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文章導讀： 本文選自《華爾街日報》5月4日文章。北京時間5月4日凌晨，世界頂級富豪比爾蓋茨與妻子梅琳達蓋茨同時在推特上發表聲明，宣布結束27年的婚姻，理由是“we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives（我們不再認為我們可以在人生的下一階段作為夫妻共同成長）”。 
很久之前，比爾·蓋茨在接受媒體采訪時，主持人問：“請問到現在為止，你認為你做的最好的決定是什么？”比爾蓋茨說：“我有幸遇見梅琳達，讓我能在人生旅程中有她陪伴，所以我認為選擇對的人結婚是至關重要的。”他的這段話讓我們對婚姻有美好的憧憬，原來頂級富豪的追求也可以如此樸素美好。 今早的離婚聲明除了讓我們感到震驚惋惜外，人們更津津樂道的是他們千億美元的資產分割問題。 《華盛頓郵報》對這對夫妻的離婚聲明做了簡單闡述，但即便如此，文章閱讀量也迅速登上第一： 
《紐約時報》也第一時間對此事作出報道，關注兩人共同的事業，和曾經出現的關系破裂的點滴跡象：
《華爾街日報》則關注二人的財產分割問題，從他們相識到結婚到共創蓋茨基金會到離婚，回顧這段婚姻始末：
而《金融時報》從二人的事業、財產分割等角度報道了二人的離婚：
本文對《華爾街日報》這篇文章進行精讀，幫助大家了解蓋茨夫婦離婚始末，以及離婚對二人資產的影響。如果本文對你有所幫助，歡迎點贊轉發，非常感謝！ 
選文精講 Bill and Melinda Gates to End Marriage 比爾蓋茨和梅琳達離婚The Microsoft co-founder and his wife, who is co-chair of their philanthropic foundation, have been married 27 years這位微軟聯合創始人和他的妻子——也是二人慈善基金會的聯合主席，結婚27年了Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda Gates, who is co-chair of their philanthropic foundation, are ending their 27-year marriage, according to a statement posted on both their verified Twitter accounts.微軟公司(Microsoft Corp.)聯合創始人比爾·蓋茨和他的妻子梅琳達·蓋茨（也是二人慈善基金會的聯合主席）將結束他們27年的婚姻，二人在他們官方認證的推特賬號上發布了此聲明。“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage,” said the statement, which was signed by both people.這份由兩人共同簽署的聲明稱:“我們在經過一番深思熟慮和努力后，決定結束婚姻關系。”The couple have three children together and jointly formed the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which oversees the charitable ventures to which the billionaire philanthropist couple have devoted their fortune.這對億萬富翁慈善家夫婦育有三個孩子，并共同成立了梅琳達-蓋茨基金會來管理他們的慈善事業，這對夫婦也將他們的財產捐贈給了該基金會。“We continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue our work together at the foundation, but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives,” they said.他們說:“我們仍然對這一使命有著共同的信念，我們將繼續在基金會一起工作，但我們不再認為我們能在人生的下一階段共同成長。”Mr. Gates, 65, last year announced he was stepping down from the boards of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Microsoft, the software company he founded in 1975 with childhood friend Paul Allen.65歲的比爾蓋茨去年宣布將辭去伯克希爾哈撒韋公司和微軟的董事職務，微軟是蓋茨與兒時好友保羅·艾倫于1975年創立的軟件公司。Mr. Gates built Microsoft into one of the most dominant forces in the then still emerging business of personal computing. In 2000, he handed the role of CEO to longtime colleague Steve Ballmer. He scaled back involvement in day-to-day operations of Microsoft in 2008, focusing more on the foundation’s work. He remained active at the Redmond, Wash.,-based company as its chairman until 2014, when Satya Nadella became CEO and Mr. Gates became a regular board member.- day-to-day operation: 日常業務
比爾蓋茨在個人電腦行業還處于新興階段時，就將微軟打造成了最具主導力量的公司之一。2000年，他將CEO一職交給了長期共事的同事史蒂夫·鮑爾默。2008年，他減少了對微軟日常運營的參與，更多地專注于基金會的工作。他在位于華盛頓州雷德蒙德的公司仍然很活躍，擔任該公司的董事長，直到2014年，薩蒂亞·納德拉成為首席執行長，比爾蓋茨成為常規董事會成員。Mr. Gates’s personal stake in Microsoft is worth around $26 billion, according to FactSet.據FactSet的數據，比爾蓋茨在微軟的個人股份價值約260億美元。At the foundation, Ms. Gates, born Melinda French, has played a high-profile public role on par with that of her husband. She has represented the organization both in remote places and political power centers.在蓋茨基金會，梅琳達蓋茨（原名梅琳達·弗蘭奇）與丈夫一樣，扮演了一個高調的公眾角色。無論在偏遠地區還是政治權力中心，她都曾代表該基金會。The foundation says it aims to fight poverty, disease and inequity and gives away billions of dollars annually in direct grants. It has committed more than $1.75 billion to back the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including efforts to produce 100 million doses of vaccines for poorer countries.該基金會表示，它的目標是與貧困、疾病和不平等作斗爭，每年以直接贈款的形式捐贈數十億美元。它已承諾提供超過17.5億美元，用于支持全球應對新冠大流行，包括努力為較貧窮國家生產1億劑疫苗。Forbes said the organization is the world’s largest private charitable foundation.Ms. Gates also created Pivotal Ventures in 2015, an investment company, independent of the foundation, working on advancing social progress in the U.S.梅琳達還于2015年創立了Pivotal Ventures，這是一家獨立于蓋茨基金會的投資公司，致力于推動美國的社會進步Mr. Gates and Warren Buffett in 2010 kick-started the so-called Giving Pledge to encourage U.S. tycoons to start making donations earlier in their lives, while they can still be involved in choosing how to spend it. The Giving Pledge has expanded with more than 200 people committing to the initiative from 25 countries.2010年，蓋茨和沃倫·巴菲特啟動了所謂的“捐贈誓言”(Giving Pledge)活動，以鼓勵美國大亨們在他們能夠參與選擇如何使用這筆錢的時候，盡早開始捐款。“捐贈承諾”已經擴大到來自25個國家的200多人承諾參與。Mr. Gates is listed by Forbes as the world’s fourth wealthiest person—with a net worth of $130.5 billion—after Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, French luxury-goods tycoon Bernard Arnault and his family, and Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk.在《福布斯》的全球富豪榜上，比爾蓋茨位列第四，凈資產達1,305億美元，排在亞馬遜創始人貝佐斯、法國奢侈品大亨阿爾諾及其家族和特斯拉首席執行官埃隆·馬斯克之后。Most of the Gates family’s wealth is held by a personal investment firm called Cascade Investment LLC.蓋茨家族的大部分財富都由一家名為Cascade investment LLC的個人投資公司持有。Mr. Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie Scott, divorced in 2019 after being married for 25 years, during which Mr. Bezos built one of the world’s most valuable companies.貝佐斯和妻子麥肯齊·斯科特在結婚25年后于2019年離婚，在這段婚姻期間，貝佐斯創建了世界上最有價值的公司之一。Ms. Scott, who has devoted much of her time to philanthropic efforts, recently remarried. She said in a Medium post late last year that she had given away more than $4 billion of her fortune.斯科特女士最近再婚了，她把大部分時間都花在了慈善事業上。去年年底，她在Medium網站的一篇文章中說，她已經捐出了40多億美元的財產。Ms. Gates, aged 56, grew up in Dallas and earned a master’s in business administration at Duke University before joining Microsoft, where she worked on developing multimedia products, according to the foundation’s website. Four months after starting at Microsoft, she met the then-CEO at a dinner during a business trip to New York. He asked her on a date when they ran into each other again in the Microsoft parking lot.梅琳達蓋茨現年56歲，在達拉斯長大，在加入微軟之前獲得了杜克大學工商管理碩士學位，在微軟從事多媒體產品開發。在微軟工作四個月后，她在去紐約出差的一次晚宴上遇到了時任微軟首席執行官的比爾蓋茨。當他們在微軟的停車場再次相遇時，他向她提出了約會。She could be in line for half of the couple’s wealth, if they divorce in a so-called community-property state such as Washington, where Microsoft is based, or California, where they own property. The couple last year paid $43 million for an oceanfront home near San Diego in one of the largest deals recorded in the area.- be in line for: 很可能得到、有得到…的機會
- community-property：夫妻共有財產
如果兩人在號稱“夫妻共同財產”的州離婚，比如微軟總部所在地華盛頓州或兩人擁有房產的加利福尼亞州，那么梅琳達將有望獲得兩人一半的財產。去年，這對夫婦以4300萬美元的價格在圣地亞哥附近購買了一處海濱住宅，這是該地區有史以來最大的交易之一。
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