Vocabulary and Cultural Notes:

• to apprentice (as) [ə`prentıs] – to be employed by another person in order to learn a particular type of work; to work for a skilled or qualified person in order to learn a trade or profession;

• machinist [mə`∫i:nıst] – someone whose job is to use a machine; a person who operates machines to cut or process materials;

• Model T Ford (colloquially known as the Tin Lizzie and Flivver) – is an automobile that was produced by Henry Ford’s Ford Motor Company from 1908 through 1927. The Model T set 1908 as the historic year that the automobile came into popular usage. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, the car that “put America on wheels”; some of this was because of Ford’s innovations, including assembly line production instead of individual hand crafting, as well as the concept of paying the workers a wage proportionate to the cost of the car, so that they would provide a ready made market. The first production Model T was built on September 27, 1908, at the Piquette Plant in Detroit.

• the Ford Motor Company – is an American multinational corporation and the world’s fourth largest automaker based on worldwide vehicle sales. Based in Dearborn, Michigan [`mı∫ıgən], a suburb of Detroit, the automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The Ford Motor Company was launched in a converted factory in 1903 with $28,000 in cash from twelve investors, most notably John and Horace Dodge (who would later found their own car company). Henry’s first attempt under his name was the Henry Ford Company on November 3, 1901, which became the Cadillac Motor Company on August 22, 1902. Henry Ford was 40 years old when he founded the Ford Motor Company, which would go on to become one of the world’s largest and most profitable companies, as well as being one to survive the Great Depression. As one of the largest family-controlled companies in the world, the Ford Motor Company has been in continuous family control for over 100 years.

• assembly line [ə`sembli] – a line of workers and machines in a factory that fit the parts of a product together in a fixed order;

• “History is bunk” = “Live in the present, not the past”;

Bill Gates [bıl geıts] (1956-). Ranked as the world’s richest person from 1995-2006, Bill Gates was a college dropout. He started the largest computer software company, Microsoft Corporation. Gates and his wife are philanthropists, starting The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with a focus on global health and learning.

Vocabulary and Cultural Notes:

• dropout – someone who leaves a school or college without completing the course.

• Microsoft Corporation – is a United States-based multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices. Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, its most profitable products are the Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite [swi:t] of productivity software. William Henry Gates III (known as Bill Gates) and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in New Mexico in 1975. The name of the company comes from MICROcomputer SOFTware. Microsoft’s original mission was “a computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software.”

• philanthropist [fı`læn^tθrəpıst] – a person who helps those who are poor or in trouble, especially a rich person who gives generous gifts of money;

• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (B&MGF) – is the largest transparently operated private foundation in the world, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. The foundation is “driven by the interests and passions of the Gates family.” The primary aims of the foundation are, globally, to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty; and in America, to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology. The foundation, based in Seattle, Washington is controlled by its three trustees: Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet. In 2007 its founders were ranked as the second most generous philanthropists in America.

Milton Hershey [`mıltən `hə:∫i] (1857-1945). With only a fourth grade education, Milton Hershey started his own chocolate company. In 1900, Milton S. Hershey developed the recipe for what would become a great American classic. He was driven by the belief that everyone should be able to enjoy the great taste of milk chocolate, a privilege at the time only enjoyed by the wealthy. So he returned to his birthplace, Derry Church, PA (later to be named Hershey, PA) and located his chocolate manufacturing operation in the heart of Pennsylvania’s dairy country. Here he could obtain the large supplies of fresh milk needed to make pure milk chocolate. What he built turned out to be the world’s largest chocolate factory. Hershey’s Milk Chocolate became the first nationally marketed chocolate. Hershey also focused on building a wonderful community for his workers, known as Hershey, Pennsylvania.