Lesson 8

Answers to the Questions

V. 1. D 2. A 3. A 4. D 5. D

VI.

1．The auto industry's centennial is being celebrated because since 1896 when the Duryea brothers of Spring field, Mass., sold 13 cars, car industry has brought about so many big changes in America's economy and society.

2．The author thinks that horses were lethal, and stifle people's nostalgia for those suffocating summers when windows were sealed, but noses were not, against billowing dust of finely ground manure produced by horses such as those that deposited 60,000 gallons of urine on New York's streets every day.

3．The “installment buying”destigmatized indebtedness, which government embraced with gusto, and increased Americans' reluctance to defer gratifications.

4．Because cars make commutes much easier and most com-mutes today are not from suburb to city but from one suburb to another, thus leading to urban decline and desecration of the countryside.

5．In those days, young swains had been confined to porch swings, with the girls' parents and siblings underfoot. So it was difficult to find a private locale for misconduct. But now with cars'help, they could drive away and, more to the point, park.

6．The '50s cars—from their protuberant, not to say nubile, front bumpers to their tail fins—looked, as a wit said, “l(fā)ike chorus girls coming and fighter planes going.”

7．It means the annual mode changes of cars, which were made in such a way that it would soon become unfashionable.

8．Yes. Automobiles are celebrated in the literature, from “The Great Gatsby”to “On the Road”.

Outline

I. Auto industry's centennial celebration (Paragraph 1)

II. Cars'impact on the environment (Paragraphs 2-3)

(1) Problems of exhaust and fatality

(2) Comparison of cars'problems with horses'problems

III. Cars'impact on the economy (Paragraphs 4-5)

(1) Increasing productivity & workers'purchasing power

(2) Stimulating insurance industry and increasing land value

IV. Cars'impact on the society (Paragraphs 6-9)

(1) Problems of urban decline, criminals' mobility, mallifica-tion of America, breakdown of community

(2) Benefit of conquering rural loneliness

(3) Establishment of a special youth culture

(4) Creation of an ersatz class structure

V. Conclusion (Paragraphs 10-11)

Celebrating the virtues of automobility