ages of computing, in about 1980, they started a software company. 早在计算机尚未普及的时代（约1980年），他们就创办了软件公司。

5 obsession   

n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感)

参考例句：

• I was suffering from obsession that my career would be ended.那时的我陷入了我的事业有可能就此终止的困扰当中。
• She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.她会努力忘记对克里斯托弗的迷恋。

6 noughts   

零，无，没有( nought的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A million is written with six noughts. 一百万写出来有六个零。
• Using binary notation is in fact just manipulating ones and noughts. 使用二进制标号法实际上只运用1和0两个数。

7 fascination   

n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋

参考例句：

• He had a deep fascination with all forms of transport.他对所有的运输工具都很着迷。
• His letters have been a source of fascination to a wide audience.广大观众一直迷恋于他的来信。

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。