The document provides biographical information about several famous people: Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Angelina Jolie, J.K. Rowling, Sergey Brin, and Maria Sharapova. It describes their backgrounds, education levels, careers, achievements, hobbies and philanthropic activities. For example, it notes that Marie Curie won two Nobel Prizes for her discoveries around radioactivity, Bill Gates focuses his wealth on his charitable foundation, and Maria Sharapova designs her own tennis outfits and created a candy line.

1. a. How do people become famous?
b. What is good about being famous and what is a downside?
c. What famous person would like to interview?

2. Do you know who these people are?
What does it mean to be a billionaire? (How do people become billionaires? How can it
change their life?)
What should people do to receive a Nobel Prize?
How much is a Nobel Prize?
What is a Grand Slam tournament ?
Answer the questions

3. $340.8 B
illion
market
value
$367.6
Billion
market
value
Bill Gates (US)
born in 1955,
programmer
Marie Curie
(Poland)
(1867-1934),
scientist
J.K.Rowling
(G Britain),
born in 1965,
writer
Albert Einstein
(Austria)
(1879-1955),
scientist
Angelina Jolie
(US), actress
born in 1975
Sergey Brin
(Russia)
born in 1973,
programmer
Maria Sharapova
(Russia)
born in 1973,
tennis player
400 million
copies
Research in
radioactivity
and discovery of two
elements:
radium and polonium
Research in time
and space.
Time is relative.
Nothing can move
faster than
the speed of light
Match the people and their achievements

4. $340.8 B
illion
market
value
$367.6
Billion
market
value
Bill Gates (US)
born in 1955,
billionaire
Marie Curie
(Poland)
(1867-1934),
Nobel Prize winner
(2 times)
J.K. Rowling
(G Britain),
born in 1965,
writer
and billionaire
Albert Einstein
(Austria)
(1879-1955)
Nobel Prize
winner
Angelina Jolie
(US)
born in 1975
Oscar winner
Sergey Brin
(Russia)
born in 1973,
billionaire
Maria Sharapova
(Russia)
born in 1973,
Winner of all
Grand Slam
tournaments
400 million
copies
Research in
radioactivity
and discovery of two
elements:
radium and polonium
Research in time
and space.
Time is relative.
Nothing can move
faster than
the speed of light
What questions would you ask these people if you had a chance to interview them?

5. Your teacher play the role of Maria Sharapova. She will first in the first person.
Ask questions to Maria Sharapova to find out:
What s/he was interested most when s/he was young
If s/he was good at school/university
Who his/her parents were
If his/her parents were wealthy
If s/he is rich and if ‘yes’ what s/he does with this money
If s/he has a hobby and what kind of hobby it is
For example:
What s/he was interested most when s/he was young >> What were you interested most when you were young ?

6. Each of you will privately receive some facts of a famous person’s biography , under a number.
You will assume the role of this person and will speak in the first person (I live…I was..)
Don’t tell your partners who you are. They should ask you questions and make a guess who you are
Make questions to the famous person to find out about:
What s/he was interested most when s/he was young
If s/he was good at school/university
Who his/her parents were
If his/her parents were wealthy
If s/he is rich and if ‘yes’ what s/he does with this money
If s/he has a hobby and what kind of hobby it is
For example,
- What were you interested in when you were young?
- I worked as an English teacher.
!! No questions about no age, gender, country of birth, or work/invention) - When were you born?
After all the interviews, say what is common between all these people?
Guessing game

7. Maria Sharapova
Maria got her first racket when she was four.
At the age of six, Maria attended a tennis clinic in Moscow run by Martina
Navratilova.
Navratilova recognized her talent and recommended that she go to the USA to study
at a famous sports academy
in Florida. Maria moved to the USA with her father in 1994. Neither of them could
speak English.
They had very little money and went to the sports academy by bicycle every day.
She described it as being a tough time.
She turned professional in 2001 and a year later became the youngest girl ever to
reach the junior final at Wimbledon.
Sharapova won her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, when she was 17.
Sharapova has been the world’s highest paid sportswoman and the women’s number
one several times.
She designs her own unique tennis outfits.
She created a premium candy line Sugarpova. A portion of the money from selling this
candy goes to her charity.

8. Sergey Brin
Both his mother and father were mathematicians.
Brin and his family emigrated to the United States when he was six. He attended a private elementary
school but he received further education at home. He graduated from university in 1993 with a degree in
maths and computer science.
Brin started his dissertation on the processes and calculations that search engines use. He teamed up with
Larry Page and they wrote a paper that became the blueprint for a search engine that would list results by
page popularity.
The flying trapeze is one of his favorite hobbies.
He has expanded his business interests into other areas of technology and movie production. In 2008, he
invested $5 million in a space tourism company. He is also an investor in Tesla Motors, which is developing
a long-range electric car.
Albert Einstein
Не worked in a patent office.
He was very interested in science but hated the system of learning by heart.
He said his school destroyed learning and creativity.
He had already done many experiments, but failed the entrance exams to a technical college.
When he was 16, he performed his famous experiment of imagining traveling alongside a beam of light.
His father was an engineer and a salesman but his company failed.
He started to love music when he was a child. He played violin quite well.
He had a few millions dollars and he founded an Organization that helped to rescue Jews from Nazis.

9. Bill Gates
Before the eighth grade in public school he wasn’t all that great.
And then, in the eighth grade, he moved to a private school and he decided that he better
start getting good grades and think about college. So from ninth grade on, he had a good grade record.
He was especially good at math.
He came from an upper-middle-class family. His father was a wealthy lawyer
and his mother served as a member of the University of Washington’s Board of Governors.
He loves playing tennis and travelling.
He now spends his time with his wife, Melinda, focusing on their charitable foundation.
He decided to spend most money to solve global problems such as treating malaria in Africa.
All three of his children will inherit a small percentage
of the billionaire’s fortune ($10 million each), and the remaining 95 percent will be spent for charity.
Angelina Joli
She lived with her mother who was far from being rich. Her parents lived separately and she had bad relations with
her dad.
She was rebellious and became a punk with dyed purple hair and tattoos.
She dropped out of acting classes at Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.
By age 20, she had used "just about every drug possible," particularly heroin.
She is now a UN Goodwill Ambassador, visiting refugee camps in poor countries. She donates large sums of money
to help the underprivileged people.
In 2001, she said: “We cannot close ourselves off…and ignore the fact that millions of people are out there suffering.”

10. J.K. Rowling
She worked as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International
and taught French in Scotland and English in Portugal.
Her mother worked in the science department at school. They were low middle class family.
Her teenage years were unhappy. Her home life was complicated by her mother's
illness and a strained relationship with her father, with whom she is not on speaking terms.
She did well in school, and in her senior year was the top girl in her class.
At school, Rowling's favorite subjects were English and foreign languages.
Today she devotes much of her time to many charitable causes.
She famously demanded that Coca-Cola donate $18 million to the Reading is Fundamental charity
if it wanted a promotion in the movies based on her novels.
Her favorite hobbies are reading and writing.
Marie Curie
Her father was a maths and physics teacher and was a big influence on her early education.
From an early age Marie was an exceptional student with an amazing memory.
She often went without food and sleep to study.
She met her future husband Pierre Curie at the university.
He considered Marie to be a genius and instantly wanted to work with her.
They got married and spent most of their time together in their laboratory studying radioactive materials.
Their research led to the discovery of radium, for which they were honoured with the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903.
Pierre was killed in 1906 and Marie was devastated and extremely lonely. She threw herself even deeper into
her work and won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1911. She spent the 1920s raising funds for more research
into radium.