Date: March 3, 2005
Level: Intermediate +
Downloads: This Lesson (Word Doc) | Class Handout (Word Doc) | Class Handout (PDF)

THE ARTICLE

Bill Gates, Microsoft founder, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, was given an honorary knighthood by the British Queen earlier at Buckingham Palace. The reasons for his honour, given by the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, are to recognize his “contributions to improving health and reducing poverty in parts of the Commonwealth and elsewhere in the developing world”, and for his “contribution to enterprise, employment, education and the voluntary sector in the United Kingdom”. William H. Gates III can now put the initials KBE after his name, meaning he is now a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Mr. Gates said of his award, “It's a great honour to have the association with this country and receive an award like this.” On meeting the British Queen, he naturally talked about computers - “She said all the kids do [use computers] and they are very useful ... but typing is not as natural for her as it is for young people.”

As he is not a British or Commonwealth citizen, he cannot call himself 'Sir Bill'. Honorary knighthoods are given to non-British or Commonwealth people who have made significant contributions to relations with the UK. Past recipients of the honorary knighthood include Bob Geldof, Hamid Karzai, Placido Domingo, Chancellor Kohl, President Mitterrand, Rudolph Giuliani, Ronald Reagan, George Bush (senior), Alan Greenspan, Bob Hope, Steven Spielberg, Jean Paul Getty Jr., Yehudi Menuhin, and Pelé. It used to be that only senior soldiers, judges and high-ranking government officials got knighted, but recently British rock, acting and sports legends have become honoured, including Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Michael Caine and Sir Bobby Charlton.

For more information on the very complicated British honours system, visit http://www.answers.com/topic/british-honours-system

NOTE: A knighthood is for a man. A damehood is for a woman. Last month Ellen MacArthur, the fastest person to sail single-handedly around the world non-stop, became Dame Ellen MacArthur.

POSSIBLE WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT:  Talk in pairs or groups about Bill Gates / Microsoft / Queen Elizabeth II / Buckingham Palace / Commonwealth and Being a ‘Sir’ / titles …

To make things more dynamic, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to energize the class.

2. BILL BRAINSTORM: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with Bill Gates. Share your words with your partner / group and talk about them.

3. ACHIEVEMENT: Bill Gates got his knighthood for his achievements. Talk about each of these with your partner / group. Which are ‘truly great’ achievements:

1. Being the richest man in the world.
2. Setting up Microsoft.
3. Promising $5 billion to charities for global health and learning.
4. Realizing a 1975 dream that a computer would be in every home.
5. Staying married for 11 years.
6. Windows Operating System
7. Staying ‘Mr. Nice Guy’
8. Changing the world

4. OTHER KNIGHTS: What do you know about the other recipients of the British honorary knighthood. In pairs/groups, discuss how ‘truly great’ they are:

1. Bob Geldof
2. Hamid Karzai
3. Placido Domingo
4. Chancellor Kohl
5. President Mitterrand
6. Rudolph Giuliani
7. Ronald Reagan
8. George Bush (senior)
9. Alan Greenspan
10. Bob Hope
11. Steven Spielberg
12. Jean Paul Getty Jr.
13. Yehudi Menuhin
14. Pelé

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘foreign’ and ‘office’.

2. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the headline and guess whether these sentences are true or false:

1. Bill Gates is founder of Microsoft.  T / F
2. He received his award at Buckingham Palace.  T / F
3. He was knighted for selling millions of computers.  T / F
4. His business card can now read ‘William H. Gates III, KBE’.  T / F
5. Bill Gates and the British Queen didn’t talk computers.  T / F
6. Bill can now call himself ‘Sir Bill’.  T / F
7. Non-British or Commonwealth people cannot become ‘Sir’.  T / F
8. Only senior British soldiers, judges and high-ranking government officials can become ‘Sir’.  T / F

3. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

(a)	founder	donations
(b)	honour	letters
(c)	contributions	icons
(d)	poverty	major
(e)	enterprise	top-notch
(f)	initials	architect
(g)	significant	award
(h)	recipients	destitution
(i)	high-ranking	beneficiaries
(j)	legends	business

4. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	The reasons	himself 'Sir Bill'
(b)	to recognize	honour
(c)	reducing	sector
(d)	elsewhere in the developing	government officials
(e)	voluntary	contributions
(f)	It's a great	his contributions to improving health
(g)	he cannot call	world
(h)	significant	for his honour
(i)	It used to	poverty
(j)	high-ranking	be that only ….

 

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL:  Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps.

Bill Gates knighted by British Queen

Bill Gates, Microsoft __________, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, was given an honorary knighthood by the British Queen earlier at Buckingham Palace. The reasons for his honour, given by the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, are to __________ his “contributions to improving health and reducing poverty in parts of the Commonwealth and elsewhere in the developing world”, and for his “__________ to enterprise, employment, education and the voluntary sector in the United Kingdom”. William H. Gates III can now put the initials KBE after his name, __________ he is now a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Mr. Gates said of his award, “It's a great honour to have the association with this country and receive an award like this.” On meeting the British Queen, he __________ talked about computers - “She said all the kids do [use computers] and they are very useful ... but typing is not as natural for her as it is for young people.”		meaning founder contribution naturally recognize
As he is not a British or Commonwealth __________, he cannot call himself 'Sir Bill'. Honorary knighthoods are given to non-British or Commonwealth people who have made __________ contributions to relations with the UK. Past __________ of the honorary knighthood include Bob Geldof, Hamid Karzai, Placido Domingo, Chancellor Kohl, President Mitterrand, Rudolph Giuliani, Ronald Reagan, George Bush (senior), Alan Greenspan, Bob Hope, Steven Spielberg, Jean Paul Getty Jr., Yehudi Menuhin, and Pelé. It used to be that only __________ soldiers, judges and high-ranking government officials got knighted, but recently British rock, acting and sports legends have become __________, including Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Michael Caine and Sir Bobby Charlton.		senior  significant honoured  citizen recipients

2. TRUE/FALSE:  Students check their answers to the T/F exercise.

3. SYNONYMS:  Students check their answers to the synonyms exercise.

4. PHRASE MATCH:  Students check their answers to the phrase match exercise.

5. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article.

6. VOCABULARY:  Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise.

2. QUESTIONS:  Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class.

5. ‘FOREIGN’/ ‘OFFICE’: Students make questions based on their findings from pre-reading activity #1.

6. DISCUSSION:  Students ask each other the following questions:

1. What do you think of this article?
2. What do you think of Bill Gates?
3. What do you think of Microsoft?
4. What do you think of the British system of titles (Sir, Lord, Duke, Prince, Lady, Dame…)?
5. What do you think of British history?
6. Would you like to go to Buckingham Palace and meet the British Queen?
7. What honours can people receive in your country?
8. Is Bill Gates a great man?
9. Are you good with computers?
10. If you were as rich as Bill (around $48 billion) who would you give you money to – which charities or causes?
11. What are your contributions to society / community / school / workplace / family?
12. Do you like to talk computers (talk about computers)?
13. What do you think of the past recipients of an honorary British knighthood?
14. Who is the greatest living person in your country?
15. Teacher / Student additional questions.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on the British honours system. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. LETTER: Write a letter to Bill Gates telling him your thoughts on Microsoft, Windows, charity work etc.

4. NEXT KNIGHT: Write an article about which world person should be next to receive an honorary knighthood from the British Queen, stating your reasons why they deserve this.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

1. Bill Gates is founder of Microsoft.  T
2. He received his award at Buckingham Palace.  T
3. He was knighted for selling millions of computers.  F
4. His business card can now read ‘William H. Gates III, KBE’.  T
5. Bill Gates and the British Queen didn’t talk computers.  F
6. Bill can now call himself ‘Sir Bill’.  F
7. Non-British or Commonwealth people cannot become ‘Sir’.  T
8. Only senior British soldiers, judges and high-ranking government officials can become ‘Sir’.  F

SYNONYM MATCH:

(a)	founder	architect
(b)	honour	award
(c)	contributions	donations
(d)	poverty	destitution
(e)	enterprise	business
(f)	initials	letters
(g)	significant	major
(h)	recipients	beneficiaries
(i)	high-ranking	top-notch
(j)	legends	icons

PHRASE MATCH:

(a)	The reasons	for his honour
(b)	to recognize	his contributions to improving health
(c)	reducing	poverty
(d)	elsewhere in the developing	world
(e)	voluntary	sector
(f)	It's a great	honour
(g)	he cannot call	himself 'Sir Bill'
(h)	significant	contributions
(i)	It used to	be that only ….
(j)	high-ranking	government officials

 

FULL TEXT

Bill Gates knighted by British Queen

Bill Gates, Microsoft founder, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, was given an honorary knighthood by the British Queen earlier at Buckingham Palace. The reasons for his honour, given by the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, are to recognize his “contributions to improving health and reducing poverty in parts of the Commonwealth and elsewhere in the developing world”, and for his “contribution to enterprise, employment, education and the voluntary sector in the United Kingdom”. William H. Gates III can now put the initials KBE after his name, meaning he is now a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Mr. Gates said of his award, “It's a great honour to have the association with this country and receive an award like this.” On meeting the British Queen, he naturally talked about computers - “She said all the kids do [use computers] and they are very useful ... but typing is not as natural for her as it is for young people.”

As he is not a British or Commonwealth citizen, he cannot call himself 'Sir Bill'. Honorary knighthoods are given to non-British or Commonwealth people who have made significant contributions to relations with the UK. Past recipients of the honorary knighthood include Bob Geldof, Hamid Karzai, Placido Domingo, Chancellor Kohl, President Mitterrand, Rudolph Giuliani, Ronald Reagan, George Bush (senior), Alan Greenspan, Bob Hope, Steven Spielberg, Jean Paul Getty Jr., Yehudi Menuhin, and Pelé. It used to be that only senior soldiers, judges and high-ranking government officials got knighted, but recently British rock, acting and sports legends have become honoured, including Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Michael Caine and Sir Bobby Charlton.