Hillary Rodham Clinton was born in 1947 in Park Ridge, Illinois, where she grew up in a middle class and conservative family. Like any number of children from that era, she joined such social clubs as Brownies and Girl Scouts. She participated in church activities, as well as the debate team, student council, and the National Honor Society. She volunteered for Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964 during high school. Later she went to Wellesley College to study political science, then Yale Law School. In short, Hillary had an upbringing marked by drive and success, but which was also unprivileged.

Hillary has become a well-known figure throughout the world, in part because of the eight years she served as First Lady. Yet she is an accomplished woman in her own right, too. Her opinions, positions, and work in law, education, and women's rights make her instantly recognized wherever she goes. She became the first First Lady to hold a post-graduate degree, as well as to have her own professional career. In fact, during her husband's campaign in 1993, he often joked that the American people would "get two for the price of one."

Before her eight years in the White House, she had quite an impressive career. She worked at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. She continued to practice law at Rose Law Firm, where she became the first woman to be made a full partner. The National Law Journal twice named her among the top one hundred most influential lawyers in America. She also worked to improve education in Arkansas through better testing standards for new teachers, and a pre-literacy program for very young children.

On January 20th, 2007, she began her bid to become the first woman elected to the US Presidency. She announced, "I'm in. And I'm in to win." And although she is a polarizing figure - you either love her or hate her - it seemed that she had been determinedly working towards that goal since 2000. She first ran for a New York Senate seat, won with 55% of the vote, and increased her popularity to win with 67% of the vote in 2006. She worked to get additional money for New Yorkers after the terrorist attacks of September 11th. She has visited American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. She voted against the Bush tax cuts, demanded a balance budget, and disagreed with proposed laws that would prohibit same-sex marriages. Many in the media called it her race to lose.

At first she attracted impressive numbers of women voters and blue-collar workers. Yet a successful bid was not to be so. In a hotly contested spring 2008, Barak Obama won many of the primaries to become the Democratic nominee. Hillary promoted women's issues, and demonstrated that women can do anything. She is often quoted as being responsible for 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling.

Given her past successes, her narrow defeat to Obama in 2008, and her drive, she may very well be eyeing the next Presidential election.

Instructions:

Step 1: You will listen to an article about Hillary Rodham Clinton.  The article is about 4.5 minutes long.  Listen only, and don't worry about understanding everything.
Step 2: Look at the questions.  Read and understand them, then listen again.  As you are listening, try to answer the questions in your head.  Don't write the answers yet.  Next, listen again and write the answers this time.  Compare your answers with a partner.
Step 3: Read the article.  Check in your dictionary any unknown words.  Now listen again.  Can you understand more?
Step 4: Listen!  Listen!  Listen!  Listen to the article on the train or in your free time.  Each time you listen, you will slowly improve!

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