Vocabulary Notes
to co-found – быть соучредителем; co-founder – соучредитель
to pioneer – быть новатором, первооткрывателем
to give up – бросать, отказываться
to adopt – усыновить; adoption – усыновление
Coast Guard – береговая охрана
Silicon Valley – Силиконовая Долина
to instill confidence – вселять уверенность
tenacity – стойкость, упорство
prankster – шутник, проказник
to persuade – уговаривать, убеждать
to click – ладить с кем-л., быть в ладу
to hook up – подключить, монтировать
attitude – отношение к чему-л., позиция
to enroll – зд. поступать (в учебное заведение)
Lacking direction – Не имея чёткого руководства
to drop out – бросать, выбывать; to drop in – заняться чем-л.
duo – дуэт
entrepreneurial venture – зд. совместное предприятие
to credit – зд. приписывать
consumer – потребитель
to conceive – задумывать, замышлять
in charge of – ответственный за …
market value – рыночная стоимость
to fill the role – зд. занять пост
recall – отмена, отзыв
to surpass – превзойти
to compete with – конкурировать
CEO (Chief Executive Officer) – генеральный директор
to purchase – покупать, приобретать
to net – зд. иметь чистый доход
to merge with – сливаться с …
shareholder – акционер
altered stock options – изменённые опционы на акции
self-imposed – добровольный
annual salary – годовая зарплата
put Apple back on track – вернул Apple в нужное русло
neuroendocrine tumor - нейроэндокринная опухоль
pancreatic cancer – рак поджелудочной железы
surgery – зд. операция, оперативное лечение
weighing Eastern treatment options – взвесив варианты восточного лечения
to postpone – отсрочивать, откладывать
board of directors – совет директоров
subsequent – последующий
to disclose – зд. рассказывать, раскрывать
to pass away – скончаться, умереть
STEVE JOBS
Steve Jobs co-founded Apple Computers with Steve Wozniak. Under Jobs' guidance, the company pioneered a series of revolutionary technologies, including the iPhone and iPad.
Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California, to Joanne Schieble (later Joanne Simpson) and Abdulfattah "John" Jandali, two University of Wisconsin graduate students who gave their unnamed son up for adoption. As an infant, Steven was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs and named Steven Paul Jobs. Clara worked as an accountant, and Paul was a Coast Guard veteran and machinist. The family lived in Mountain View, California, within the area that would later become known as Silicon Valley.
As a boy, Jobs and his father would work on electronics in the family garage. Paul would show his son how to take apart and reconstruct electronics, a hobby that instilled confidence, tenacity and mechanical skills in young Jobs.
While Jobs was always an intelligent and innovative thinker. Jobs was a prankster in elementary school, and his fourth-grade teacher needed to persuade him to study.
While Jobs studied at Homestead High School (1971), he was introduced to his future partner, Steve Wozniak. Wozniak was attending the University of California, Berkeley, at the time. In a 2007 interview with PC World, Wozniak spoke about why he and Jobs clicked so well: "We both loved electronics and the way we used to hook up digital chips," Wozniak said. "Very few people, especially back then, had any idea what chips were, how they worked and what they could do. I had designed many computers, so I was way ahead of him in electronics and computer design, but we still had common interests. We both had pretty much sort of an independent attitude about things in the world...."
After high school, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Lacking direction, he dropped out of college after six months and spent the next 18 months dropping in on creative classes at the school.
In 1974, Jobs took a position as a video game designer with Atari. In 1976, when Jobs was just 21, he and Wozniak started Apple Computer. The duo started in the Jobs family garage, and funded their entrepreneurial venture by Jobs selling his Volkswagen bus and Wozniak selling his beloved scientific calculator.
Jobs and Wozniak are credited with revolutionizing the computer industry by democratizing the technology and making the machines smaller, cheaper, intuitive and accessible to everyday consumers.
Wozniak conceived a series of user-friendly personal computers, and – with Jobs in charge of marketing – Apple initially marketed the computers for $666.66 each. The Apple I earned the corporation around $774,000. Three years after the release of Apple's second model, the Apple II, the company's sales increased by 700 percent, to $139 million. In 1980, Apple Computer became a publicly traded company, with a market value of $1.2 billion by the end of its very first day of trading. Jobs looked to marketing expert John Sculley of Pepsi-Cola to help fill the role of Apple's president.
However, the next several products from Apple suffered significant design flaws, resulting in recalls and consumer disappointment. IBM suddenly surpassed Apple in sales, and Apple had to compete with an IBM/PC – dominated business world.
In 1985, Jobs resigned as Apple's CEO to begin a new hardware and software company called NeXT, Inc. The following year Jobs purchased an animation company from George Lucas, which later became Pixar Animation Studios. Believing in Pixar's potential, Jobs initially invested $50 million of his own money in the company. Pixar Studios went on to produce wildly popular animation films such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. Pixar's films have netted $4 billion.
The studio merged with Walt Disney in 2006, making Steve Jobs Disney's largest shareholder. Apple eventually bought the company in 1996 for $429 million. The following year, Jobs returned to his post as Apple's CEO. With a new management team, altered stock options and a self-imposed annual salary of $1 a year, Jobs put Apple back on track. His ingenious products such as the iMac, effective branding campaigns and stylish designs caught the attention of consumers once again. Apple introduced such revolutionary products as the Macbook Air, iPod and iPhone, all of which have dictated the evolution of modern technology.
In 2003, Jobs discovered that he had a neuroendocrine tumor, a rare but operable form of pancreatic cancer. Instead of surgery, Jobs chose to alter his pescovegetarian diet while weighing Eastern treatment options. For nine months, Jobs postponed surgery, making Apple's board of directors nervous. In 2004, he had a successful surgery to remove the pancreatic tumor. True to form, in subsequent years Jobs disclosed little about his health.
On October 5, 2011, Apple Inc. announced that its co-founder had passed away. After battling pancreatic cancer for nearly a decade, Steve Jobs died in Palo Alto. He was 56 years old.
Vocabulary focus
Match the words from two columns to create a phrase and use the phrase in the sentence of your own to speak about Steve Jobs.
| Independent Entrepreneurial Accessible Market Branding in charge increase consumer | Sales of marketing disappointment attitude value to consumers campaign venture |
Work with the Internet
Surf the net and be ready to tell about other famous people in IT sphere. For example:
Bill Gates (Билл Гейтс – основатель Microsoft)
Edgar Frank Codd (Эдгар Франк Кодд – автор реляционной модели данных)
Dennis Ritchie (Деннис Ритчи – один из авторов языка C и операционной системы Unix)
Bjarne Stroustrup (Бьярн Страустрап – автор языка С++)
Lawrence Ellison (Ларри Эллисон - основатель компании Oracle)