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Lesson  14



             Oprah Winfrey



                                                    Oprah Gail Winfrey is an Afro-American born on Jan-

                                                    uary 29, 1954 in a farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi to
                                                    a teenage mom. Her grandmother reared her. At the
                                                    age of three, she started learning to read aloud and
                                                    perform  recitation.  Hers  was  not  a  happy  childhood
                                                    being raised in a broken family, suffered molestation

                                                    and abuse. At thirteen, she was sent to a juvenile de-
                                                    tention but was not admitted since it was already full.
             Then, she went on to live with her father in Nashville. Her strict father made sure that Oprah

             had a midnight curfew, read a book and wrote book report each week.  At the age of 17, she
             began her career as a radio broadcaster in WVOL in Nashville. She then became a news
             co-anchor and much later on a co-host for a TV show “People Are Talking”. In 1984, she
             transferred to Chicago and got a break to host the “AM Chicago” TV show. In September, it
             was renamed “The Oprah Winfrey Show”.  In 1986, she put up her own productions com-

             pany, HARPO based in Chicago.  In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed into law the “Oprah
             Bill” after she initiated a campaign against child abusers and testified before the US Senate
             Judiciary Committee on behalf of the National Child Protection Act.   She was cited as one

             of the 100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century by Time magazine. She wrote her
             on-air book club, which made the Oprah Book Club selections bestsellers. National Book
             Foundation awarded her gold medal for her service to books and authors in 1999. Sharing
             her blessings, Oprah’s Angel Network began presenting a $100,000 “Use Your Life Award”
             to people making their lives improved. By 2003, she was cited by Forbes magazine as the

             first African-American woman to become a billionaire.

                  Comprehension


             1. Name some of Oprah Winfrey’s citations.
             2. How did Oprah’s father discipline her during her youth?


                  Questions

            1. What was Oprah’s first career?
            2. Who awarded Oprah a gold medal for her service to books and authors in 1999?


                                                Vocabulary & Expressions

                                   Rear - to care and bring up young children
                                   Molestation - to abuse somebody sexually
                                   Initiate - to start something
                                   Anchor - an announcer on a news program






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