Vocabulary notes

to afford иметь возможность, позволять себе что-то

affordable возможный, допустимый

accessible доступный, удобный (в употреблении)

dealer торговец

on a big scale в большом масштабе

highway construction строительство автомобильных дорог

retail продавать в розницу

petroleum, gasoline моторное топливо, газолин

rubber резина, каучук

tools инструменты

mileage расстояние (в милях)

tax налог

facilities удобства; средства обслуживания

EXERCISES

I. Read the text and translate it.

II. Give the English equivalents to the Russian words:

бензин, условия, розничная торговля, строительство автомобильных дорог, инструменты, в большом масштабе.

III. Give the synonyms to the following words:

road, seller, amenities, possible, to sell, distance.

IV. Answer the questions:

1. How can you explain the words “Roaring Twenties”?

2. How did the number of automobiles rise during this period?

3. What factors made it possible that the car was no longer a luxury, but a necessary item?

4. Why was the motor-vehicle manufacturing the largest industry in the world?

5. How did the American authorities support reorganization of highway system?

6. What are the main demands to gain the mass market?

7. What are the names of so-called Big Three companies?

Ford motor company

At the beginning of the boom period of 1920s, Ford’s leading position was unchallenged and seemingly unchallengeable: in 1921 the Ford Motor Company made three-fifth of all the motor vehicles manufactured in the United States. But soon General motors moved it from this position.

Ford was born on a farm near Dearborn, Michigan, on July 30, 1863, and educated in district schools. He became a machinist’s apprentice in Detroit at the age of 16. From 1888 to 1899 he was a mechanical engineer, and later chief engineer, with the Edison Illuminating Company. In 1893, after experimenting for several years in his leisure hour, he completed the construction of his first automobile, and in 1903 he founded the Ford Motor Company.

By early 1914 this innovation, although greatly increasing productivity, had resulted in a monthly labor turnover of 40 to 60 percent in his factory, largely because of the unpleasant monotony of assembly-line work and repeated increases in the production quotas assigned to workers. Ford met this difficulty by doubling the daily wage then standard in the industry, raising it from about $2,50 to $5. The net result was increased stability in his labor force and a substantial reduction in operating costs. These factors, coupled with the enormous increase in output made possible by new technological methods, led to an increase in company profits from $30 million in 1914 to $60 million in 1916.

In 1908 the Ford Company initiated production of the celebrated Model T. Until 1927, when the Model T was discontinued in favor of a more up-to-date model, the company produced and sold about 15 million cars. Within few years, however, Ford’s preeminence as the largest producer and seller of automobiles in the nation was gradually lost to his competitors, largely because he was slow to adopt the practice of introducing a new model of automobile each year, which had become standard in the industry.

Henry Ford obviously missed the fact that more attractive and more comfortable cars appeared on the market, and low price (Model T was the cheapest one) wasn’t a solution to everything.

The price from now became just one, but not the only one, of the criteria for the consumer’s decision.

On May 31^st, 1927 the last model T (no. 15,007,003) rolled off the assembly line and all Ford manufacturing operations came to a prolonged halt. This was the result of final realization of the inevitable Ford was loosing to the General Motors, and it needed something new. For about a year and a half Ford was keeping silence, but finally he came out with the Model A. Although it was a good car (in its first year it outsold General Motor’s Chevrolet) but it wasn’t significantly different from its competitors and certainly not superior to them. Thus in spite of all Ford’s effort his company would remain on its second place till nowadays.