Commencement Speech at Stanford by Steve JobsCommencement Speech at Stanford by Steve JobsCommencement Speech at Stanford by Steve JobsCommencement Speech at Stanford by Steve Jobs

I- Listening for gist

Listen to the speech and answer these questions:

1. Where is he giving the speech? 2. Who were his parents? 3. Did he go to college? Did he graduate? 4. How many stories does he tell? Can you mention them? 5. Which classes did he take in college? Did it have any practical application? 6. Did he ever get fired from a job? If so, under what circumstances? 7. Which companies did he create? 8. What message does he give to the students?

II- Listening for detail

1. Fill in the blanks with the words you hear.

• Today I want to tell you ……………… stories from my life. That's it. No …………………...

The first story is about …………………………… the dots.

• I ………………… of Reed College after the first six months but then stayed around as a

drop-in for another ……………… months or so before I really ………………………………….

• My ………………….. mother was a ……………., …………….. graduate student, and she

decided to put me up …………………. She felt very ……………… that I should be adopted

by college graduates, so everything was ………………. for me to be adopted at birth by a

lawyer and his wife, except they decided at ……………………… that they really wanted

…………………….. So my parents, who were on ………………………., got a call in the

middle of the night asking, "We've got an ………………………baby boy. Do you want him?"

They said, "Of course." My biological mother found out later that my mother had never

graduated from …………… and that my father had never graduated from ……………... She

A Commencement Ceremony is a ceremony at which a college, university students

receive their degrees. The commencement address is a speech given by a famous

person. In 2005 Stanford University invited Steve Jobs to do so.

Watch the video and do the exercises that follow.

…………….. to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my

parents promised that I would …………………...

2. Choose the best option between parentheses

• This was the (beginning – start) in my life. And seventeen years later, I did go to college, but

I (innocently – vaguely – naïvely) chose a college that was almost as (costly - expensive –

prestigious) as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my

college (tuition – fees). After six months, I couldn't see the (purpose of – truth in - value in it). I

had no idea what I wanted to do with my life …so I (made the choice – made up my mind –

decided) to drop out and trust that it would all work out (fine – OK – well).

• It was pretty (daunting – unknown- scary) at the time, but (looking – going – thinking) back, it

was one of the best decisions I ever made.

• It wasn't all (nice – romantic - ). I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends'

rooms. I (exchanged - returned – sold) Coke bottles for the five-cent deposits to buy food with,

and I would walk the seven miles (around – through – across) town every Sunday night to get

one (warm - good – great – meal) a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of

what I (stumbled) into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be (invaluable –

precious – priceless) later on.

• If I had never (fallen out - dropped out – found out), I would have never (stopped by –

stepped in - dropped in) on that calligraphy class and personals computers might not have the

wonderful typography that they do.

• […] You have to (believe – confide – trust) in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma,

whatever--because (trusting – thinking – believing) that the dots will connect down the road will

give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it (guides – leads – takes) you off the

well-worn (way – path – road), and that will make all the difference.

3. Fill in the blanks with the missing information.

• The second story is ……………………………………………………………..…………... • He and Woz started Apple in his …………………….. when he was ………….……… • In ten years’ time Apple became a ……………………… company with over ………… employees. • When he'd just turned ………………. he …………………………..He says that it was ……………………and that he really didn't know ……………………………………………………. • He felt he was a public ………………. Despite everything, he decided ………………………… • He believes that getting fired from Apple was …………………………………………………… • He mentions that the heaviness of …………………………… was replaced by the lightness of …………………….. again. He says that it was one of the ………………………… periods in his life. • During the next five years he started companies like ……………….and ……………….. and he also fell in love with ………………… who would become my wife. One of the companies

created the world's first ……………………………………., "Toy Story," and is now the ……………………………. animation studio in the world. • Ironically, Apple bought …………………. and he ……………………….. Apple. • He is convinced that none of this ………………………….… if he …………………………… from Apple.

4. State in your own words what the third story is about. You may use these clues to help you.

-

5. Final message: correct the underlined words.

Ü death Ü a tumor on the pancreas Ü incurable

Ü 3 to 6 months Ü say your goodbyes Ü doctor cried

Ü "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?"

“Your time is endless, so don't spend it living someone else's life. Don't be caught by

dogma, which is living with the expectations of other people's thoughts. Don't let the echo

of others' opinions drown out your own inner ideas, passion and imagination. They

somehow really know what you truly want to be. Everything else is unimportant.

‘Stay hungry, stay foolish’. And I have always wanted that for my life, and now, as you

graduate to start anew, I’d like that for you. Stay hungry, stay foolish.”