Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:
It is unfair to call the United States auto industry dinosaurs, as some now do. It is certainly unfair to the dinosaurs. The ‘Terrible Lizards’ did not lay the basis for their own extinction or that of myriad other species. The U.S. automobile companies did — and will take large numbers of jobs, workers and businesses with them. It is more like the asteroid hit on the earth which is presumed to have fried the dinosaurs. But that’s unfair to the asteroid. The U.S. auto giants General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are more a fine example of how things work in the age of unbridled corporate power. Of how the collapse of restraint on that power must fracture economy and society. They also set the very standards that the Indian elite lusts to emulate.
The original dinosaurs (which scientists now tell us were neither all that terrible nor lizards) were great examples of success and adaptation. Good enough to rule the planet for 150 million years. The U.S. auto industry is the opposite. It’s not just that the Terrible Metal Lizards opposed fuel efficiency standards. Of course, they did. They also promoted gas-guzzling SUVs as a lifestyle must. They cranked out cars many did not want to buy. They wielded heavy clout in Congress. And were able to sponge off public funds in the name of saving jobs as they have yet again. Having received $25 billion earlier, their hats are in their outstretched hands again. But that’s the easy part. There’s a lot more they did, as a major sector of industry — and as part of the larger corporate world of the U.S. Over decades, they destroyed both existing and potential public transport.
Fostering the cult of the individual-owned automobile was a major goal. By 2001, that goal was achieved beyond belief. Some 90 per cent of Americans drove to work by that year. The findings of the 2001 National Household Travel Survey are striking. Only 8 per cent households reported not having a vehicle available for regular use. Not just a cult but a culture grew around the Metal Lizards and fossil fuels.
Almost everything grew dependent on it. From agriculture to aviation, individual to national needs. When oil prices rose (before their present crash) thanks to heavy speculation, countless households in the U.S. were paralysed. Hundreds of little family trucking businesses went kaput. People in outlying places who drive many miles to fetch things like bottled water and provisions found their budgets burning. An average American family in 2004 spent up to a fifth of its income on transportation. That’s against 13 per cent on food. In “automobile dependent neighbourhoods,” according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics, that could go up to 25 per cent. In bigger cities, the traffic only gets worse, never better. There were over 135 million passenger cars in 2006. Overall, registered vehicles clocked in at more than 250 million.
1. According to the author, it is wrong to compare the U.S. Automobile industry with the dinosaurs because:
a) The dinosaurs were terrible lizards, which are now extinct.
b) The dinosaurs were neither self destructive now were a cause of termination of other species.
c) The US Automobile industry involves more job workers and businesses.
d) The US Automobile industry is still alive
e) The dinosaurs of the past were not as powerful as the today’s giants of the US automobile industry
2. What happens when the corporate power is left unrestrained?
a) It renders many jobless
b) It begins to set high standards
c) Great giants in various fields emerge and try to gain control over the market
d) It fractures the society and its economy
e) There is high growth in other sectors that are dependent on it
3. Which of the following is not true about the US automobile industry?
a) It has been indifferent to fuel efficiency standard
b) It keeps exploiting the public funds by influencing the Congress
c) It has destroyed the existing and potential public transport systems
d) It has not been successful in augmenting the sales of the SUVs
e) It has been ruling the US corporate world for the past 150 years.
4. According to the statistics given by the BLS in 2004, an average American family spent,
a) Up to 20 percent of its income on transportation
b) More than 25 percent of its income on transportation
c) Nearly the same amount of its income on food and transportation
d) 25 percent more on transportation when compared to the amount spent on food.
George Bernard Shaw quoted: “Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman. Believing what he read made him mad” Oh am well on the way to being another Don Quixote (mind you, not Quixotic!)
