Henry Ford was the first one to build cars which were fast, reliable (可靠的) and cheap. He was able
to sell millions of them because he "mass-produced" them; that is, he made a great many cars of exactly
the same type. Henry Ford's father had hoped that his son would become a farmer, but the young man
did not like the idea and went to Detroit where he worked as a mechanic (技工). By the time he was
twenty-nine, in 1892, he had built his first car. The first mass-produced car in the world, the famous
"Model T" appeared in 1908 — five years after Henry had started his great Ford Motor Company (公司). This car proved to be so popular that it remained unchanged for twenty years. Since Henry Ford's
time, mass-production techniques (技术) have become common in industry and have reduced (减少) the
price of a great many products which otherwise (否则) would be very expensive.