1. Read the text about Bill Gates. Fill the gaps in the text with the following sentences:

1. which put him among the top students

2. that allows him

3. who is now a succesful woman

4. encoded with their personal preferencies

5. what to do

6. estimated at 18 billion dollars

7. that he packed it with high-tech gadgetry

8. that can be run by clicking on icons

9. leaving his wife behind

10. why Microsoft ihas been so succesful

11. he fanced

12. whose software is used

Bill Gates is the richest private citizen in the world. There is nothing he can’t afford. Every morning, when his alarm clock goes off, the software tycoon is $20 million richer than when he went to bed. His wealth is based on his company, Microsoft, where he owns 39 % of actions. He has a personal fortune (a)____, which is more than the annual economic output of over a hundred countries.

He is not shy about spending it. He has built a mansion overlooking lake Washington (b) ___ and TV monitors, some taking up an entire wall. Visitors are given a smart card (c) ___ , so that, as they wander from room to room, their favourite pictures will appear on the screens, and the music they like will play. The card is programmed so that only the most intimate friends can open all the doors.

This cold-blooded approach to human relationships also seems to be true of his love life. When he went out with an ex-girlfriend, Ann Winblad, (d) ___, the couple conducted much of their relationship by going on virtual dates. Each would drive alone to the same movie at the same time in different towns, and then talk about it afterwards on their mobiles, disscussing the plots and swapping opinions. . When finally he got married, he and his wife, Melinda, signed a prenuptial agreement (e) ___ to go on an annual holiday with his ex-lover, Ann, (f)___.

Gates has been called 'King of the Nerds', but this simply isn't fair. In the ninth grade at school, he got A's in all the subjects he took, (g) ___ in the nation. Gates went on to Harvard University, where he managed to be in the same class as the girls (h) ___ by inserting a piece'of software into the college computer. But he never finished college. When he left, he knew exactly (i) ___. He started up his own computer company.

The reason (j)___ is because Gates saw that his fortune lay in software,not hardware.

He became a billionaire at 31, and since then Microsoft has created Windows, which is a system (k) ___ with a mouse.

Now the multi-billionaire, (l) ___ in two-thirds of the world's computers, is developing the HPC, or hand-held personal computer. It is his intention that there should be a computer in the pocket of everybody in the whole world.

2. Complete the text below with the following words:

banking book can’t stand deleting junk e-mails keep in touch send the news look things up order

My girlfriend is a big computer fan! She's just crazy about them. She says that they've made her life so much easier. She can (I)___ with her all her friends all over the world by e-mail; she can (2)_____ on the Internet, (3)_____ flights, order books and CDs, even keep up with 4)_____.from other countries; she can word-process documents and (5)_____photos over the web; she does all her (6)_____ online and it even reminds her of when to buy birthday presents and send cards!

I'm the complete opposite! I (7)_____ computers! Every time I touch one, it crashes or the screen just freezes. I keep getting sent endless (8)____ and I can't keep up with the ones I do want to reply to (it doesn't help that I'm a one-fingered typist!); I keep (9)_____ files by accident, and every time I try and surf the Net, I just get lost in Cyberspace! The one time I did try and (10)_____some flowers for my girlfriend online, something went wrong with the system and they sent her fifteen bunches of roses instead of one - and then charged me for thirty! Computers? Who needs them?

Answer the questions: Who are you more similar to, the writer or his girlfriend? Why?