|
Text 1
About Henry Ford
Henry Ford(1863—1947) was a well-known American industrialist. He was born
and also died in Dearborn, Michigan. For five years he served as a machine-shop
apprentice in Detroit, built his first car there in 1890-1893 and organized
the Ford Motor Company ten years later. In 1909 he perfected the assembly-line
technique that enabled the company to mass-produce the first cheap and standardized
car, thus revolutionizing the motorcar industry which was now able to expand
rapidly. Ford was a social pioneer for he introduced, as early as 1914, an eight-hour
day with a minimum daily wage equivalent to one pound and a profit-sharing scheme
for all his employees.
About Herr Otto
Herr is the German word for Mr in English. Nikolas August Otto (1832—1891)
was the German engineer who invented the four-stroke cycle (四冲程) used in most
petrol and gas engines today. It was the first practical technique that replaced
the steam engine. In the Expo Paris 1867 it won, with further improvement, a
gold medal.
About the first assembly line
In his efforts to make cars for "the multitude", Henry Ford realized
that he would need a more efficient way to produce the car in order to lower
the price. He found four principles that would further his goal: interchangeable
parts, continuous flow, division of labor, and reducing wasted effort. To improve
the flow of the work, it needed to be arranged so that as one task was finished,
another began, with minimum time spent in set-up. Inspired by the meat-packing
houses of Chicago and a grain mill conveyor belt he had seen, and after making
certain study and research , Henry Ford divided the labor by breaking the assembly
of the Model T into 84 distinct steps. Each worker was trained to do just one
of these steps. In 1913, Ford had the first moving assembly line ever used for
large-scale manufacturing put to action, with workers spent less time moving
about, the work done in a much more streamlined way, and cars being produced
at a record-breaking rate.
Language notes
1. He loved putting machines together
as well as taking them apart.
(他喜欢拆卸机器, 也喜欢把各种零件组装起来。)
Take something apart means to break something into parts.
A as well as B means not only B but also A.
2. He drove his quadricycle, with more
noise than speed, through the empty streets.
(他驾着他那辆速度有限、噪音很大的四轮车，穿行在空荡荡的街道上。)
quadricycle : a four-wheeled vehicle. quadri-: four .
3.
The result was the plug-spark as we know it today.
（结果便发明了我们今天所熟知的那种火花塞。）
It here refers back to the plug-spark, while as
is a conjunction with the meaning of "一如" ，"如同".
4.
He was forty years old — old enough
to know better .
(他已年届不惑—应该到了不再这样冒险行事的年龄。)
Know better (than to do sth ) is an idiomatic structure meaning having
adequate knowledge and experience so as not to be green or foolish enough to
do something. In this sentence, than to take risks after better
is omitted.
5. This, in turn, would lead to more
people buying cars, which would lead to cheaper cars.
（这反过来会促使更多的人购买轿车，从而导致轿车更大幅度的降价。）
In turn means in proper sequence or when it is time for the certain subject
to show its effects.
Lead to means cause, or bring about.
More people buying is a less formal way of saying more people's buying.
e. g. Better training make people more equipped for the market , which in turn
will lead to greater job satisfaction.
6. In 1927 the new Model A came on the
scene.
（1927年，新型A型汽车问世。）
Come on the scene means to come into being, appear, or start to exist.
7. …when most men are enjoying a well-earned
rest …
（……当大多数人正安享通过辛勤工作而挣得的安逸之时……）
Well-earned means obtained through hard work; it is close in meaning
to well-deserved. Something well-deserved is something with hard-work
and due efforts behind it.
Text 2
About Thomas Edison, The Wizard of Menlo
Park
Like Ben Franklin, Thomas Alva Edison was both a scientist and an inventor.
Born in 1847, Edison would see tremendous change take place in his lifetime.
He was also to be responsible for making many of those changes occur. When Edison
was born, society still thought of electricity as a novelty, a fad. By the time
he died, entire cities were lit by electricity. Much of the credit for that
progress goes to Edison. In his lifetime, Edison patented 1 093 inventions,
earning him the nickname "The Wizard of Menlo Park." The most famous
of his inventions was an incandescent light bulb. Besides the light bulb, Edison
developed the phonograph and the "kinetoscope," a small box for viewing
moving films. He also improved upon the original design of the stock ticker,
the telegraph, and Alexander Graham Bell's telephone. He believed in hard work,
sometimes working twenty hours a day. Edison was quoted as saying, "Genius
is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration." In tribute to
this important American, electric lights in the United States were dimmed for
one minute on October 21, 1931, a few days after his death.
1)Michael Farady (1791—1867)was a famous British scientist. His scientific
work laid the foundation of all subsequent electro-technology. From his experiments
came devices which led directly to the modern electric motor, generator and
transformer.
2) Western Union: Western Union Telegraph Company was created in 1851 to provide
telegraph communications in the United States. The Western Union Telegraph Company
was defeated by the Bell Telephone Company in one of the famous patent cases
in American lawsuits.
3)Elsha Gray (1835—1901)was an American inventor, who patented many electrical
devices, most of them having to do with the telegraph.
4) A. G. Bell (1847—1922)was an American scientist, the inventor of the telephone.
He organized the Bell Telephone Company in July 1877.
5) Morse Code: the system of dots and dashes for letters and numbers in sending
telegraphs to ensure secrecy and brevity.
6) A stock ticker: a telegraphic machine which automatically prints news, esp.
stock market prices, on paper tapes.
Language notes
1. I can make nothing of him.
（我真拿他没办法。）
Make A (out) of B means to educate, or train, or develop
sb./sth. into sb./sth.
e.g. The father was determined to make an able and honest lawyer (out)
of his only son.
2. Nancy Edison succeeded where the
school had failed.
(学校没能做到的事情南希成功地做到了。)
This sentence means that little Tom's mother achieved what the school was unable
to do with the boy.
3. …and read through his way through
the whole library.
(一直把整个图书馆的书全部读完。)
This last phrase means: (Edison) reads all the books in the library one by
one. There
are many similar expressions in English like to make/find/push/dash/squeeze/elbow
(etc.) one's way to/towards/through(…).
e.g. The river wound its way around the front of the village. The cyclist zigzagged
her way through the market.
TOP |
