When it was built in 1721 beside the Riv

题库2022-08-02 29

问题 When it was built in 1721 beside the River Derwent,in Britain's East Midlands,Lombe's silk mill became something of a tourisl attraclion.Daniel Defoe,one of its many visitors,described its"vast bulk"as"a curiosity of a very extraordinary nature".Employing some 300 people,mostly children in ghastly conditions,the mill was nol large by modern sLandards.But it is widely regarded as the first successful mechanised factory,an innovafion that over the next 100 years transformed the way people lived and worked.Lombe's mill is the natural starting-point for Joshua Freeman's lively chronicle of the factory,which as the title of his book"Behemorth"implies,concentrates on the largesl specimens of cheir time.Mr Freeman,a historian at Queens College in New York,travels from Britam's textile mills to monster steel and carmaking factories in 20th-century America,Europe and the Soviet Union.Mr Freeman rolls up his sleeves and delves into the nitty-gritty of manufaccuring.He successfully melds together those nuggets with social history,on the shop floor and beyond the factory walls,from union bacdes to worker exploitation.Consider,for example,his account of one of the most famous factory bosses of all.Henry Ford launched his Model T in 1908,curning the car from a luxury into a mass-manufactured product.Ford's original facLory used standardised parts and ficted them to vehicles as they travelled along a moving assembly line.The Model T,however,soon became obsolete.As Mr Freeman describes,yhis exposed the weakness of the giant system:it is extremely expensive and slow to switch a giant.factory from one product to another.In 1927 Ford halted produccion and laid o~f 60,000 workers,causing a social crisis in the Delroit area.After six months 15,000 machine tools had been replaced and 25,000 others rebuilt,so that the Rouge was ready to make the new Model A.At its zenith the factory employed 100,000 people.But it was a brutal place to work,with employees subject to harsh discipline and tyrannical foremen.As the switch from Model T to Model A plunged Ford into loss,Alfred P.Sloan,president of General Motors,presciendy observed that carmakers would need to"adopt the'laws'of Paris dressmakers".That meant bringing out new models more often.The shortening of product cycles and the fickle nature of modern markets has duly seen manufacturing atomise into smaller,nimbler,more specialist facLories.The Rouge,for instance,lives on,but with just 6,000 workers making pick-up trucks.Some see offshoring to low-wage countries,particularly in Asia,as the mega-factory's last hurrah.Yet long supply chains and distant plants are leaving producers vulnerable to rapid changes in their home markets,so production has been trickling back.Meamvhile new materials and manufacturing methods,such as 3D printing,are demolishing the economies-of scale that giant factories have relied on.Although Mr Freeman is not ready to write off his behemoths,he has probably written their obituary.What is the author's attitude towards the future of the giant factories?A.Negative.B.Optimistic.C.Sympathetic.D.Tolerant.

选项 A.Negative.
B.Optimistic.
C.Sympathetic.
D.Tolerant.

答案 A

解析推理题。根据题干关键词the future of the giant factories定位到最后一段。最后一段中提到有些人认为,大型工厂的最后放手一搏是将业务离岸外包给低工资国家特别是亚洲国家。与此同时,3D打印等新材料和制造方法正在摧毁巨型工厂一直所依赖的规模经济。最后一句提到Mr Freeman is not ready to write off his behe-moths,he has probably written their obituary,通过这句话可知作者不看好大型工厂的未来。

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When it was built in 1721 beside the Riv

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