LH Quảng cáo: lazijsc@gmail.com

The National Automobile Show in New York has been one of the top auto shows in the United States since 1900. On November 3 of that year, about 8,000 people looked over the “horseless carriages.” It was the opening day and the first opportunity for the automobile industry to show off its wares to a large crowd; however, the black-tie audience treated the occasion more as a social affair than as a sales extravaganza. It was also on the first day of this show that William McKinley became the first ...

Nguyễn Thanh Thảo | Chat Online
06/09 12:53:18 (Tiếng Anh - Lớp 12)
10 lượt xem

The National Automobile Show in New York has been one of the top auto shows in the United States since 1900. On November 3 of that year, about 8,000 people looked over the “horseless carriages.” It was the opening day and the first opportunity for the automobile industry to show off its wares to a large crowd; however, the black-tie audience treated the occasion more as a social affair than as a sales extravaganza. It was also on the first day of this show that William McKinley became the first U.S. president to ride in a car.

The automobile was not invented in the United States. That distinction belongs to Germany. Nicolaus Otto built the first practical internal-combustion engine there in 1876. Then, German engineer Karl Benz built what are regarded as the first modern automobiles in the mid-1880s. But the United States pioneered the merchandising of the automobile. The auto show proved to be an effective means of getting the public excited about automotive products.

By happenstance, the number of people at the first New York show equaled the entire car population of the United States at that time. In 1900, 10 million bicycles and an unknown number of horse-drawn carriages provided the prime means of personal transportation. Only about 4,000 cars were assembled in the United States in 1900, and only a quarter of those were gasoline powered. The rest ran on steam or electricity.

After viewing the cars made by forty car makers, the show’s audience favored electric cars because they were quiet. The risk of a boiler explosion turned people away from steamers, and the gasoline-powered cars produced smelly fumes. The Duryea Motor Wagon Company, which launched the American auto industry in 1895, offered a fragrant additive designed to mask the smells of the naphtha that it burned. Many of the 1900 models were cumbersome—the Gasmobile, the Franklin, and the Orient, for example, steered with a tiller like a boat instead of with a steering wheel. None of them was equipped with an automatic starter.

These early model cars were practically handmade and were not very dependable. They were basically toys of the well-to-do. In fact, Woodrow Wilson, then a professor at Princeton University and later President of the United States, predicted that automobiles would cause conflict between the wealthy and the poor. However, among the exhibitors at the 1900 show was a young engineer named Henry Ford. But before the end of the decade, he would revolutionize the automobile industry with his Model T Ford. The Model T, first produced in 1909, featured a standardized design and a streamlined method of production—the assembly line. Its lower costs made it available to the mass market.

Cars at the 1900 show ranged in price from $1,000 to $1,500, or roughly $14,000 to $21,000 in today’s prices. By 1913, the Model T was selling for less than $300, and soon the price would drop even further. “I will build cars for the multitudes,” Ford said, and he kept his promise.

The passage implies that the audience viewed the 1900 National Automobile Show

primarily as a(n) ______

Vui lòng chờ trong giây lát!
Lựa chọn một trả lời để xem Đáp án chính xác Báo sai đáp án hoặc câu hỏi
Số lượng đã trả lời:
A. formal social occasion.
0 %
0 phiếu
B. chance to buy automobiles at low prices
0 %
0 phiếu
C. opportunity to learn how to drive
0 %
0 phiếu
D. chance to invest in one of thirty-two automobile manufacturers
0 %
0 phiếu
Tổng cộng:
0 trả lời
Bình luận (0)
Chưa có bình luận nào, bạn có thể gửi ý kiến bình luận tại đây:
Gửi bình luận của bạn tại đây (*):
(Thông tin Email/ĐT sẽ không hiển thị phía người dùng)
*Nhấp vào đây để nhận mã Nhấp vào đây để nhận mã

Trắc nghiệm liên quan

Trắc nghiệm mới nhất

×
Trợ lý ảo Trợ lý ảo
×
Gia sư Lazi Gia sư