[important]Steve Jobs was a successful entrepreneur who changed the world of technology. Try Part 1 of this lesson to test your listening skills, then come back to Part 2 to read the text and learn the vocabulary![/important]
Listen:
(See the vocabulary list below for the definitions of the words in green.)
Steve Jobs was born in San Francisco on February 24, 1955 to two unmarried university students. His biological parents gave him up for adoption, and he became the son of Paul and Clara Jobs. Steve learned to read from his mother before he entered school, and his father taught him basic electronics. He graduated from high school in 1972 and attended college for one semester before dropping out. Two years later, he began working as a technician at Atari, Incorporated.
In 1976, Steve Jobs founded Apple Computers with his friends Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in the garage of Jobs’ parents’ house. They received funding from a former Intel employee. The company grew and Steve Jobs became the director. He was known as a temperamental and demanding manager, and left Apple in 1985 after a power struggle with Apple CEO John Sculley. He founded NeXT Computers the same year, and in 1986 he bought The Graphics Group, which is now Pixar, for $10 million.
Around this time, Jobs found his birth mother, who told him he had a biological sister named Mona. They met for the first time in 1985 and became close friends. Steve married Laurine Powell in 1991, and the couple went on to have three children. Steve also had an older daughter, Lisa, from a previous relationship.
Apple bought NeXT Computers in 1996, bringing Jobs back to the company he had helped create. The company’s sales increased under Steve’s direction, with innovative products such as the iMac, iPod, and iPhone. Steve earned only $1 a year as the CEO of Apple, but he held 5.426 million Apple shares, giving him an estimated net wealth of $8.3 billion.
Steve Jobs was diagnosed with cancer in 2003, but continued working until just before his death. He took a medical leave of absence in January 2011 and died on October 5, surrounded by his immediate family. He is remembered as a visionary who revolutionized the world of personal computing.
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Vocabulary
adoption = when a baby is given from one family to another
dropping out = leaving a course of study
funding = money to develop the business
temperamental = a person whose emotions change very fast
power struggle = two people or groups fighting for power or control
innovative = creative and new
shares = parts of a company in the stock market
medical leave of absence = stopping work because of a medical problem
visionary = a person who has big, interesting ideas for the future
revolutionized = completely changed
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