Part II. Reading

Task 1

Choose the most suitable heading from the list A-H for each part (1-6) of the article. There is one extra heading which you do not need to use. There is an example at the beginning (0).

1. Simplicity is the key to success

2. Identifying a need for further changes

3. Achieving the same standard worldwide

4. A model for other companies to follow

5. Responding to the changing demands of the customer

6. A challenge to the basic idea of fast food

7. Gradual acceptance of the benefits

8. A surprising amount of evidence

How fast-food giants changed the world

0____________H___________________________________________________

When future archaeologists start digging up the remains of modern western civilisation, they will be astonished at how many hamburger and pizza boxes they come across. For over the last 50 years, the passion for what has become known as 'fast food' has created both a social revolution and an enormous amount of wealth.

1_________________________________________________________________

The story of fast food began in the USA in the 1930s and 1940s, a result of the country’s love affair with dial other great innovation of the twentieth century, the automobile. Indeed, in southern California, people were becoming so attached to their cars that they were happy to spend all evening in them. Realising that this was bad for trade, restaurants began to employ waitresses known as “car hops”. Their job was to carry trays of food out to those customers who preferred eating in their vehicles in the car park to sitting round a table in the traditional manner.

2_________________________________________________________________

Brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald ran one of these 5 successful “drive-in” restaurants in a town near Los Angeles. The business was not without its problems, however: staff were always leaving for higher-paid jobs, and the teenagers who were their main customers were constantly breaking or stealing the crockery and cutlery. So the McDonalds decided to look again at the basic idea of the take-away restaurant to see if they could find a way round these drawbacks.

3_________________________________________________________________

In 1948 they came up with the solution – a completely new method of providing customers with food. They decided to streamline the process by keeping it as straightforward and uncomplicated as possible. For example, they got rid of two-thirds of the items on the menu, including anything that had to be eaten with a knife, fork or spoon. Meanwhile, the kitchen became like a factory with machines doing most of the cooking and each unskilled employee performing just one routine task according to strict rules and regulations. 4_________________________________________________________________

What the McDonald brothers had understood was the importance of uniformity. The success of any fast-food chain depends on the reliability of its product. Consumers can order a “Big Mac” at any McDonald’s on the planet and know exactly what they will get. In order to achieve this guaranteed level of 55 quality, the food must be heavily processed and the whole system of food preparation must be tightly controlled. McDonald’s has a handbook for employees which contains precise 60 instructions on how everything is to be cooked, from how thick the French fries should be to how far apart burgers should be placed on the grill.