Growing up on a remote Michigan farm, Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, knew little of farming.Like most pioneer farmers, his father, William, hoped that his eldest son would join him on the farm, enable it to expand, and eventually take it 1 .But Henry proved a 2 .He hated farm work and did everything he could to 3 it.It was not that he was lazy. 4 from it!Give him a mechanical job to do, from mending the hinges(铰链) of a gate to sharpening tools, and he would set to work eagerly.It was the daily life of the farm, with its repetitive tasks, 5 frustrated him.
Henry was excited by the development in technology that could free farmers like his father from wasteful and boring labor.But these developments, in Henry’s boyhood, had touched farming 6 at all and farmers went on doing things in the way they had always done.So Henry 7 his attention elsewhere.When he was twelve, he became almost obsessively interested in clocks and watches.Soon he was repairing them for friends, working at a bench he built in his bedroom.
In 1876, Henry suffered a serious 8 .His mother died in childbirth.There was no reason for him to stay on the farm, and he resolved to get away as soon as he could.Three years later, he took a job as a mechanic in Detroit. 9 this time steam engines had joined clocks and watches as objects of Henry’s fascination.Making and installing them was the business of the Detroit workshop that he joined at the age of sixteen.
A chance meeting with an old co-worker led to a job for Henry as an engineer at the Edison Detroit Electricity Company. 10 he quickly learned the ropes of his new job, his interest in fuel engines had come to dominate(占主要地位) his life.
Henry learned 11 a slow, painstaking business it was to build an engine by hand from scratch.Every piece of every component had to be fashioned individually, checked and rechecked, and tested. 12 the burden, he joined forces with another mechanic, Jim Bishop.Even so, it was two years before they succeeded in building a working car.Henry called it“Quadricycle.”(四轮驱动脚踏车)