General Motors

High school (ages 12+)
Transportation

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/general-motors

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the founding date?September 16, 1908
2. What is the founding location?Flint, Michigan, USA
3. What is General Motors and when did it start?GM is a big company that makes cars, trucks, and buses. It started in 1908 when William C. Durant brought together many small car makers.
4. How did GM become so big?GM grew by buying brands like Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and Chevrolet. It also used the assembly line to build cars faster and cheaper, so more people could buy them.

Conglomerate: A large corporation formed by the merging of separate and diverse firms.
Planned Obsolescence: A strategy of designing products to become outdated or non-functional after a certain period.
Economies of Scale: The cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation.