MELINDA

    Melinda French Gates (born Melinda Ann French; August 15, 1964) is an American businesswoman, philanthropist and co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She is the wife of Bill Gates, whom she met while working at Microsoft, where she was project manager for Microsoft Bob, Microsoft Encarta and Expedia
                Melinda was born in 1964 in Dallas, Texas. She was the second of four children born to Raymond Joseph French Jr., an engineer, and Elaine Agnes Amerland, a homemaker. She has an older sister and two younger brothers. Gates, a Roman Catholic, attended St. Monica Catholic School, where she was the top student in her class year. She graduated as valedictorian from Ursuline Academy of Dallas in 1982. Gates earned a bachelor's degree in computer science and economics from Duke University in 1986 and an MBA from Duke's Fuqua School of Business in 1987. She was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta women's fraternity at Duke University (Beta Rho).
                Shortly thereafter, she joined Microsoft and participated in the development of many of Microsoft’s multimedia products including Publisher, Microsoft Bob, Encarta, and Expedia.
               Bill and Melinda met in 1987 at a Microsoft press event in Manhattan.  In 1994, she married Bill Gates in a private ceremony held in Lanai, Hawaii. Shortly thereafter, she left Microsoft to focus on starting and raising her family. Her last position was Microsoft’s General Manager of Information Products. Melinda and Bill Gates have three children: daughters Jennifer Katharine Gates (born 1996) and Phoebe Adele Gates (born 2002), and son Rory John Gates (born 1999). The family resides in a large mansion on Lake Washington in Medina.
               Melinda served as a member of Duke University's board of trustees from 1996 to 2003. Gates attends Bilderberg Group conferences and holds a seat on the board of directors of the Washington Post company. She retired from the board of Drugstore.com in August 2006 to spend more time working for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
               As of 2009, Melinda and Bill Gates have donated more than US$24 billion to the Foundation.
               In December 2005, Melinda and Bill Gates were named by Time as Persons of the Year alongside Bono. Melinda and Bill Gates received the Spanish Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation on May 4, 2006 in recognition of their world impact through charitable giving. In November 2006, Melinda and Bill Gates were awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle for their philanthropic work around the world in the areas of health and education, particularly in Mexico, and specifically in the program "Un país de lectores".
                  She was ranked #3 in Forbes 2013 list of the 100 Most Powerful Women,#4 in 2012 and #6 in 2011.
                  In May 2006, she was honored for her work to improve the lives of children locally and around the world with the naming of the Melinda French Gates Ambulatory Care building, at Seattle Children's (then called Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center). She also chaired The Campaign for Children’s, a $300 million comprehensive fundraising campaign to expand facilities, fund under-compensated and uncompensated care and grow the hospital’s research program to find cures and treatments.
                   On June 12, 2009, Melinda and Bill Gates received honorary degrees from the University of Cambridge. Their benefaction of $210 million in 2000 set up the Gates Cambridge Trust, which funds postgraduate scholars from outside the UK to study at the University.
                   In 2013, Gates was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Duke University as a tribute for her philantropic commitment.
                     Gates has also donated over $10 million to her high school Ursuline Academy of Dallas. She is one of the major donors of their Facing the Future Campaign and was honored in their dedication ceremony on May 7, 2010.
                                TEXT COMPREHENSION

01-Check the correct sentence according to the text:
a)Melinda Gates is a trustee at Duke University
b)Melinda and Bill met for the first time in Lanai, Hawaii
c)Jennifer Katherine is 16 years old
d)Melinda was born in Washington
e)Melinda is an economist

02-When Melinda French married Bill Gates she was _________________years old.
a)twenty nine    b)thirty           c)thirty one       d)thirty two          e)thirty three

03-The Gates live in _____________________.
a)Dallas       b)Washington D.C.   c)New York         d)Cambridge        e)Medina

04-Bill and Melinda met for the first time in _______________.
a)Cambridge      b)Dallas          c)Washington        d)New York           e)Medina

05-Melinda Gates has ______________siblings.
a)two        b)three        c)four       d)five        e)six

06-Melinda Gates is
a)the most powerful woman in the world
b)director of Drugstore.com
c)an alumna of the University of Cambridge
d)daughter of Raymond Joseph French Jr.
e)Hawaiian

SEAN SELLERS

Sean Richard Sellers (May 18, 1969 – February 5, 1999) was an American murderer, one of 22 persons in the United States since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976 to be executed for a crime committed while under the age of 18. He was also the only person during this period to be executed for a crime committed under the age of 17. His case drew worldwide attention due to his age as well as his jailhouse conversion to Christianity and his claim that demonic possession made him innocent of his crimes.
Crimes
On March 5, 1986, Sellers killed his mother, Vonda Bellofatto, and his stepfather, Lee Bellofatto, while they were asleep in the bedroom of their Oklahoma City home. Sellers tried to disguise his guilt by arranging the crime scene to look as if an intruder had committed the killings.
Sellers appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the court declined his appeal.
Sellers' imminent execution brought condemnation from a wide variety of sources, including the European Union, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the American Bar Association and Bianca Jagger. Nearly all raised issues about his age at the time of the crimes, and many argued that his religious work from prison outweighed the state's need to execute him.
Sellers was executed by lethal injection at 12:17 a.m. on February 4, 1999.
Aftermath
. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Roper v. Simmons, 542 U.S. 551 (2005) later decided it was unconstitutional to execute an individual for a crime committed under the age of 18.
                        T E X T     C O M P R E H E N S I O N
01-Choose the correct sentence according to the text:
a)When Sean Sellers was executed he was eighteen years old
b)Desmond  Tutu was for Sean Sellers’ execution
c)When Sean Sellers committed the crime he was seventeen
d)Lee Bellofatto was Sean Sellers’ dad
e)Nowadays the US doesn’t execute any individual for a crime committed under the age of 18

02-When Sean Sellers passed away, he was ______________________years old.
a)sixteen     b)seventeen      c)eighteen       d)twenty        e)twenty seven

03-The crime took place in ___________________.
a)New York      b)Los Angeles      c)Chicago       d)Oklahoma City      e)Dallas

04-When Sean Sellers committed the crime he was _____________________years old.
a)fifteen      b)sixteen       c)seventeen      d)eighteen      e)nineteen

05-________________________was for Sean Sellers’ execution.
a)Bianca Jagger            b)The European Union          c)the US Supreme Court
d)the American Bar Association     e)Desmond Tutu