【美国人物志】雷·克拉克（1/6）

英语自学网

雷·克拉克（Ray Kroc，1902年10月5日－1984年1月14日），美国企业家，生于伊利诺伊州。1955年，他接管了当时规模很小的麦当劳公司的特许权，将其发展成全球最成功的快餐集团之一。他被《时代》杂志列为全球最有影响力的企业创始人之一。1974年开始，他成为圣地牙哥教士棒球队老板。
Hints:
the United States
Burger King
Kentucky Fried Chicken
Pizza Hut
Taco Bell
McDonald
San Bernardino
California
Mac and Dick McDonald

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You probably know what fast food is. It is cooked food that is ready almost as soon as you enter a public eating place. It does not cost much. It is popular with most Americans and with many people around the world. Some experts say that at least 25 percent of American adults eat fast food every day. Most fast food restaurants offer ground beef sandwiches called hamburgers and potatoes cooked in hot oil called french fries. Other fast food places serve fried chicken, pizza or tacos.
You see fast food restaurants almost everywhere in the United States. The names and the designs of the buildings are easily recognized – Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and of course, McDonald's. Most are chain restaurants. That means each one is part of a huge company. Each restaurant in the chain has the same large, colorful sign that can be recognized from far away. Each offers its own carefully limited choice of foods. Each kind of hamburger or piece of chicken tastes the same at every restaurant in the chain.
The fast food industry began with two brothers in San Bernardino, California in the 1940s. Mac and Dick McDonald owned a small, but very successful restaurant. They sold only a few kinds of simple food, especially hamburgers. People stood outside the restaurant at a window. They told the workers inside what they wanted to eat. They received and paid for their food very quickly. The food came in containers that could be thrown away. The system was so successful that the McDonald brothers discovered they could sell a lot of food and lower their prices.