雙語 ● Bill Gates in His Boyhood　比爾·蓋茨的童年時代

Bill Gates in His Boyhood　比爾·蓋茨的童年時代

◎ Sarah Kay

As a child—and as an adult as well—Bill was untidy. It has been said that in order to counteract this, Mary drew up weekly clothing plans for him. On Mondays he might go to school in blue, on Tuesdays in green, on Wednesdays in brown, on Thursdays in black, and so on, Weekend meal schedules might also be planned in detail. Everything time, at work or during his leisure time.

小的時候——即便長大了——比爾也是不修邊幅的。據(jù)說為了改掉這個習(xí)慣，瑪麗為他制定了一周穿衣計劃。周一上學(xué)，他會穿藍(lán)色的衣服，周二綠色，周三褐色，周四黑色，等等。周末的用餐表也會制定得十分詳盡。每件事情都要井井有條，不論工作或是閑暇的時候。

Dinner table discussions in the Gate’s family home were always lively and educational. “It was a rich environment in which to learn,” Bill remembered.

蓋茨家餐桌上的討論總是既活潑生動又富有教育意義。比爾回憶說：“那是一個內(nèi)容豐富的學(xué)習(xí)環(huán)境?！?

Bill’s contemporaries, even at the age, recognized that he was exceptional. Every year, he and his friends would go to summer camp. Bill especially liked swimming and other sports. One of his summer camp friends recalled, “He was never a nerd or a goof or the kind of kid you didn’t want your team. We all knew Bill was smarter than us. Even back then, when he was nine or ten years old, he talked like an adult and could express himself in ways that none of us understood.”

比爾的同齡人，即使在那個年齡，也能看出他的與眾不同。每一年，他和他的朋友們都會參加夏令營。比爾特別喜歡游泳和其他一些體育運動。他的一個在夏令營的朋友回憶道：“他絕對不是一個無足輕重或者讓你不愿與之為伍的孩子。我們都知道比爾比我們聰明。甚至更早的時候，當(dāng)他九、十歲的時候，他說話的口氣就像個小大人，并且用一些深奧難懂的方式表達(dá)自己的想法?！?

Bill was also well ahead of his classmates in mathematics and science. He needed to go to a school that challenged him to Lakeside—an all-boys’ school for exceptional students. It was Seattle’s most exclusive school and was noted for its rigorous academic demands, a place where “even the dumb kids were smart”.

在數(shù)學(xué)和自然方面，比爾的表現(xiàn)與全班同學(xué)相比更是略勝一籌。他需要上一所像湖畔中學(xué)——一所專門招收天才男孩的學(xué)校——那樣充滿挑戰(zhàn)的學(xué)校。這是西雅圖最高級的學(xué)校了，它以嚴(yán)厲的課程要求而聞名，是一個“連啞巴都很聰明”的地方。

Lakeside allowed students to pursue their own interests, to whatever extent they wished. The school prided itself on making conditions and facilities available that would enable all its students to reach their full potential. It was the ideal environment for someone like Bill Gates.

湖畔中學(xué)允許學(xué)生按照自己的興趣自由發(fā)揮。學(xué)校最引以為傲的是他們所營造的環(huán)境和設(shè)施能最大限度地激發(fā)學(xué)生的潛能。對于像比爾·蓋茨這樣的學(xué)生來說，這是最理想的學(xué)習(xí)環(huán)境了。

In 1968, the school made a decision that would change thirteen-year-old Bill Cates’s life—and that of many of others, too.

1968年，校方做出的一個決定足以改變13歲的比爾·蓋茨的生活，當(dāng)然，這個決定也改變了不少其他人的生活。

Funds were raised, mainly by parents, that enabled the school to gain access to a computer—a Program Data Processor (PDP)—through a teletype machine. Type in a few instructions on the teletype machine and a few seconds later the PDP would type back its response. Bill Gates was immediately hooked—so was his best friend at the time, Kent Evans, and another student, Paul Allen, who was two years older than Bill.

學(xué)校主要依靠父母的集資，通過一種電傳打字機(jī)接觸到了電腦——也就是程序控制數(shù)據(jù)處理機(jī)。在電傳打字機(jī)上輸入幾條指令，幾秒鐘之后，程序控制數(shù)據(jù)處理機(jī)就會立即反饋信息。比爾·蓋茨馬上就著迷了——當(dāng)時他的好友坎特·埃文斯，還有另一個比他大兩歲的學(xué)生保羅·艾倫也著迷了。

Whenever they had free time, and sometimes when they didn’t, they would dash over to the computer room to use the machine. The students became so single-minded that they soon overtook their teachers in knowledge about computing and got into a lot of trouble because of their obsession. They were neglecting their other studies— every piece of word was handed in late. Classes were cut. Computer time was also proving to be very expensive. Within months, the whole budget that had been set aside for the year had been used up.

不管有沒有時間，他們都要飛奔到電腦室去用那臺機(jī)器。學(xué)生們太專注了，很快就忘記了老師教授的那些電腦知識，還闖了不少禍。他們忽略了其他課程——每份作業(yè)都遲遲才交，甚至有時還曠課。上機(jī)課還很貴。所以幾個月后，那些本來為一整年準(zhǔn)備的預(yù)算就用光了。

At fourteen, Bill was already writing short programs for the computer to perform. Early games programs such as Tic-Tac-Toe, or Noughts and Crosses, and Lunar Landing were written in what was to become Bill’s second language, BASIC.

比爾14歲的時候就能編一些簡短的電腦運行程序。還有早期的游戲程序“一字棋”或“圈叉游戲”和“登月”，都是用后來成為比爾的第二語言——BASIC——來編寫的。

One of the reasons Bill was so good at programming is because it is mathematical and logical. During his time at Lakeside, Bill scored a perfect eight hundred on a mathematics test. It was extremely important to him to get this grade—he had to take the test more than once in order to do it.

比爾如此擅長編程的原因之一就是編程蘊含很強的運算性和邏輯性。在湖畔中學(xué)的那段時間里，比爾在一次數(shù)學(xué)測驗中取得了滿分800分。這次的滿分對他來說意義非凡——為了取得滿分，他不得不多次參加這個測驗。

If Bill Gates was going to be good at something. It was essential to be the best.

如果比爾·蓋茨想要做好某件事，他必定會做到最好。

Bill’s and Paul’s fascination with computers and the business world meant that they read a great deal. Paul enjoyed magazines like Popular Electronics. Computer time was expensive and, because both boys were desperate to get more time and because Bill already had an insight into what they could achieve financially, the two of them decided to set themselves up as a company: The Lakeside Programmers Group. “Let’s call the real world and try to sell something to it!” Bill announced.

比爾和保羅對電腦和商務(wù)的癡迷就意味著他們要博覽群書。保羅喜歡像《大眾電子》那類的雜志。上機(jī)時間很昂貴，而這兩個孩子都需要更多的上機(jī)時間，再加上比爾預(yù)感到他們有可能賺到一大筆錢。于是，這兩個孩子決定創(chuàng)辦一個公司——湖畔程序設(shè)計者集團(tuán)。從此，比爾宣布：“讓我們喚醒這個世界，并向它推銷點東西吧！”

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