托福阅读真题(非TPO),独家公开珍贵托福真题,考试可能遇到原题. Mass Production Method and

作者：高藤杨羽

Mass Production: Method and Impact

The technological and managerial innovations of Thomas Alva Edison (the inventor

of electricity) and the industrial leaders Andrew Carnegie (iron and steel) and John D.

Rockefeller (oil) proved readily adaptable throughout United States industry, spurring

marvels of productivity.

▋

Late-nineteenth-century industrialists often discovered that

their

factories

produced

more

goods

than

the

market

could

absorb.

▋

This

was

particular

true

in

two

kinds

of

businesses:

those

that

manufactured

devices

for

individual use, such as sewing machines and farm implements, and those that mass-

produced consumer goods, such as matches, flour, soap, canned foods, and processed

meats.

▋

Not surprisingly, these industries were trailblazers in developing advertising

and

marketing

techniques.

▋

Strategies

for

encouraging

consumer

demand

and

for

differentiating

one

product

from

another

were

an

important

component

of

the

American post-Civil War industrial transformation.

The growth of the flour industry illustrates both the spread of mass production and the

emergence of new marketing concepts. In the 1870s the nation’s flour mills adopted

the

most

advanced

European

manufacturing

technologies

and

installed

continuous-

process

machines

that

graded,

cleaned,

hulled,

and

packaged

their

product

in

one

rapid

operation.

These

companies,

however,

soon

produced

more

flour

than

they

could see. To sell this excess, the mills thought up new product lines, such as cake

flours and breakfast cereals, and sold them using easy-to-remember brand names.

Through

brand

names,

trademarks,

guarantees,

and

slogans,

manufacturers

built

demand for their products and won remarkable consumer loyalty. Americans in large

numbers bought a brand of soap first made in 1897 in Cincinnati, Ohio, because of the

absurd

overly

precise

but

impressive

pledge

that

it

was

“

99

and

44/100ths

percent

pure.”

In

the

photographic

field,

George

Eastman

in

the

1880s

developed

a

paper

-

based photographic film as an alternate to the bulky, fragile glass plates then in use.

Manufacturing a cheap

camera for the masses and devising a catchy slogan (“you just

press the button, we do the rest”). Eastman introduced a system whereby customers

returned the 100-exposure film and the camera to the Rochester, New York, factory.

There the film was developed, the camera reloaded, and everything shipped back to

the customer

—

for a charge of ten dollars. In marketing a new technology, Eastman

1

作者：高藤杨羽

had revolutionized an industry and democratized a visual medium previously confined

to a few.

By

1900

the

chaos

of

early

industrial

competition,

when

thousands

of

small

companies

had

struggled

to

enter

a

national

market,

had

given

way

to

an

economy

dominated by a few enormous films. An industrial transformation that originated in

railroading and expanded to steel and petroleum had spread to every area of United

States

business,

and

for

those

who

could

not

compete

in

the

era’s

unforgiving

economic

environment,

the

cost

could

be

measured

in

ruined

fortunes,

bankrupted

companies,

and

shattered

dreams.

John

D.

Rockefeller,

talking

about

businesses

he

wanted

to

acquire,

said

he

wanted

“only

the

big

ones,

one

those

who

have

already

proved they can do a big business. As for the others, unfortunately they will have to

die.”

The cost was high, too, for millions of American workers, immigrant and native born

alike.

The

new

industrial

order

was

built

on

the

backs

of

an

army

of

laborers

who

were paid subsistence wages and who could be fired on a moment’s notice when hard

times or new technologies made them expendable. Moreover, industrialization often

devastated

the

environment

with

pollution

in

the

relentless

drive

for

efficiency

and

profit.

To be sure, this

industrial

revolution

brought

social benefits

as well, in the form

of

labor-saving

products,

lower

prices,

and

advances

in

transportation

and

communications.

The

benefits

and

liabilities

were

inextricably

interconnected.

The

sewing machine, for example, created thousands of new factory jobs, made available

a wider variety of clothing, and eased the lives of millions of consumers. At the same

time,

it

encouraged

greedy

entrepreneurs

to

operate

factories

in

which

the

poor

worked long hours in unhealthy conditions pitifully low wages.

Whatever the final balance sheet of social gains

and costs, one thing was clear: the

United States had forced its way onto the world stage as an industrial nation, and the

groundwork

had

been

laid

for

a

new

social

and

economic

order

in

the

twentieth

century.

2

作者：高藤杨羽

1.

The word “

component

” in the passage is closest in meaning to

pment

2. According to paragraph 1, which of the following statements is true of Edison,

Carnegie, and Rockefeller?

were famous inventors who became rich factory owners.

were the first to develop advertising and marketing techniques.

ideas and methods were used to transform United States industry.

companies produced mechanical devices and consumer goods.

Paragraph 1 is marked with

?

3.

According

to

paragraph

1,

all

of

the

following

contributed

to

the

industrial

transformation in the post-Civil War United States EXCEPT

A.a greater variety of consumer products

technological and managerial methods

production of goods

pment of advertising and marketing techniques

Paragraph 1 is marked with

?

4. According to paragraph 2, the new technologies used by the flour mills led the

flour industry to do which of the following?

e additional flour to export to Europe

European methods of marketing flour to consumers

e goods based on market research of customer needs

p special new products with easily recognizable names

Paragraph 2 is marked with

?

3