NOT Bill Gates on Life - Intermediate / Advanced Reading and Vocabulary Practice

The text I want to share with you today was circulating around the internet as 'Bill Gates on Life' and it was supposed to be one of his speeches given at some American high-school. Unfortunately, it has been confirmed that this speech is NOT by Bill Gates, it was NOT presented at any school and actually nobody knows where this text comes from. But, all in all, it is still a rather interesting and fun set of rules on life - perfect for class discussion or self-reflection :) You can find a mini dictionary and some vocabulary practice at the end. Suitable for INTERMEDIATE / ADVANCED LEVEL.

NOT Bill Gates's Rules of Success:
Rule 1: Life is not fair -- get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping -- they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

VOCABULARY :

1.HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD – GET TO HEART OF THE MATTER, ANALYSE THE PROBLEM PERFECTLY
2.SET STH UP – PREPARE
3.FAILURE – THE OPPOSITE OF SUCCESS
4.GET USED TO STH – YOU GET USED TO SOMETHING WHEN IT BECOMES NORMAL OR A ROUTINE TO YOU.
5.SELF-ESTEEM – THE VALUE OF YOURSELF TO … YOURSELF
6.ACCOMPLISH – TO GET OR SUCCESSFULY FINISH SOMETHING DIFFICULT IN LIFE, AT SCHOOL, AT WORK …
7.EARN – TO DESERVE SOMETHING BY WORK. YOU CAN EARN MONEY, RESPECT, FRIENDSHIP, ETC.
8.MESS UP – TO DO SOMETHING WRONG, BADLY
9.WHINE – TO COMPLAIN
10.DELOUSE - to remove lice (= a type of very small insect) from the body, hair or clothing of a person or the fur of an animal
11.PARASITE - an animal or plant that lives on or in another animal or plant of a different type and feeds from it
12.ABOLISH – STOP USING STH
13.BEAR – CARRY
14.CHANCE – PROBABILITY
15. END UP – FINISH

FILL THE GAPS WITH THE GIVEN VOCABULARY ITEMS:

tough, chance, whine, failure, set up, earn, messed-up, abolished, self-esteem, accomplished


1.      You can't expect to ..................a living (= be paid enough money to live on) from your painting.

2.      The compliments she received after the presentation boosted her ........................................

3.      Alice, if you don’t stop to .........................., I won't take you - do you understand!

4.      I think bullfighting should be ................................

5.      The meeting was a complete/total ....................................

6.      I feel as if I................................. nothing since I left my job.

7.      I need one or two people to help me .................................. the equipment.

8.      The government is continuing to take a …………………. line on terrorism.

9.      He really ................................ the sales figures, nothing looks right!

10.  Society has to give prisoners a second ............................. when they come out of jail.

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