Составьте аннотацию к тексту (2-3 предложения).

Составьте реферат текста (10-15 предложений).

Составьте план текста и перескажите текст.

ВАРИАНТ 10

I.Прочитайте и переведите текст:

 

American Car Makers

 

Cars were the toys of the rich in the early days. But it was a Detroit farmboy Henry Ford who literally transformed the world. The car he built and the changes he made in the techniques of industrial production revolutionarized the lives of people everywhere. At the height of his fame in the 1920's, Ford was a name known universally. Henry Ford's dream to build "a motor car for the great multitude - a car so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one" When he finally realized his dream, with the launch of the Model T Ford in 1908, the effect was revolutionary. The T meant people barely able to afford a horse and buggy could buy a car. In 1908, less than 200,000 people in the USA owned cars; five years later 250,000 owned Model Ts alone. By 1930, over 15 million Ts had been sold. The key to Ford's success was mass production. By using huge teams of men working systematically to build huge numbers of cars, he could sell them all very cheaply. Indeed, the more he sold, the cheaper they became.

Before Ford, complete cars were built by small teams of men. In the Ford factory, each worker added just one small component, as partly assembled cars were pulled rapidly past on the production line.

The. principles Ford used to make the Model T are used in motor manufacture to this day. Modern assembly lines use robots to build cars more quickly, cheaply, and accurately. But the idea of assembling components on a moving production line remains.

The cheap, tough and thoroughly reliable Model T put America, and much of the world, on the roads for the first time - and earned the affection of two whole generations of American families.

It is easy to see how the Model T took shape from its individual components. Mudguards, running board, and sill all bolt together to form one side of the car, and are mounted directly on to the chassis.

One of the things that made the Model T so cheap was its standardized body. At the time, most car bodies were built separately by specialist coachbuilders; the Model T's was made right on the Ford production line. So Ts could not be tailor-made to suit individual customers' requirements. Instead, Ford offered a limited variety of alternative body styles.

The T's chassis appeared fragile, earning it the nickname "Tin Lizzie". But it was made from vanadium steel, which proved very strong.

Ford claimed that his car was available in "any colour you like, so long as it's black". This meant painting was cheap and simple. Later models came in other colours.

Every period in the history of the motor car is remembered for its own particular style or technological trend. But perhaps none is quite so distinctive as the mid 1950s to mid 1960s in the USA. This was the era of rock'n'roll and drive-in movies, fast-food and new freeways. The booming confidence of the American nation in those years is reflected in some of the most outrageous, flashy cars ever made. Competition between American carmakers was fierce, and each tried to outdo the others in the glamour of their cars. Constant demand for a new sensation tested the skills of designers such as Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell to the limits. Expanses of chrome and fin were matched by all kinds of technological gimmicks. Yet though the styling was excessive, innovations such as wrap-round windscreens and power-steering were genuine and lasting.

Big and Small

American cars of the 1950s were small inside considering their vast proportions. Space was sacrificed for the sake of the styling. Boots were often very shallow - which is why the Ford made use of the back seat space (left).

Beautiful or Ugly?

Unlike cars today, which change little in looks from year to year, new models appeared almost every year in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s Fords. Believe it or not, they were advertised as "The World's Most Beautifully Proportioned Cars".