根据材料请回答 23～30 题 FordFord's great strength was the manufacturing process, not in

根据材料请回答 23～30 题

Ford

Ford's great strength was the manufacturing process, not invention.Long before he started a car company, he was an inveterate (契而不舍) tinker (喜欢小修小补的人),known for picking up loose scraps (碎片)of metal and wire and turning them into ma-chines.He's been putting cars together since 1891.Although by no means the first popu-lar automobile, the Model T showed the world just how innovative Ford was at combining technology and market.

The company's assembly line alone threw America's Industrial Revolution into over-drive(加速挡).Instead of having workers put together the entire car, Ford's cronies(密友), who were great tool and die (金属模具)makers from Scotland, organized teams that added parts to each Model T as it moved down a line.By the time Ford's sprawling(占地巨大的)Highland Park plant was humming along in 1914, the world's first automatic con-veyor belt(传送带)could turn out a ear every 93 minutes.

The same year Henry Ford shocked the world with what probably stands as his grea-test contribution ever, the $5-a-day minimum wage scheme.The average wage in the auto industry then was $2.34 for a 9-hour shift.Ford not only doubled that, he also took an hour off the workday.In those years it was unthinkable that a guy could be paid that much' for doing something that didn't involve an awful lot of training or education.The Wall Street Journal (《华尔街日报》)called the plan "an economic crime," and critics everywhere heaped "Fordism" with equal scorn.

But as the wage increased later to daily $10, it proved a critical component of Ford's quest to make the automobile accessible(易取得的)to all.The critics were too stupid to comprehend that because Ford had lowered his costs per car, the higher wages didn't mat-ter except for making it feasible(可行的)for more people to buy cars.

第 23 题 Paragraph 1__________