VOA标准英语2008年-Gates Steps Down from Microsoft to Guide Founda

Friday June 27, Bill Gates will step down from his full-time¹ job at Microsoft, the company he co-founded with his childhood friend, Paul Allen. Gates said he will focus his efforts on improving the health and living conditions of the world's neediest people through the world's biggest charitable foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. VOA's Mike O'Sullivan has more from Los Angeles.
　
Bill Gates (file photo)

Bill Gates may be the world's most successful college dropout². More than 30 years ago, he quit Harvard University to start Microsoft.

Last year, as he accepted an honorary doctorate³ from the prestigious⁴ school he once attended.

"I want to thank Harvard for this honor. I'll be changing my job next year, and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume," he said.

With assets of $58 billion, Gates is the world's third richest man, according to Forbes magazine, and is unlikely to start a job search. Forbes says he trails only two men in assets, American investor⁵ Warren Buffett and Mexican businessman Carlos Slim Helu.

Gates, now 52, plans to work part-time at Microsoft and continue to serve as the company's chairman, but will spend most of his time working with the foundation he established with his wife, Melinda, in 2000.

Mike Smith is chief operating officer of Charity Navigator, which evaluates the financial health of more than 5,300 U.S.-based charities. He says Americans make $300 billion a year in charitable donations, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation plays an important role in the charity sector⁶.

"They are the largest private foundation many times over. They ended fiscal⁷ year 2007 with $38.7 billion on hand. In 2007, they made grants of approximately two billion dollars," he said.

The Gates Foundation makes grants to programs that combat diseases such as HIV-AIDS, malaria⁸, and tuberculosis⁹, and reduce poverty in the developing world. The foundation also works to raise educational standards and improve access to technology in the United States, and supports community projects in the Pacific Northwest, where Seattle-based Microsoft has its headquarters.

The foundation's impact has become even greater since 2006, when Warren Buffett, who is ranked by Forbes the world's richest man, pledged stock worth more than $30 billion to the Gates Foundation. He says he shares the foundation's goals and believes it is effective.

Gates spoke¹⁰ of those goals this year at the World Economic Forum¹¹ in Davos, Switzerland. He said he was an optimist¹² about the world's condition, but wanted to speed up improvements, especially for the world's bottom billion people.

"There are roughly a billion people in the world who don't get enough food, who don't have clean drinking water, who don't have electricity, the things we take for granted," he said.

He says diseases such as malaria, which claims one million lives each year, get too little attention, and that he hopes to harness the talent of innovators and businesses in addressing social problems.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation plans to continue its current focus on global health, poverty and U.S. education, and Gates says he intends to spend much of his time determining the foundation's strategy.

Mike Smith of Charity Navigator says private foundations cannot be evaluated for their effectiveness as easily as charities because foundations report their finances in a less detailed¹³ way.

"Where you are able to look at functional¹⁴ expenses with respect to the public charities and break down those amounts going to programs, administrative¹⁵ expenses and fundraising expenses, it's really not as easy to do with private foundations," he said.

He adds, however, that results can often be measured over the long term by rising rates of literacy or lower rates of infection of tropical diseases, to determine if a donor¹⁶ like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is really effective.

　

 

1 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

2 dropout   

n.退学的学生；退学；退出者

参考例句：

• There is a high dropout rate from some college courses.有些大学课程的退出率很高。
• In the long haul,she'll regret having been a school dropout.她终归会后悔不该中途辍学。

3 doctorate   

n.(大学授予的)博士学位

参考例句：

• He hasn't enough credits to get his doctorate.他的学分不够取得博士学位。
• Where did she do her doctorate?她在哪里攻读博士？

4 prestigious   

adj.有威望的，有声望的，受尊敬的

参考例句：

• The young man graduated from a prestigious university.这个年轻人毕业于一所名牌大学。
• You may even join a prestigious magazine as a contributing editor.甚至可能会加入一个知名杂志做编辑。

5 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

6 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

7 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

8 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

9 tuberculosis   

n.结核病，肺结核

参考例句：

• People used to go to special health spring to recover from tuberculosis.人们常去温泉疗养胜地治疗肺结核。
• Tuberculosis is a curable disease.肺结核是一种可治愈的病。

10 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

11 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

12 optimist   

n.乐观的人，乐观主义者

参考例句：

• We are optimist and realist.我们是乐观主义者，又是现实主义者。
• Peter,ever the optimist,said things were bound to improve.一向乐观的皮特说，事情必定是会好转的。

13 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

14 functional   

adj.为实用而设计的，具备功能的，起作用的

参考例句：

• The telephone was out of order,but is functional now.电话刚才坏了，但现在可以用了。
• The furniture is not fancy,just functional.这些家具不是摆着好看的，只是为了实用。

15 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

16 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。