1. Understanding the main points

Decide whether the following statements are true or false.

True False

1. The man who built the quintessential machine of the modern industrial economy, which would not have been possible without the assembly-line technique he developed, was a revolutionary who found the way to refute Karl Marx’s prediction that a mass working class would revolt against its exploitation and its misery.

2. By the time of Ford’s death, eighty-three years later, eight out of ten Americans lived in urban households, and most of them had a car.

3. When the timber had all been cut,

what took him back to the city was the engines.

4. Ford’s backers remained faithful when his workshop produced another car in 1901, which stunned the small world of automobile enthusiasts by beating the then speed champion Alexander Winton in his 40-horsepower Winton Special in a twenty-mile race.

5. Ford developed his new “planetary” system for lightweight gears, installed the huge and flexible springs to handle the bumps of dirt roads, and the Model T was born.

2. Vocabulary focus 1

Complete the gaps. Use each word in the list below once.

maverick merchant bookkeeper entrepreneur multitude production market engine supervisor vowed installed steering emerged vehicle

1. Henry Ford was a _________________ inventor and _________________ rather than a capitalist.

2. Mass _________________ required a mass _____________.

3. It was an extraordinary ______________, essentially two bicycles side by side, with a seat, ____________ bar, and an _____________.

4. Another backer _____________, a local coal ___________ named Alex Malcolmson, who ___________ a _____________ and production ____________.

5. “I will build a motor car for the great ___________,” Ford ___________.

2. Vocabulary focus 2

Find words or phrases in the text which mean the same as the following:

1 someone who thinks of an idea for a new product, machine etc. for the first time

2 the action of constructing again

3 a short glass tube with a rubber bulb used to measure out liquids by drops

4 something to be declared in advance

5 an authorized sales agency

6 an offensive exaggeration of one’s own importance

7 to set in operation

8 a buyer and seller of commodities for profit

9 a request for information

10. to put each in the part of another

2. Vocabulary focus 3

Give your explanations of ten different words or phrases from the text for other students of your group to find

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Discuss the following questions:

1. How can you prove the statement that Henry Ford was a maverick inventor?

2. What is called “a heritage center” today?

3. Henry Ford was called a perfectionist, wasn’t he?

4. What was the main point in the quintessential machine of the modern industrial economy developed by Henry Ford?

5. How did the automobile transform the face of the American countryside?

HENRY FORD AND THE AMERICAN SYSTEM

PART 2