Unite 17 Oprah WinfreyOprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey was born on January 29,1954. She is a very successful Tv personality in the US. Her programme, “The Oprah Winfrey Show”, is so popular that it has been shown on Tv for almost 20 years non stop.

Listening

Questions1 Who is Oprah Winfrey?

2 When she lived with her father, what did she learn from her father?

3 After she graduated from university, what did she do?

Oprah Winfrey is not just a very successful TV personality in the US, she is also a woman who has inspired millions.

She learned that hard work and discipline could lead people to self-improvement.

After graduating from university, she began to work for television. First, she worked for different TV stations across the country. Then ,in 1984 she became the host of a talk show called “AM Chicago”.

Read the passage quickly and try to find what examples the author uses to support his opinions about Oprah winfrey and her TV show?

1 Oprah Winfrey is not just a very successful TV personality in the US,she is also a woman who has inspired millions.

2 She was an extremely bright girl at school.

3 Her show is one of the most popular television programmes in history.

Oprah Winfrey is not just a very successful TV personality in the US,she is also a woman who has inspired millions.

Oprah Winfrey is not just a successful TV personality. She has inspired millions of people through her talk shows. She helped people by giving information about difficulties that they had in their lives and talked about things that people could not or were afraid to talk about. In that way she helped people come to terms with problems that worried them or for which they could not find solutions.

Oprah Winfrey

She was an extremely bright girl at school.

When she was at kindergarten she asked her teacher to let her go to the primary school she also skipped grades. From the age of 14 she developed discipline and worked hard on self-improvement. She followed her father’s example and always listened to his advice. At high school she worked hard to be the best of all the students. In that way she won a scholarship.

Her show is one of the most popular television programmes in history.

The history of television is of course not very long. Oprah has been successful with her TV programme for more than 20 years.

How many parts can the passage be divided into?

Part 1 ( 1 ) Introduction of Oprah Winfrey

Part 2 (2—4) Oprah’s success is an inspiring story.

Part 3 ( 5 ) We can learn much from Oprah.

Fill in the blanks Oprah winfrey is a black women whose rise to _____ is an inspiring story. Her family was so _____ that life seemed to hold no _______. But nothing could ____ her. She was a bright girl and even she ________ the second grade of primary school. Her life from the age of six till about fourteen was very _____, especially when she was nine, she was abused sexually by male family-members. But she didn’t give ___. Her father _____ her that hard work and ________ could lead to _____________ . She listened to him. Later she was _______ to go to university.

famepoor promise

stopskipped

hard

upshowed discipline

self-improvementallowed

Fill in the blanks In 1971, she worked __ a radio programme. For more than 1o years, she worked for different TV stations _______ the country. When she became the _____ of the talk show “_____________ ” , it had few listeners. But later the show was so _________ that it was given a new name “____________________”. Oprah’s programme has so _____ been shown on TV for almost 20 years _______ stop.

on

acrosshost

AM Chicago

successful

The Oprah winfrey Showfarnon

Discussion

1 What do you think is needed in order to be a successful woman?

To be a successful woman, I think the following qualities are needed: a great goal, a strong will, confidence, perseverance, discipline and hard work.

2 Who is your idol? And why?

Homework

Write a letter to a famous person you admire. If you want to ask a question, you should make sure to know quite a lot about him or her before you start writing.