Economic Outline of the UK.

Read and translate.

Text A.

The UK is a highly-developed country. It lives by manufacture and trade. For every person employed in agriculture eleven people are employed in mining, manufacturing and building. The United Kingdom is one of the world’s largest exporters of manufactured goods per head of population.

Apart from coal and iron ore Britain has very few natural resources and mostly depends on imports. Its agriculture provides only half of the food it needs. The other half and most of the raw materials for its industries such as oil and various metals (copper, zinc, uranium ore and others) have to be imported. Britain also has to import timber, cotton, fruit and farm products.

Britain used to be richly forested, but most of the forests were cut down to make more room for cultivation. The greater part of land is used for cattle and sheep breeding, and pig raising. Among the crops grown on the farms are wheat, barley and oats. The fields are mainly in the eastern part of the country.

In the past century Britain secured a leading position in the world as manufacturer, merchant and banker. After World War I the world demand for products of Britain’s traditional industries - textiles, coal and machinery - fell off, and Britain began expanding trade in new engineering products and electrical goods.

The crisis of 1929-1933 brought about mass unemployment and Britain’s share in the world industrial output decreased. World War II brought about a further weakening of Britain’s might. It has lost its colonies which used to supply it with cheap raw materials.

The original basis of British industry was coal-mining, and the early factories grew up not far from the main mining areas. Glasgow and Newcastle became great centers of engineering and shipbuilding. Lancashire produced cotton goods and Yorkshire woolen, with Sheffield concentrating on iron and steel. Birmingham developed light engineering.

The structure of industry changed substantially in the last half of the 20th century. As coal production declined, oil production replaced it as a major industry. Motor vehicle production became a significant part of the industrial base. British industrial production also expanded into communications equipment, including fiber optics, computers, computer-controlled machine tools, and robots.

The so-called Silicon Glen between Glasgow and Edinburgh is the site of many overseas computer firms. Scotland and Northern Ireland are still noted for their production of whiskey and textiles, especially linen from Northern Ireland and tweed from Scotland.

Nowadays Britain remains an important manufacturing country. Britain mostly produces articles requiring skilled labour, such as precision instruments, electronic equipment, chemicals and high quality consumer goods. It produces and exports cotton and woolen goods, leather goods and articles made of various kinds of synthetic (man-made) materials. The leading traditional manufacturing regions of England are Greater London and the cities and regions around Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, and Newcastle upon Tyne.

Britain has a large and sophisticated service sector. The service industries include finance, retailing, wholesaling, tourism, business services, transport, insurance, investment, advertising, public relations, market research, education, administration, and government and professional services. Telecommunications has become a dynamic growth industry, particularly with telex, facsimile, and e-mail communications.

Exercise 1.Give the Russian equivalents of the following.

Employ, be employed in industry (agriculture), mining, building, trade, manufactured goods, per head of population, apart from, raw materials, provide, timber, used to be, used to do smth., cattle and sheep breeding, demand, bring about, unemployment, share, articles, precision instruments, high quality consumer goods, retailing, wholesaling, insurance, advertising, public relations, government, particularly.

Exercise 2. Find in the text the English equivalents of the following.

Обрабатывающая промышленность, горно-добывающая промышленность, торговля, промышленные товары, строевой лес, крупный рогатый скот, сельскохозяйственная культура, пшеница, ячмень, овес, торговец, изделия текстильной промышленности, квалифицированный труд, сырье, кожа, обслуживающие отрасли промышленности, зарубежные фирмы.

Exercise 3. Complete the following sentences using the right words:

1) Great Britain is rich in... (oil, gold, copper, silver, iron ore, zinc, coal).

2) Great Britain has to import... (coal, agricultural products, electrical goods, chemicals, electronic equipment, oil, various metals, food products, cotton, timber, tobacco, wheat, fruit).

3) When the world demand for the products of Britain’s main industries-textiles, coal, machinery-decreased, it began seeking compensation in new engineering products, such as... (cars, atomic power reactors, electrical goods, electronic equipment).

4) It is characteristic of Britain’s industry to produce... (semi-finished goods, cheap articles, raw materials, high quality expensive goods, articles requiring skilled labour, precision instrument, electronic equipment).

5) The main products of Britain’s industry are... (precision instruments, high quality consumer goods, electronic equipment, chemicals, textiles, ready-made clothing, manufactured goods, petrol).

6) A great number of new industries were added to the traditional ones such as... (the aircraft industry, the textile industry, the electronic industry, the shipbuilding industry, the automobile industry, mining, engineering).

7) The main crops grown in Britain are... (flax, cotton, wheat, barley, tobacco, vats).

8) In Britain they breed... (cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, goats, deer, rabbits).

Exercise 4. Answer the questions.

1) What does the UK live by?

2) What does Great Britain export?

3) What raw materials does Great Britain import?

4) What did the crisis of 1929-1933 bring about?

5) When did Great Britain lose its colonies?

6) How did the structure of industry change in the last half of the 20^th century?

7) What are Scotland and Northern Ireland noted for?

8) What are the main industrial articles produced by British industry?

9) Could you enumerate main British industries?

10) What areas does the service sector include?

Exercise 5. Translate into English.

Великобритания имеет высокоразвитую промышленность. Большая часть ее населения занята в промышленности, и только небольшая часть - только 8% населения - занимается сельским хозяйством. В Великобритании не много полезных ископаемых и ей приходится ввозить сырье из других стран.

Характерной чертой Британской промышленности является производство товаров высокого качества, требующих квалифицированного труда. Традиционными отраслями английской промышленности являются машиностроение, текстильная, судостроительная и угольная промышленность. Однако после первой мировой войны спрос на продукцию традиционных отраслей промышленности сократился, и Великобритания начала развивать новые отрасли промышленности, такие как химическая, авиационная, автомобильная и др.

Exercise 6. Suppose you are to give a lecture on the current state of British economy. Here are some phrases to introduce the subject of your lecture:

I will concern myself with...

I will try to outline briefly some recent data on...

This is an attempt to introduce you to the...

I will speak about...

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