2 Probably not, yet the work of Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, may have the most profound impact of all. Why is his name unknown to most of the world? The answer lies in the type of life he

has chosen to lead and the role he has chosen to play in helping to guide this emerging technology.

3 If you were in a time machine and could travel back to 1960s London, you might find young Tim

Berners-Lee busily constructing make-believe computers out of cardboard boxes or playing mathematical

games with his parents at their kitchen table. Tim is fascinated by the world around him. His natural curiosity

attracts him to a dusty Victorian-era encyclopedia he finds in his house; its mysterious title, Enquire Within

Upon Everything, will stay with him for years to come.

4 Fast-forward to 2001. Over 250 million people are using the Internet, a system virtually unheard of

10 years earlier, and Tim Berners-Lee is largely responsible. How could one person make it all happen?

5 For some clues, let’s go back to Tim’s early adulthood. Tim was especially interested in two things:

computers and how the human brain organizes and links information. He wondered how the mind can

almost randomly connect so many different facts. For instance, how can a song or a scent mentally link or

even transport someone to another time and place? Tim was so fascinated by computers that, before

graduating from the University of Oxford, he built his very first one from a kit using a television and an early

microprocessor.

6 In 1980, after graduating with a degree in physics, Tim went to work as a software engineer for an

organization in Geneva, Switzerland. His job required a lot of research. He communicated with people all over

the world and he was constantly answering the same questions over and over. He was frustrated by how

poorly his mind could remember all of the reports and data he needed. He wished there were a way other

people could simply access his data and he could access theirs via computer no matter where they were

located.

7 Tim wrote a software program to help him keep track of important documents and, using a series of

links (hypertext), he connected them together much like an index does in a book. He named the program

Enquire after the book he loved as a child. In its original form, Enquire was capable of storing information

and connecting documents electronically, but it could only access information on a single computer.

8 In 1989, Tim took a giant step towards his vision of a global system where documents could be linked

via hypertext to the Internet, allowing people worldwide to easily share and link information. After much

thought, he called his project the World Wide Web. Many people thought that connecting documents stored

in individual computers around the world was impossible.

9 And even if it were possible, few of his fellow scientists thought it would ever become popular.

Lesson 4

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L4: Analyzing Interactions in a Text 33

Part 5: Common Core Practice

10 Tim was not discouraged. Working with a few colleagues who supported his vision, he developed the

four critical foundations of the Web: The language for coding documents (HTML); the hypertext system for

linking documents (HTTP); the system for locating documents on the Web (URL); the first graphical user

interface (Internet browser). In 1991, the Web was launched and almost immediately, the Internet took off.

11 Although he has had many opportunities to do so, Tim has not profited from his creation. . . . [He]

works for a non-profit organization located at M. I.T., a leading engineering university. Married with two

children, Tim leads a good life, one that is full of professional challenges. He is pleased with the road he chose

to follow. Today, he helps set standards and guides the Web’s future, so he can be assured that it will remain

open to all and not be splintered into many parts or dominated by one corporation. However, like Einstein,

who was concerned with his role in the development of nuclear power, Tim believes that technology can be

used for good or for evil. “At the end of the day,” Tim says, “it is up to us: how we actually react, and how

we teach our children, and the values we instill.” To this day, Tim Berners-Lee works hard to see that the

technology he invented remains accessible to all people around the globe. That, rather than instant wealth, is

his reward.

Based on the biography, explain how Tim Berners-Lee's early childhood interests influenced the path he chose as an adult. Use at least TWO details from the text to support your answer.

Describe what influence this idea had on Tim Berners-Lee's approach to writing new programs that operate computers. Use at least TWO details from the biography to support your answer.