Text 4. Influential Business People in the Twentieth century
In 2004 the popular US business magazine Forbes published a list of the top hundred influential business men of all time. No excuse was offered for the fact that the list was for business “men” rather than “people” and as there is not a single woman on the list, Forbes can be excused. Some of the entries on the list are household names that we would expect to be present. Other names are unfamiliar yet their contribution to the world of business and commerce is undeniable. The contributions of three of the most influential business people from the twentieth century, taken from the top of Forbes’ list are briefly outlined below.
Walt Disney (1901-1966) was the founder of the world’s first modern media conglomerate. Seeing a gap in the market for children’s entertainment, he exploited that gap in a way that had never been done before. The public face of Disney includes Mickey Mouse cartoons, animated classics and Disneyland theme parks. Disney characters are known and loved by millions and the continued sale of books, videos, CDs and other merchandise generate profits that even Walt Disney himself could not have dreamed of.
Ray Kroc (1902-1984) might not be a name that many of us recognize but his business, MacDonald’s, has helped to revolutionize the way the western world eats today. The concept of chain production was already being experimented with when Kroc came up with the idea for the fast food stores. In post war America, Big Macs became the solution for a nation with little time on its hands for preparing meals or eating out in conventional restaurants. Customers all over the States would know exactly what to expect when they stepped into a MacDonald’s; the same menus, a clean set up and affordable prices. It didn’t take long for Mac’s burgers and French fries to take off in other parts of the world.
No article about influential business people would be complete without mentioning Henry Ford (1863-1947) who was responsible for democratizing the transport industry. Ford’s Model T is sometimes called the "MacAutomobile", referring to the revolutionary assembly line production that allowed Americans to become more mobile while generating huge profits for the company. As car prices fell, more people were able to afford to buy one. Sales rocketed, prices fell further and more cars were sold. Business boomed and the face of American highways was changed for ever.
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People And Science
Text 1. Thomas Alva Edison
(1847-1931)
Thomas Alva Edison first went to school at the age of eight and a half. But after only three months his teacher called him 'stupid', and he came home crying. From then on, his mother taught him at home, and he read science books by himself.
At the age of twelve he had a job selling newspapers. He made money in a clever but simple way. He checked the news stories first. When the news was interesting, he took a lot of papers; when it was boring, he took only a few.
He got a job sending telegraph messages. Then he started inventing things. He saw ways to make the telegraph system quicker. Later he made a better microphone for Bell's invention, the telephone.
In 1877 he made a 'phonograph' - the first ever sound recorder. The following year he invented the light bulb. In 1889 he made a 'kinetoscope' - a moving picture machine. He also made films for his new machine. In 1903 he made The Great Train Robbery, at that time the world's longest film. (It was ten minutes long!)
After more than one thousand inventions, Edison died at the age of eighty-four. In his honour, they switched off the lights all over America.
Text 2. Charles Robert Darwin
(1809 - 1892)
Charles Robert Darwin was born in Sherbury in 1809. He was the grandson of the famous naturalist-physician Erasmus Darwin.
Charles had a lifelong passion for biology. As a boy, he loved to walk in the countryside collecting insects, flowers and minerals. On his father's wish he spent three years at Cambridge studying medicine. But Charles did not like this. He spent a lot of time with a zoologist friend, watching birds and other animals.
Shortly after his graduation, Darwin received an invitation to become a naturalist on a survey voyage of ``Beagle''. He went to South America in 1831 and returned in 1836. In this voyage round the world he looked carefully at thousands of living things in the sea and on land and came to very important conclusions. After his return he married his cousin, a rich woman, whose money allowed him to devote the rest of his life to scientific research.
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His most important work on natural physiology, ``On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection'', was published in 1859. His ``Descent of Man'' followed in 1871 and his ``Autobiography'' in 1887. In his works Darwin showed the evolution of the living creatures from the point of view of science and put an end to the legend that plants and animals had always been the same, as created by a mysterious power.
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