Vocabulary

There are 2,500 employees at the plant and the working environment is good. The car assembly line is designed ergonomically to be easy to use and comfortable for the operators. For example, the car is raised, lowered, and turned through 90 degrees so the workers can do their jobs comfortably and easily. Old-fashioned, noisy, compressed-air tools have been replaced with quieter and more accurate electric tools.

The first Mini was first made in 1959 and since then over five million people have owned one. BMW, a German car manufacturer, now owns the Mini and the newest model is being manufactured at an advanced production system in Oxford, England.

 

4 Find words in the text that
mean:

1employees who work
machines (paragraph A)

2 factory (paragraph C)

3 very modern (a phrase,
paragraph C)

4 working conditions
(paragraph A)

5 where the cars are put
together (two words
paragraph A)

5 Read the text again and
answer the questions (1-5)
below.

1When was the first Mini
made?

2 Why is the Mini factory in
Oxford special?

3 How many new Minis are
made each year?

4 How many people work at
the Mini factory?

5 Why is the new factory
better for the workers?

(g| During the 1990s approximately £500 million was spent to change an old Oxford car factory into a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant. The Oxford plant now produces around 100,000 Minis a year. I

^^ In Britain in the 1960s the only really cool car was the Mini.

Everybody wanted one. It starred in advertisements and films and was as famous as the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. Anyone who was young, rich, famous, and fashionable had to be photographed sitting on, in, or just near one. And anyone who was poor, unknown, and not very fashionable wanted one too. They were small and cheap and suited the mood of the post-war generation who had more money and freedom than their parents had ever had.