Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources Reading Comprehension Worksheets The 1970's

Making Sense from a Computer The 1970's

---

Making Sense from a Computer
Print Making Sense from a Computer Reading Comprehension with Fifth Grade Work

Print Making Sense from a Computer Reading Comprehension with Sixth Grade Work

Print Making Sense from a Computer Reading Comprehension

Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 5 to 7
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	6.48

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		interpretation, mathematical, presented, demonstration, programmers, plots, mathematics, musician, banned, billionaire, purpose, intelligent, public, entire, history, general
	content words:		Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Kent Evans, Harvard University, Steve Ballmer, Popular Electronics, New Mexico, In November, Microsoft Company, Now Bill Gates

---

Making Sense from a Computer By Jane Runyon

---

¹     Bill Gates wasn't a sports nut as a kid. He wasn't much of a musician, either. He wasn't like all the other kids he grew up with. Then how is it that he became the richest person on Earth as an adult? Bill Gates was in the right place at the right time with the right interests and a brilliant mind.
 
²     Computers had been around for years when Bill Gates was growing up. But very few people knew much about them. The general public thought of computers as huge machines that only a few people were smart enough to understand. They were mostly right about that. Computers were very large. One computer might take up all the space in a very large room. It took mathematical geniuses to create programs for the computers. These programmers worked in an entirely new language. Their codes for data were complicated and the end results had to be translated into everyday words.
 
³     Some people, like Bill Gates and his friends, were drawn to the mysteries of the computer. Gates attended a very exclusive school in Seattle, Washington. It was there that he became friends with other young men who shared his interests in mathematics and technology. Paul Allen, Ric Weiland, and Kent Evans were three of these friends. They spent time in school and after school learning all they could about computers and how they worked. They seemed to sense that computers were going to become important in the future. One of the group's plots to get free computer time backfired. As a result, they were banned from using a computer center for an entire summer.

Paragraphs 4 to 8:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable

---

Weekly Reading Books

Create Weekly Reading Books Prepare for an entire week at once!

---

Feedback on Making Sense from a Computer

Leave your feedback on Making Sense from a Computer   (use this link if you found an error in the story)

---

The 1970's

The 1970's

---

United States

United States

American Government         Black History and Blacks in U.S. History         Children in History         Government Careers         Hispanic Heritage         How Can I Help?

Immigration         National Parks and Monuments         Native Americans         Presidents of the United States         Women's History

---

United States History

A Nation Divided (1840-1861)         A New Nation (1776-1830)         After the Civil War (1865-1870)         American Revolution         Cold War (1947-1991)         Colonial America (1492-1776)         Lewis and Clark (1804-1806)         Pearl Harbor         Spanish American War (1898)         The 1890's         The 1900's         The 1910's         The 1920's         The 1930's

The 1940's         The 1950's         The 1960's         The 1970's         The 1980's         The 1990's         The 2000's         The Civil War (1861-1865)         The Great Depression (1929-1945)         The United States Grows (1865-1900)         The War of 1812         Wild, Wild West         World War I (1914-1918)         World War II

---

50 States

Fifty States Theme Unit

---

Document Based Activities

Document Based Activities

Copyright © 2025 edHelper