The Making of a Success Story 　　

    1 IKEA is the world"s largest furniture retailer, and the man behind it is Ingvar Kamprad, one of the world"s most successful entrepreneurs. Born in Swedenin 1926, Kamprad was a natural businessman. As a child, he enjoyed selling things and made small profits from selling matches, seeds, and pencils in his community. When Kamprad was 17, his father gave him some money as a reward for his good grades. Naturally he used it to start up a business一IKEA.

    2 IKEA"s name comes from Kamprad"s initials (I.K.) and the place where he grew up ("E" and "A"). Today IKEA is known for its modern, minimalist furniture¹, but it was not a furniture company in the beginning. Rather, IKEA sold all kinds of miscellaneous goods. Kamprad"s wares included anything that he could sell for profits at discounted prices², including watches, pens and stockings.

    3 IKEA first began to sell furniture through a mail-order catalogue in 1947. The furniture was all designed and made by manufacturers near Kamprad"s home. Initial sales were very encouraging, so Kamprad expanded the product line. Furniture was such a successful aspect of the business that IKEA became solely a furniture company in 1951.

    4 In 1953 IKEA opened its first showroom inAlmhult,Sweden. IKEA is known today for its spacious stores with furniture iti attractive settings, but in the early 1950s, people ordered from catalogues. Thus response to the first showroom was overwhelmiig: people loved being able to see and try the furniture before buying it. This led to increased sales and the company continued to thrive. By 1955, IKEA was designing all its own furniture.

    5 In 1956 Kamprad saw a man disassembling a table to make it easier to transport. Kamprad was inspired. The man had given him a great idea: flat packaging³. Flat packaging would mean lower shipping costs for IKEA and lower prices for customers. IKEA tried it and sales soared. The problem was that people had to assemble furniture themselves, but over time, even this grew into an advantage for IKEA. Nowadays, IKEA is often seen as having connotations of self-sufficiency. This image has done wonders for the company, leading to better sales and continued expansion.

    6 Today there are over 200 stores in 32 countries. Amazingly, Ingvar Kamprad has managed to keep IKEA a privately-held company. In 2004 he was named the world"s richest man. He currently lives inSwitzerlandand is retied from the day-to-day operations of IKEA. IKEA itself, though, just keeps on growing. 　　

 

词汇： 　　

entrepreneur /,entrəprə"nə:/ n.企业家 　　

ware /weə/ n.货物 　　

minimalist /"miniməlist / adj.最简单的 　　

self-sufficiency /"self-sə"fiʃənsi/ n.自足 　

 

注释： 　　

1. minimalist furniture：风格简约的家具 　　

2. discounted prices：折扣价 　　

3. flat packaging：平板包装 　

A.  IKEA began as a small store selling all kinds of cheap things.
B.  it is highly welcomed by both
C.  Ingvar Kamprad showed interest in and talent for doing business.
D.  he lives happily in retirement
E.  here they can see and try the furniture they are going to buy.
F. Ingvar successfully manages the company all by himself

Even when he was only a child, _________.

A:A B:B C:C D:D E:E F:F

Passage One
It has been shown that children who smoke have certain characteristics. Compared with non-smokers they are more rebellious, their work deteriorates as they move up school, they are more likely to leave school early, and are more often delinquent and sexually precious. Many of these features can be summarized as anticipation of adulthood.
There are a number of factors, which determine the onset of smoking, and these are largely psychological and social. They include availability of cigarettes, curiosity, rebelliousness, appearing thought, anticipation of adulthood, social confidence, the example of parents and teachers, and smoking by friends and older brothers and sisters.
It should be much easier to prevent children from starting to smoke than to persuade adults to give up the habit once established, but in fact this has proved very difficult. The example set by people in authority, especially parents, health care workers, and teachers, is of prime importance. School roles should forbid smoking by children on the premises. This role has been introduced at Summerhill School where I spent my schooldays.
There is, however, a risk of children smoking just to rebel against the rules, and even in those schools which have tried to enforce no smoking by corporal punishment there is as much smoking as in other schools. Nevertheless, banning smoking is probably on balance beneficial. Teachers too should not smoke on school premises, at least not in front of children.

The writer concludes that school rules to forbid smoking （）

A:should be introduced, for it really works at the school where he once studied B:should not be introduced, for it may cause disturbance C:should be introduced though it may not work effectively D:needn't be introduced as long as teachers don't smoke in front of children

______, he knows a lot of things.

A:Young as he is B:Young as is he C:He is young as D:He as young is

When it comes to singling out those who have made a difference in all our lives, you cannot overlook Henry Ford. A historian a century from now might well conclude that it was Ford who most influenced all manufacturing, everywhere, even to this day, by introducing a new way to make cars-one, strange to say, that originated in slaughterhouses (屠宰场).
Back in the early 1900’s, slaughterhouses used what could have been called a "disassembly line". Ford reversed this process to see if it would speed up production of a part of an automobile engine called a magneto. Rather than have each worker complelely assemble a magneto, one of its elements was placed on a conveyer, and each worker, as it passed, added another component to it, the same one each time. Professor David Hounshell of the University of Delaware, an expert on industrial development, tells what happened:
"The previous day, workers carrying out the entire process had averaged one assembly every 20 minutes. But on that day, on the line, the assembly team averaged one every 13 minutes and 10 seconds per person. "
Within a year, the time had been reduced to five minutes. In 1913, Ford went all the way. Hooked together by ropes, partially assembled vehicles were towed (拖，拉) past workers who completed them one piece at a time. It wasn’t long before Ford was turning out several hundred thousand cars a year, a remarkable achievement then. And so efficient and economical was this new system that he cut the price of his cars in half, to $260, putting them within reach of all those who, up until that time, could not afford them. Soon, auto makers the world over copied him. In fact, he encouraged them to do so by writing a book about all of his innovations, entitled Today and Tomorrow. The Age of the Automobile has arrived. Today, aided by robots and other forms of automation (自动化), everything from toasters to perfumes is made on assembly lines.

Which of the following statements about Henry Ford is NOT true（　）

A:He introduced a new way of production. B:He influenced all manufacturing. C:He inspired other auto makers. D:He changed a historian’s mind.

Ford’s Assembly Line
When it comes to singling out those who have made a difference in all our lives, you cannot overlook Henry Ford. A historian a century from now might well conclude that it was Ford who most influenced all manufacturing, everywhere, even to this day, by introducing a new way to make cars—one, strange to say, that originated in slaughterhouses (屠宰场).
Back in the early 1900%, slaughterhouses used what could have been called a "disassembly line". Ford reversed this process to see if it would speed up production of a part of an automobile engine called a magneto. Rather than have each worker completely assemble a magneto, one of its elements was placed on a conveyer, and each worker, as it passed, added another component to it, the same one each time. Professor David Hounshell of the University of Delaware, an expert on industrial development, tells what happened:
"The previous day, workers carrying out the entire process had averaged one assembly every 20 minutes. But on that day, on the line, the assembly team averaged one every 13 minutes and 10 seconds per person."
Within a year, the time had been reduced to five minutes. In 1913, Ford went all the way. Hooked together by ropes, partially assembled vehicles were towed (拖，拉) past workers who completed them’ one piece at a time. It wasn’t long before Ford was turning out several hundred thousand cars a year, a remarkable achievement then. And so efficient and economical was this new system that he cut the price of his cars in half, to $260, putting them within reach of all those who, up until that time, could not afford them. Soon, auto makers over the world copied him. In fact, he encouraged them to do so by writing a book about all of his innovations, entitled Today and Tomorrow. The Age of the Automobile has arrived. Today, aided by robots and other forms of automation (自动化), everything from toasters to perfumes is made on assembly lines.

Which of the following statements about Henry Ford is NOT true（　）.

A:He introduced a new way of production. B:He influenced all manufacturing. C:He inspired other auto makers. D:He changed the minds of historians.

{{B}}第二篇{{/B}}

Which of the following statements about Henry Ford is NOT true?

A:He introduced a new way of production. B:He influenced all manufacturing. C:He inspired other auto makers. D:He changed the minds of historians.

第二篇 Ford’s Assembly Line When it comes to singling out those who have made a difference in all our lives, you cannot overlook Henry Ford. A historian a century from now might well conclude that it was Ford who most influenced all manufacturing, everywhere, even to this day, by introducing a new way to make cars-one, strange to say, that originated in slaughterhouses（屠宰场）. Back in the early 1900’s, slaughterhouses used what could have been called a “disassembly line”. Ford reversed this process to see if it would speed up production of a part of an automobile engine called a magneto. Rather than have each worker completely assemble a magneto, one of its elements was placed on a conveyer, and each worker, as it passed, added another component to it, the same one each time. Professor David Hounshell of the University of Delaware, an expert on industrial development, tells what happened. “The previous day, workers carrying out the entire process had averaged one assembly every 20 minutes. But on that day, on the line, the assemble team averaged one every 13 minutes and 10 seconds per person.” Within a year, the time had been reduced to five minutes. In 1913, Ford went all the way. Hooked together by ropes, partially assembled vehicles were towed(拖，拉) past workers who completed them one piece at a time. It hasn’t long before Ford was turning out several hundred thousand cars a year, a remarkable achievement then. And so efficient and economical was this new system that he cut the price of his cars in half, to $260, putting them within reach of all those who, up until that time, could not afford them. Soon, auto makers the world over copied him. In fact, he encouraged them to do so by writing a book about all of his innovations, entitled Today and Tomorrow. The Age of the Automobile has arrived. Today, aided by robots and other forms of automation(自动化), everything from toasters to perfumes is made on assembly lines. Which of the following statements about Henry Ford is NOT true?

A:He introduced a new way of production. B:He influenced all manufacturing. C:He inspired other auto makers. D:He changed a historian’s mind.