Mass Production: Method and Impact
Paragraph 1：The technological and managerial innovations of Thomas Alva Edison (the inventor of electricity) and the industrial leaders Andrew Carnegie (iron and steel) and John D. Rockefeller (oil) proved readily adaptable throughout United States industry, spurring marvels of productivity. Late-nineteenth-century industrialists often discovered that their factories produced more goods than the market could absorb. This was particular true in two kinds of businesses: those that manufactured devices for individual use, such as sewing machines and farm implements, and those that mass-produced consumer goods, such as matches, flour, soap, canned foods, and pRocessed meats. Not surprisingly, these industries were trailblazers in developing advertising and marketing techniques. Strategies for encouraging consumer demand and for differentiating one product from another were an important component of the American post-Civil War industrial transformation.
1. According to paragraph 1, which of the following statements is true of Edison, Carnegie, and Rockefeller?
O They were famous inventors who became rich factory owners.
O They were the first to develop advertising and marketing techniques.
O Their ideas and methods were used to transform United States industry.
O Their companies produced mechanical devices and consumer goods.
2. According to paragraph 1, all of the following contributed to the industrial transformation in the post-Civil War United States EXCEPT
O a greater variety of consumer products
O new technological and managerial methods
O mass production of goods
O development of advertising and marketing techniques
Paragraph 2：The growth of the flour industry illustrates both the spread of mass production and the emergence of new marketing concepts. In the 1870s the nation’s flour mills adopted the most advanced European manufacturing technologies and installed continuous-pRocess machines that graded, cleaned, hulled, and packaged their product in one rapid operation. These companies, however, soon produced more flour than they could sell. To sell this excess, the mills thought up new product lines, such as cake flours and breakfast cereals, and sold them using easy-to-remember brand names.
3. According to paragraph 2, the new technologies used by the flour mills led the flour industry to do which of the following?
O Produce additional flour to export to Europe
O Adopt European methods of marketing flour to consumers
O Produce goods based on market research of customer needs
O Develop special new products with easily recognizable names
Paragraph 3：Through brand names, trademarks, guarantees, and slogans, manufacturers built demand for their products and won remarkable consumer loyalty. Americans in large numbers bought a brand of soap first made in 1897 in Cincinnati, Ohio, because of the absurd overly precise but impressive pledge that it was “99 and 44/100ths percent pure.” In the photographic field, George Eastman in the 1880s developed a paper-based photographic film as an alternate to the bulky, fragile glass plates then in use. Manufacturing a cheap camera for the masses and devising a catchy slogan (“you just press the button, we do the rest”). Eastman introduced a system whereby customers returned the 100-exposure film and the camera to the Rochester, New York, factory. There the film was developed, the camera reloaded, and everything shipped back to the customer—for a charge of ten dollars. In marketing a new technology, Eastman had revolutionized an industry and democratized a visual medium previously confined to a few.
4. Why does the author mention a soap advertised as “99 and 44/100ths percent pure”?
O To make the point that the earliest product advertisements were very sophisticated
O To support the claim that advertising was effective in building demand and customer loyalty
O To suggest that the claims made by soap manufacturers were obviously untrue
O To contrast the ways in which soap and photographic pRocessing were marketed
5. According to paragraph 3, which of the following statements about George Eastman’s innovations in photography is true?
O He introduced a paper-based photographic film that was easy for customers to develop on their own.
O He manufactured a camera that was more expensive but easier to operate than earlier cameras.
O He introduced a system in which customers could exchange defective film and cameras for new ones.
O He provided customers with the service of developing their film and reloading their cameras.
Paragraph 4：By 1900 the chaos of early industrial competition, when thousands of small companies had struggled to enter a national market, had given way to an economy dominated by a few enormous firms. An industrial transformation that originated in railroading and expanded to steel and petroleum had spread to every area of United States business, and for those who could not compete in the era’s unforgiving economic environment, the cost could be measured in ruined fortunes, bankrupted companies, and shattered dreams. John D. Rockefeller, talking about businesses he wanted to acquire, said he wanted “only the big ones, one those who have already proved they can do a big business. As for the others, unfortunately they will have to die.”
6. According to paragraph 4, which of the following is true of the economic situation of the United States in the 1900s?
O A group of national industries was controlled by a single company.
O Many small companies failed and a few large companies dominated the economy.
O The expansion of the steel and petroleum industries depended on the railroad companies.
O A new national market made it possible for thousands of small companies to compete for business.
Paragraph 5：The cost was high, too, for millions of American workers, immigrant and native born alike. The new industrial order was built on the backs of an army of laborers who were paid subsistence wages and who could be fired on a moment’s notice when hard times or new technologies made them expendable. Moreover, industrialization often devastated the environment with pollution in the relentless drive for efficiency and profit.
7. Which of the following can be inferred about the new technologies mentioned in paragraph 5?
O They were sometimes too expensive to introduce in the workplace.
O They forced laborers to work in more systematic ways.
O They helped to reduce the impact of industrialization on the environment.
O They helped make it possible for industries to reduce the workforce.
Paragraph 6：To be sure, this industrial revolution brought social benefits as well, in the form of labor-saving products, lower prices, and advances in transportation and communications. The benefits and liabilities were inextricably interconnected. The sewing machine, for example, created thousands of new factory jobs, made available a wider variety of clothing, and eased the lives of millions of consumers. At the same time, it encouraged greedy entrepreneurs to operate factories in which the poor worked long hours in unhealthy conditions pitifully low wages.
8. According to paragraphs 5 and 6, the transformation of United States industry had all of the following negative effects EXCEPT
O higher prices for consumers
O environmental pollution
O unhealthy working conditions
O low pay for hard work
Paragraph 7：Whatever the final balance sheet of social gains and costs, one thing was clear: the United States had forced its way onto the world stage as an industrial nation, and the groundwork had been laid for a new social and economic order in the twentieth century.
Paragraph 1：The technological and managerial innovations of Thomas Alva Edison (the inventor of electricity) and the industrial leaders Andrew Carnegie (iron and steel) and John D. Rockefeller (oil) proved readily adaptable throughout United States industry, spurring marvels of productivity. ■Late-nineteenth-century industrialists often discovered that their factories produced more goods than the market could absorb. ■This was particular true in two kinds of businesses: those that manufactured devices for individual use, such as sewing machines and farm implements, and those that mass-produced consumer goods, such as matches, flour, soap, canned foods, and pRocessed meats. ■Not surprisingly, these industries were trailblazers in developing advertising and marketing techniques. ■Strategies for encouraging consumer demand and for differentiating one product from another were an important component of the American post-Civil War industrial transformation.
9. Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence can be added to the passage.
Edison’s laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, even became a model for the industrial research laboratories established by other corporations.
Where would the sentence best fit? Click on a square [■] to add the sentence to the passage.
10. Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some answer choices do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points. Drag your choices to the spaces where they belong. To review the passage, click on View Text.
In the late nineteenth century, technological and managerial innovations greatly raised productivity and transformed United States industry.
Answer Choices
O Thomas Alva Edison, Andrew Carnegie, and John D. Rockefeller invented new technologies and management systems for the electrical, iron, steel, and oil industries.
O Americans became loyal consumers of manufactured products like breakfast cereal and soap primarily because of the high quality associated with the brand names.
O An economy characterized by competition between numerous small companies gave way to an economy in which only a few major companies were able to survive and dominate.
O As manufacturers produced more goods than the market could easily absorb, they developed new advertising and marketing techniques to stimulate demand for their products.
O George Eastman succeeded in creating a mass market for cameras not only by lowering manufacturing costs and selling prices but also by offering to develop film free of charge.
O The industrial transformation brought a number of social benefits, but it also encouraged the exploitation of workers and polluted the environment.
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