Bill Gates: Philanthropy Needs New Ideas

American Bill Gates is known around the world as the founder and former chairman of Microsoft Corporation. He now serves as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The private foundation is working to end deadly diseases and poverty.

Recently, Bill Gates spoke about the importance of philanthropy – the custom of giving time and money to help other people. He says philanthropy depends on innovation, or new ideas, for best results.

Mr. Gates spoke during a visit to the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. He said his philanthropic work centers on problems that governments cannot solve effectively.

“There are things in terms of trying out social programs in innovative ways that government is just, because of the way job incentives work, they are not going to try out news designs like philanthropy can, and they are not bring to have volunteer hours coming in to leverage their resources like philanthropy can.”

Bill Gates said charitable giving is very important in America. One example is the university system. He said universities produce highly trained professionals who then give financial support to universities. He also said that, in the United States, privately funded organizations create inventions that government cannot.

He also spoke about the March of Dimes Foundation and its campaign to end polio. The foundation, he said, has paid for the development of two polio vaccines. Medical researcher Jonas Salk developed the first vaccine. Albert Sabin later created an oral vaccine. At the event, Mr. Gates held up one of the vaccines to show how small a treatment is.

"This is the oral polio vaccine. That’s 10 doses and this thing costs $1.30 or 13 cents per kid.”

In 2012, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave away $3.4 billion dollars. The money went to support health research, education and development programs in the United States and around the world.

But Mr. Gates noted that philanthropy cannot provide the wider improvements in areas such as public health, education, and employment. Governments, he said, were designed to serve the whole population.

“When you want to give every child in America a good education, or make sure they are not starving, that’s got to be government because philanthropy isn’t there day in and day out serving the entire population. It’s just not the scale or the design to do that."

Philanthropy, Bill Gates said, needs research and innovation to seek answers to society’s problems. But it is government’s part to work for a better society.

I'm Jonathan Evans in Washington.

词汇解析

private

难度：5星基本词汇，属常用1000词

英汉解释

adj.私人的;个人的;私下的;私有的;缄默的

n.士兵;列兵

参考例句

用作形容词 (adj.)

The public is fascinated by the private lives of public figures.

公众对社会名流的私生活具有浓厚的兴趣。

用作名词 (n.)

Soldiers are classified as Private, Specialist Sergeant and Master Sergeant.

士兵分为列兵、专业军士、军士长。

foundation

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

n.根基;基础;根据;创建;基金(会)

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

How long will it take to finish digging the foundations?

挖地基大概需要多长时间完成呢?

The foundation of this university took place over 100 years ago.

这所大学于一百多年前创建。

deadly

难度：3星常用词汇，属常用6000词

英汉解释

adj.致命的;如死一样的

adv.非常地;如死一般地

参考例句

用作形容词 (adj.)

His face had a deadly paleness after the accident.

事故发生以后，他的脸死一般苍白。

用作副词 (adv.)

The good knub will not hurt you deadly.

良性肿瘤不会对你有致命的伤害。

custom

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

n.习惯;风俗;惯例

(复)customs: 海关;关税.

adj.定做的;定制的

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

The custom has now become a rule.

那种习惯现已变为成规。

用作形容词 (adj.)

Please enter a name for the custom controller.

请输入自定义控制器的名称。

volunteer

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

n.志愿者;(自行生长的)植物

v.(自愿)做

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

He enlisted as a volunteer in the army.

他以志愿兵从军。

用作动词 (v.)

Many people volunteer to work on the farms.

许多人自动到农场劳动。

researcher

英汉解释

n.研究人员

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

Researcher redefines the physics of photons.

研究人员重新定义光子物理学。

Vendors would give public credit to the researcher.

销售商则将给予研究人员公开好评。

observer

难度：2星扩展词汇，属常用10000词

英汉解释

n.观察者

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

Each observer's prediction has been borne out.

每个观察者的预料已被证实了

scale

难度：5星基本词汇，属常用1000词

英汉解释

n.刻度;等级，规模;音阶;量程;天枰，磅秤;鳞片，鳞状物

v.攀登;按比例决定;称重;刮鳞;剥落

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

The force of the wind is measured on a standard scale of 0-12.

风力是按0-12级标准等级测量的。

用作动词 (v.)

The company has begun to scale down its operations in Asia.

这家公司已开始减少在亚洲的业务。