问答题 .  SECTION A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
    In this section there are four passages followed by fourteen multiple choice questions. For each multiple choice question, there are four suggested answers marked .4, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the best answer and mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET TWO.
    PASSAGE ONE
    (1)Cheating in sport is as old as sport itself. The athletes of ancient Greece used potions to fortify themselves before a contest, and their modern counterparts have everything from anabolic steroids and growth hormones to doses of extra red blood cells with which to invigorate theft bodies. These days, however, such stimulants are frowned on, and those athletes must therefore run the gauntlet of organizations such as the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which would rather that athletes competed without resorting to them.
    (2)The agencies have had remarkable success. Testing for anabolic steroids (in other words, artficial testosterone) was introduced in the 1970s, and the incidence of cheating seems to have fallen dramatically as a result. The tests, however, are not foolproof. And a study just published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism by Jenny Jakobsson Schulze and her colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden suggests that an individual's genetic make-up could confound them in two different ways. One genotype, to use the jargon, may allow athletes who use anabolic steroids to escape detection altogether. Another may actually be convicting the innocent.
    (3)The test usually employed for testosterone abuse relies on measuring the ratio of two chemicals found in the urine: testosterone glucuronide (TG) and epitestosterone glucuronide (EG). The former is produced when testosterone is broken down, while the latter is unrelated to testosterone metabolism, and can thus serve as a reference point for the test. Any ratio above four of the former to one of the latter is, according to official Olympic policy, considered suspicious and leads to more tests.
    (4)However, the production of TG is controlled by an enzyme that is, in turn, encoded by a gene called UGT2B17. This gene comes in two varieties, one of which has a part missing and therefore does not work properly. A person may thus have none, one or two working copies of UGT2B17, since he inherits one copy from each parent. Dr. Schulze guessed that different numbers of working copies would produce different test results. She therefore gave healthy male volunteers whose genes had been examined a single 360mg shot of testosterone (the standard dose for legitimate medical use) and checked their urine to see whether the shot could be detected.
    (5)The result was remarkable. Nearly half of the men who carried no functional copies of UGT2B17 would have gone undetected in the standard doping test. By contrast, 14% of those with two functional copies of the gene were over the detection threshold before they had even received an injection. The researchers estimate this would give a false-positive testing rate of 9% in a random population of young men.
    (6)Dr. Schulze also says there is substantial ethnic variation in UGT2B17 genotypes. Two-thirds of Asians have no functional copies of the gene (which means they have a naturally low ratio of TG to EG), compared with under a tenth of Caucasians—something the anti-doping bodies may wish to take into account.
    (7)In the meantime, Dr. Schulze's study does seem to offer innocents a way of defending themselves. Athletes traveling to Beijing for the Olympic games may be wise to travel armed not only with courage and the "spirit of Olympianism", but also with a copy of their genetic profile, just in case.
    PASSAGE TWO
    (1)Asked what job they would take if they could have any, people unleash their imaginations and dream of exotic places, powerful positions or work that involves alcohol and a paycheck at the same time. Or so you'd think.
    (2)None of those appeals to Lori Miller who, as a lead word processor, has to do things that don't seem so dreamy, which include proofreading, spell checking and formatting. But she loves it. "I like and respect nearly all my co-workers, and most of them feel the same way about me," she says. "Just a few things would make it a little better," she says, including a shorter commute and the return of some great people who used to work there. And one more thing: She'd appreciate if everyone would put their dishes in the dishwasher.
    (3)It's not a lot to ask for and, it turns out, a surprising number of people dreaming up their dream job don't ask for much. One could attribute it to lack of imagination, setting the bar low or "anchoring," the term referring to the place people start and never move far from. One could chalk it up to rationalizing your plight.
    (4)But maybe people simply like what they do and aren't, as some management would have you believe, asking for too much—just the elimination of a small but disproportionately powerful amount of office inanity. That may be one reason why two-thirds of Americans would take the same job again "without hesitation" and why 90% of Americans are at least somewhat satisfied with their jobs, according to a Gallup Poll.
    (5)The matters that routinely rank high on a satisfaction scale don't relate to money but "work as a means for demonstrating some sort of responsibility and achievement," says Barry Staw, professor of leadership and communication at University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business. "Pay—even when it's important, it's not for what you can buy, it's a validation of your work and approval."
    (6)So, money doesn't interest Elizabeth Gray as much as a level playing field. "I like what I do," says the city project manager who once witnessed former colleagues award a contractor, paid for work he never completed, with the title of "Contractor of the Year".
    (7)Thus: "My dream job would be one free of politics," she says. "All advancement would be based on merit. The people who really did the work would be the ones who received the credit."
    (8)Frank Gastner has a similar ideal: "VP in charge of destroying inane policies." Over the years, he's had to hassle with the simplest of design flaws that would cost virtually nothing to fix were it not for the bureaucracies that entrenched them. So, the retired manufacturer's representative says he would address product and process problems with the attitude, "It's not right; let's fix it now without a committee meeting."
    (9)Monique Huston actually has her dream job—and many tell her it's theirs, too. She's general manager of a pub in Omaha, the Dundee Dell, which boasts 650 single-malt scotches on its menu. She visits bars, country clubs, people's homes and Scotland for whiskey tasting. "I stumbled on my passion in life," she says.
    (10)Still, some nights she doesn't feel like drinking—or smiling. "Your face hurts," she complains. And when you have your dream job you wonder what in the world you'll do next.
    (11)One of the big appeals of a dream job is dreaming about it. Last year, George Reinhart saw an ad for a managing director of the privately owned island of Mustique in the West Indies.
    (12)He was lured by the salary ($1 million) and a climate that beat the one enjoyed by his Boston suburb. A documentary he saw about Mustique chronicled the posh playground for the likes of Mick Jagger and Princess Margaret. He reread Herman Wouk's "Don't Stop the Carnival," about a publicity agent who leaves his New York job and buys an island hotel. In April of last year, he applied for the job.
    (13)He heard nothing. So last May, he wrote another letter: "I wanted to thank you for providing the impetus for so much thought and fun." He didn't get the job but, he says, he takes comfort that the job hasn't been filled. "So, I can still dream," he adds.
    (14)I told him the job had been filled by someone—but only after he said, "I need to know, because then I can begin to dream of his failure."
    PASSAGE THREE
    (1)Israel is a "powerhouse of agricultural technology", says Abraham Goren of Elbit Imaging (EI), an Israeli multinational. The country's cows can produce as much as 37 liters of milk a day. In India, by contrast, cows yield just seven liters. Spotting an opportunity, EI is going into the Indian dairy business. It will import 10,000 cows and supply fortified and flavored milk to supermarkets and other buyers.
    (2)So will EI lap up India's milk market? Not necessarily. As the Times of India points out, its cows will ruminate less than 100 miles from the headquarters of a formidable local producer—the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation, otherwise known as Amul. This Farmers' Co-operative spans 2.6m members, collects 6.5m liters of milk a day, and boasts one of the longest-running and best-loved advertising campaigns in India. It has already shown "immense resilience" in the face of multinational competition, says Arindam Bhattacharya of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Its ice-cream business survived the arrival of Unilever; its chocolate milk has thrived despite Nestlé.
    (3)Indeed, Amul is one of 50 firms—from China, India, Brazil, Russia and six other emerging economies— that BCG has anointed as "local dynamos". They are prospering in their home market, are fending off multinational rivals, and are not focused on expanding abroad. BCG discovered many of these firms while drawing up its "global challengers" list of multinationals from the developing world. The companies that were venturing abroad most eagerly, it discovered, were not necessarily the most successful at home.
    (4)Emerging economies are still prey to what Harvard's Dani Rodrik has called "export fetishism". International success remains a firm's proudest boast, and with good reason: economists have shown that exporters are typically bigger, more efficient and pay better than their more parochial rivals. "Exporters are better" was the crisp verdict of a recent review of the data.
    (5)Countries like India and Brazil were, after all, once secluded backwaters fenced off by high tariffs. Prominent firms idled along on government favors and captive markets. In that era, exporting was a truer test of a company's worth. But as such countries have opened up, their home markets have become more trying places. Withstanding the onslaught of foreign firms on home soil may be as impressive a feat as beating them in global markets.
    (6)BCG describes some of the ways that feat has been accomplished. Of its 50 dynamos, 41 are in consumer businesses, where they can exploit a more intimate understanding of their compatriots' tastes. It gives the example of Gol, a Brazilian budget airline, which bet that its cash-strapped customers would sacrifice convenience and speed for price. Many Gol planes therefore depart at odd hours and make several hops to out-of-the-way locations, rather than flying directly.
    (7)Similarly astute was India's Titan Industries, which has increased its share of India's wristwatch market despite the entry of foreign brands such as Timex and Swatch. It understood that Indians, who expect a good price even for old newspapers, do not throw their watches away lightly, and has over 700 after-sales centers that will replace straps and batteries.
    (8)Exporters tend to be more capital-intensive than their home-bound peers; they also rely more on skilled labor. Many local dynamos, conversely, take full advantage of the cheap workforce at their disposal. Focus Media, China's biggest "out of home" advertising company, gets messages out on flat-panel displays in 85,000 locations around the country. Those displays could be linked and reprogrammed electronically, but that might fall foul of broadcast regulations. So instead the firm's fleet of workers on bicycles replaces the displays' discs and flash-cards by hand.
    (9)The list of multinationals resisted or repelled by these dynamos includes some of the world's biggest names: eBay and Google in China; Wal-Mart in Mexico; SAP in Brazil. But Mr. Goren of EI is not too worried about Amul. The market is big enough for everybody, he insists. Nothing, then, is for either company to cry about.
    PASSAGE FOUR
    (1)It is hard for modern people to imagine the life one hundred years ago. No television, no plastic, no ATMs, no DVDs. Illnesses like tuberculosis, diphtheria, pneumonia meant only death. Of course, cloning appeared only in science fiction. Not to mention, computer and Internet.
    (2)Today, our workplace are equipped with assembly lines, fax machines, computers. Our daily life is cushioned by air conditioners, cell phones. Antibiotics helped created a long list of miracle drugs. The by-pass operation saved millions. The discovery of DNA has revolutionized the way scientists think about new therapies. Man finally stepped on the magical and mysterious Moon. With the rapid changes we have been experiencing, the anticipation for the future is higher than ever.
    (3)A revolutionary manufacturing process made it possible for anyone to own a car. Henry Ford is the man who put the world on wheels.
    (4)When it comes to singling out those who have made a difference in all our lives, you cannot over-look Henry Ford. A historian a century from now might well conclude that it was Henry 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 slaughter houses.
    (5)Back in the early 1900s, slaughter houses used what could have been called a "disassembly line." That is, the carcass of a slain steer or a pig was moved past various meat-cutters, each of whom cut off only a certain portion. 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 magneto every 20 minutes. But on that day, on the line, the assembly team averaged one every 13 minutes and 10 seconds per person."
    (6)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 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 had arrived. Today, aided by robots and other forms of automation, everything from toasters to perfumes is made on assembly lines.
    (7)Edsel Ford, Henry's great-grandson, and a Ford vice president: "I think that my great-grandfather would just be amazed at how far technology has come."
    (8)Many of today's innovations come from Japan. Norman Bodek, who publishes books about manufacturing processes, finds this ironic. On a recent trip to Japan he talked to two of the top officials of Toyota. "When I asked them where these secrets came from, where their ideas came from to manufacture in a totally different way, they laughed, and they said. 'Well. We just read it in Henry Ford's book from 1926: Today and Tomorrow.'"1.  The second paragraph implies that testing for anabolic steroids ______.(PASSAGE ONE)
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】 根据题目直接定位到第2段。
   该段最后两句表明了合成类固醇检测产生的两个结果,体现了这种检测的不准确性,故C正确。
   A、D两项的表述过于绝对,B项则完全否定了这种检测的作用,均不能选。
[参考译文]
   PASSAGE ONE
   (1)在运动中进行欺骗和体育运动本身一样历史悠久。古希腊的运动员们在比赛之前服用各种饮剂增强体能,现代的运动员们则用各种办法,从合成类固醇、生长激素到注射红细胞等,激发身体活力。然而,近来诸如此类的兴奋剂遭到禁止,而且运动员们必须接受如世界反兴奋剂机构(World Anti-Doping Agency)等组织的检测,这些组织要求运动员不使用兴奋剂参加比赛。
   (2)这些组织已经取得了很大的成功。合成类固醇(或称人工睾酮)的检测始于20世纪70年代,此后使用兴奋剂的案例大幅度减少。但是这些检测还不是万无一失。瑞典卡罗林斯卡学院的Jenny Jakobsson Schulze和她的同事们在《临床内分泌学与代谢杂志》上发表研究报告,称个体的基因组成让他们感到困惑,因为有两种不同的结果。 用术语来说,一种基因型,可以让使用合成类固醇的运动员不会被检测出来。另一种却会令无辜的运动员蒙冤。
   (3)对是否滥用睾酮的检测通常要依据尿样中两种化学成分的比值,即睾酮葡糖苷酸(TG)和表睾酮葡糖苷酸(EG)的比值。前者在睾酮分解时产生,而后者和睾酮的新陈代谢无关,因此可以在检测中作为参考点。根据奥林匹克官方政策,如果前者与后者的比值大于4:1,就有使用兴奋剂的嫌疑,需要进行更多检测。
   (4)但是,TG的生成由一种酶控制,而这种酶则由一种称为UGT2817的基因编码。这种基因有两种变体,其中一种因有一部分缺失而不能正常工作。因为每个人从父母那里各继承一种变体,所以某个人身上可能根本没有能正常工作的UGT2817基因,也可能有一种能正常工作的,也可能有两种能正常工作的。Schulze博士推测正常工作基因的数量不同,产生的检测结果也不同。她因此给一些已经检测过基因的健康男性志愿者注射一剂360毫克睾酮(合法药用剂量),并检查他们的尿样来观察这一剂量能否被检测出来。
   (5)结果很明显。携带非正常工作的UGT2817基因的男子中,近一半人没有在标准的兴奋剂检测中检测出来。相反,携带该基因两种正常变体的人中,14%的人在注射前就已经显示超过检测标准。研究人员估计这意味着在任意一组青年男子中间,产生阳性结果的错误几率会是9%。
   (6)Schulze博士也说,UGT2817的基因型在不同种族中也有很大差异。2/3的亚洲人没有这种基因的正常变体(这说明他们天生TG与EG的比值就很低),相比之下,不到1/10的高加索人没有——反兴奋剂机构也许应该考虑这一因素。
   (7)同时,Schulze博士的研究似乎给无辜的人提供了为自己辩护的渠道。今年8月到北京参加奥运会的运动员也许应该聪明些,不仅要带着勇气和“奥林匹克精神”,还要带上自己的基因分析谱,以防万一。
   PASSAGE TWO
   (1)被问到这样一个问题:如果所有工作任你选,你会选择做什么?人们会发挥出天马行空的想象力,或是梦想自己能在充满异国风情的地方工作,或是位居要职,或是有份喝酒赚钱两不误的美差。或许你也会这么想。
   (2)不过,这一切都吸引不了洛丽·米勒。作为一名文字处理专家,她的工作——校对、拼写检查和设计版式——似乎和梦想不沾边。不过她热爱自己的工作。“我喜欢而且尊重几乎所有的同事,他们中的大多数人对我也是如此,”她说,“只是有几个方面我还不太满意,”其中包括公司离家较远。她还希望一些已经跳槽的好同事能够回到自己的身边。还有一点:如果每个人都能将用过的盘子放进洗碗机她会不胜感激。
   (3)这些要求并不过分,实际上,对理想职业要求不高的人多得出奇。有人会将之归咎于缺乏想象力、设定的标准偏低或者在工作上原地不动、停滞不前。有人会给自己的糟糕处境找到合理的借口。
   (4)不过人们或许仅仅是喜爱他们的工作,并没有像某些管理人员所宣称的那样要求太多——他们希望的只是摆脱办公室里不多但影响力不小的无聊事。这或许就是为什么有2/3的美国人会“毫不犹豫”地再次选择同样的工作,有九成美国人在一定程度上满意自己的工作,这是盖洛普民意调查得出的结论。
   (5)能带来更高满意度的一般不是金钱,而是“工作作为一种证明某种责任和成就的手段,”加州大学伯克利分校哈斯商学院领导和沟通专业教授巴里·斯托说,“薪酬即使重要,也不是因为你能用它来买什么,而是对你工作的一种认可和承认。”
   (6)所以,伊丽莎白·格雷更关心的是一个平等的竞争平台而不是金钱。宣称热爱自己工作的这位城市项目经理,曾亲眼看到从前的同事们向一个承包人送礼,给这个根本没完成工作的人支付酬金,还授予他“年度承包人”的头衔。
   (7)因此,“我的理想职业是一个能够摆脱办公室政治的工作,”她说。“应该唯才是举,那些真正付出劳动的人们应该得到奖励。”
   (8)弗兰克·加斯特纳也有类似的理想:“做个负责消灭空洞政策的副总裁。”这么多年来,他不得不为解决最简单的设计缺陷费尽口舌,而如果不是因为官僚作风作祟,解决这些问题根本不用付出什么成本。因此这位已经退休的厂商代表说,对待产品和加工问题,他会采取这样的态度,“这样做不对,不要开委员会会议,让我们现在就来解决它。”
   (9)莫尼克·休斯顿已经拥有了理想职业——而且许多人告诉她这也是他们的梦想。她是奥马哈一家酒吧的经理。这家名为Dundee Dell的酒吧有650种单麦芽苏格兰威士忌供顾客选择。她走访酒吧、乡村俱乐部、到人们家中做客,并前往苏格兰品酒。她说,“我偶然间发现了热爱的事业。
   (10)不过,有些夜晚她还是不想喝酒,或者展现笑脸。“脸会觉得疼。”她抱怨说。当你拥有理想职业以后,你就会想自己下一步究竟该做些什么。
   (11)理想职业的一大诱人之处在于你会为之魂牵梦萦。去年,乔治·菜因哈特看到一则西印度群岛私人岛屿马斯蒂奎岛招聘总经理的广告。
   (12)100万美元的薪水和好过波士顿郊区的气候吸引了他。他看了一部关于西印度群岛的纪录片,那里是滚石乐队主唱米克·贾格尔和英国玛格丽特公主这样的人物经常光顾的时髦去处。他重读了赫尔曼·沃克的《不要让狂欢节结束》,这本书写的是一个宣传人员离开在纽约的工作,买下一处小岛饭店的故事。去年4月,他申请了这份工作。
   (13)他没得到任何反馈。于是去年5月,他又写了一封信。“我想谢谢你们为我激发出那么多的想法和乐趣。”他没有得到那份工作,不过他说,让他感到安慰的是那份工作仍空着。“这样一来,我可以继续做梦。”
   (14)我告诉他,其实那个职位已经有人了。“你告诉我这个很好,这样一来,我可以开始想象那个人最后干砸了。”
   PASSAGE THREE
   (1)以色列是“农业科技的动力室”,以色列跨国公司Elbit Imaging(EI)的亚伯拉罕·戈伦(Abraham Goren)说到。这个国家的奶牛每天可以产出多达37升的牛奶。相比之下,印度的奶牛仅能产出7升。发现这一机遇,EI正进入印度的奶制品行业。它将进口10000头奶牛,同时向超级市场和其他买家供应强化牛奶和增香牛奶。
   (2)那么EI将会蚕食印度牛奶市场吗?这却未必。正如《时代周刊》印度版所指出:从一家强大的本地供应商总部出发,奶牛将少反刍100英里。这便是“古吉拉特牛奶共同销售联盟”,又被称作Amul。这家农民们的合作社涵盖260万成员,每天可以收集650万升牛奶,并且以拥有印度经营时间最长、最受欢迎的广告活动之一为豪。在跨国公司的竞争面前它已经显示了“强烈的适应力”,波士顿咨询集团(BCG)的Arindam Bhattacharya如此评论。它的冰激凌生意在联合利华(Unilever)到来后依然能够生存;它的巧克力牛奶尽管面对来自雀巢(Nestlé)的竞争,同样生意兴隆。
   (3)毫无疑问,Amul就是50家被波士顿咨询集团标记为“本土发电机”的企业之一。这些企业来自于中国、印度、巴西、俄罗斯和其他六个新兴经济体。他们在其国内市场繁荣发展,阻挡跨国竞争对手的进攻,而并不注重向国外扩张。当编制跨国企业的“全球竞争对手”名单时,波士顿咨询集团在发展中国家发现了许多这样的公司。它也发现,那些最热心于海外经营的公司在本土往往不是最为成功的。
   (4)新兴经济体仍然不知是否得追随哈佛大学Dani Rodrik所提出的“出口至上主义”。国际市场上的成功是一个企业最能引以为傲的资本。这一现象有着合理的解释:经济学家已经证明,与市场相对狭窄的竞争对手相比,出口商通常更加强大,更富效率且出价更高。然而从最近的数据看来,“出口商更胜一筹”是一个脆弱的论断。
   (5)毕竟,像印度和巴西等国家曾经因为高额关税的阻隔而停滞不前。优秀的企业在政府的偏爱下和垄断的市场中虚度光阴。在那个时代,出口是对一个企业价值大小的真正检验。但是当这样的国家对外开放后,其国内市场便成为充满挑战之地。也许,在本土抵抗外国企业的冲击是一项不逊于在全球市场将他们击败的高超本领。
   (6)波士顿咨询集团描述了获得这一本领的几种方法。在它的50家“发电机”中,41家经营着消费者业务。在这一业务中他们可以发掘其对同胞们口味的精深理解。波士顿咨询集团举了一家巴西廉价航空公司Gol的例子。Gol认定它那些囊中羞涩的顾客宁愿牺牲舒适和速度以换来实惠的价格。因此,Gol的许多飞机在非正常时段起飞,为了在一些偏远的地区停留几经周转,而不是直达飞行。
   (7)印度的Titan Industries公司有着相似的机敏,面临国外品牌Timex和Swatch的进军,它对印度手表市场的占有率依然能够增长。它意识到连旧报纸都希望卖个好价钱的印度人,并不轻易丢弃已买的手表。因此,它设立了超过700家可以替换表带和电池的售后服务中心。
   (8)出口商往往比本土同行更加具有资本密集性:他们也更依赖熟练的劳动力。而相反,许多“本地发电机”充分利用可以支配的廉价劳动力。“分众传媒”(Focus Media)——一家中国最大的户外广告公司——通过平板显示器在全国8.5万个场所传递信息。这些显示器可以通过电子控制来连接和改编程序,但这样做可能与传播法规相冲突。于是,该公司快速调动工作人员骑自行车去更换这些显示器里的碟片和记忆卡。
   (9)在被这些“发电机”阻挡或者击败的跨国企业名单里包括了一些世界上最大的公司:在中国是eBay和Google;墨西哥是沃尔玛:巴西则是标准应用软件公司(SAP)。但是EI的戈伦先生并不非常担心Amul。他坚持认为这一市场对每一个公司来说都足够巨大。那么,也就没有什么值得任何一家的公司痛哭了。
   PASSAGE FOUR
   (1)对于100年前的生活,今天的人们是很难想象的。没有电视、没有塑料、没有自动提款机、没有DVD。一些像肺结核、白喉和肺炎这样的病是死亡的代名词。当然,人们只有在科幻小说里才会见得到克隆。更不用说电脑和互联网了。
   (2)100年以后的今天,我们的工作场所装上了装配流水线、传真机、电脑。空调、手机使我们的日常生活变得安逸。抗生素的发现使一大批能创造生命奇迹的药得以面世;心脏搭桥手术救活了数以百万计的生命;DNA的发现使科学家对治疗方法的认识发生了翻天覆地的变化。人类终于登上了魅力无穷、神秘莫测的月球。随着科学技术的迅猛发展,人类对未来怀有前所未有的憧憬。
   (3)一种革命性的制造程序使几乎每个人都能拥有一辆小汽车。亨利·福特正是给世界装上了轮子的人。
   (4)如果要挑选出那些对我们所有人的生活都产生过影响的人物来,就不能忽略亨利·福特。从现在起100年后的一位历史学家很可能会得出这样的结论:对各个地方一切制造业产生影响最大的是亨利·福特,甚至直到今天依然如此,因为他开始采用了一种新的制造汽车的方法——奇怪的是这种方法起源于屠宰场。
   (5)在20世纪初,屠宰场所使用的可以称为“拆卸线”,即将一头宰好的牛体或猪体从很多切肉工人面前移动经过,每一个切肉工人只割下特定的某个部分。福特将这一过程颠倒过来,试试是否会加速汽车上一个叫做磁石发电机的部件的生产。不让每个工人组装一台完整的磁石发电机,而是将发电机的一个部件放在传送带上,在它经过时,每个工人都给它添装上一个部件,每次都装配同样的一个部件。特拉华大学教授戴维·亨谢尔是工业发展专家,他谈起当时的情况:“前一天,完成整个组装过程的工人,平均每人每20分钟组装一台磁石发电机。可是那一天,在这条装配线上的装配组,每人平均每13分10秒钟就组装一台。”
   (6)不到一年,装配时间便减到5分钟。1913年福特改革了装配汽车的全过程。用绳子钩住的部分组装好的车辆被拖着从工人身旁经过,工人们一次只组装上一个部件。不久,福特公司一年就生产出几十万辆汽车,在当时是一项极出色的成就。这一新系统既有效又经济,以致他将自己生产出来的汽车削价一半,降至每辆260美元,使那些在此之前一直买不起汽车的人都有能力买了。不久全世界的汽车制造商都仿效起他来。事实上,他写了一本名为《今天和明天》的书介绍他的革新,来鼓励他们这样做。汽车时代到来了。今天,在机器人和其他形式的自动化推动下,从烤面包机到香水,一切的一切,全都是在装配线上生产出来的。
   (7)埃德塞尔·福特是亨利的曾孙,也是福特公司的副总裁之一。他说:“我想曾祖父对于今天制造工艺取得了如此长足的进步是会惊叹不已的。”
   (8)今天的许多项革新都来自日本,出版过很多关于制造流程书籍的诺曼·博德克认为这一点具有讽刺意味。不久前他在访问日本时曾同丰田两位最高官员谈过话。“当我问他们这些秘密来自何处,他们从什么地方获得这些想法以采用完全不同的制造方法时,他们笑了并且说,‘哦,我们只不过是从亨利·福特在1926年写的那本书《今天和明天》里读到的。’”