Reporter: So, Bill, you have received the Silver Buffalo Award, the highest award given to adults in the Boy Scouts of America, for your achievements in business and philanthropy. What achievement in your life do you find most important?
Bill Gates: My career was very successful. I loved writing software and creating Microsoft. Of course, Microsoft is very important to me. And this success gave me the opportunity to say, “I want to give that money back to society. I can make a difference.” In 2000 my wife and I created the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. We use innovations, new science, new vaccines, to help the poorest in the world and save millions of lives. I think it’s a great achievement.
Reporter: Do you remember clearly your Scouting experience?
Bill Gates: Sure, I grew in Scouting. It was a positive experience. Our troop was very active, we went places and did things. I had a lot of great friends.
Reporter: When and where did you get involved in the Scouting movement?
Bill Gates: I was a member of the Scouts in the 1960s and 1970s in Seattle.
Reporter: What influenced your decision to become a Boy Scout?
Bill Gates: Young people learn a lot from what their parents do and say. My parents set me a good example as they were both leaders in the community. My father was a scout in the 1940s.
Reporter: What activities were the most challenging for you?
Bill Gates: Well, I wasn’t good at hiking, I wasn’t good at cooking the food. It was the overall experience of challenging yourself.
Reporter: What activity is the most memorable?
Bill Gates: Hiking in the Olympic Mountains was a regular thing we did. During one of those hiking trips our Scoutmaster who was deathly afraid of snakes woke up at night and felt something cold on his head. He thought it was a snake and he was going to die. My friends and I had to drag him for 25 miles to the nearest road!
Reporter: That’s really amazing. What does Scouting mean to you?
Bill Gates: I learnt a lot. I’m glad I was a scout. I learnt to achieve my goals, to challenge myself and, of course, the greatest value of scouting is the sense of community, service to people, to society.
Reporter: Thank you very much for coming and sharing your memories with us. Service to others is at the core of what it means to be a Scout. Mr. Gates, through his incredible success, has provided tremendous opportunity and help to inspire others.
Тексты для восприятия и понимания речи на слух к учебному пособию для гимназий
«Английский язык / Англійская мова. 10 класс” авторов Н.В. Демченко и др.
Минск: Издательский центр БГУ, 2014
