I. Read and memorize the following words, word- combinations and word-groups:
standard of living
e.g. A nation's standard of living is measured by the amount
of goods and services available to its citizens. productivity
e.g. When you produce more or better products with the
same time and resources, you have achieved a productivity increase.
input
e.g. Input can be any resource that goes into the production
process.
output ,
e.g. Productivity is usually measured in terms of output
per worker per hour.
division of labor
e.g. To use machinery efficiently, producers must use division
of labor.
skilled workers
e.g. Skilled workers perform their tasks more efficiently
than those who are unskilled, consumption
e.g. Everything that takes place between production and
consumption falls into the category of marketing.
II. Give English equivalents of the following:
III Fill in the blanks with appropriate words:
1.... is a measure of how efficiently we work. a market
2. New can be used by business to imp standard of living rove productivity. technologies
| 3. A nation's... is measured by the amount of goods and services available to its citizens. 4.... is a key part of marketing because if is the way business get their messages to consumers. 5. Societies obtain... either by producing them themselves or by trading what they produce. 6.... is where buyers and sellers come together. 7., is the maximum number of units it can produce. 8.... are able to employ the optimum number of workers and productivity increases. | promotion productivity firms capacity employers goods and services |
IV. Read and translate the text:
A nation's standard of living is measured by the amount of goods and services available to its citizens. One way to calculate living standard is to divide total production (the gross national product) by the population (Production % Population per
capita GNP). When production is increasing faster than the population, more goods and services are available per person, and living standards are likely to improve. Productivity is a measure of how efficiently we work. To measure productivity, economists determine the amount of goods and services produced for every unit of input. Input can be any resource that goes into the production process. Productivity is usually measured in terms of output per worker per hour. Among the principal ingredients of productivity are the education and training of workers. Welt-educated and skilled workers perform their tasks more efficiently than those who are unskilled or poorly educated.
Another ingredient in productivity is the enthusiasm workers have for their jobs. Those who like their jobs and feel they
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gain dignity and respect from the work will produce more than those who tack motivation to do their best. To use machinery efficiently, producers must also use division of labor the practice of breaking down large, complex tasks into a series of small ones so that each worker can become an expert in his or her particular task. To an economist, everything that
takes place between production and consumption falls into
the category of marketing. Marketing, then, includes the activities that bring the buyer and seller together. Marketing includes buying and selling, transporting and storing, product planning, market research, product support, customer service, financing, insuring and other activities (pp, 7186).. V. Answer the following questions:
1. What is a nation's standard of living measured by?
2. When are living standards likely to improve?
3. What is input?
4. What does the quality of labor force depend upon?
5. What is a key part of marketing?
6. What is the final part of marketing?
Yl. Define the terms:
| production process | consumption |
| productivity | standard of living |
| division of labor | input |
| skilled worker | market research |
VII. Translate into English;
1. IJ . 2 , . 3. - , . 4. . 5. , , , . 6. ? 7. , 8 ! , . , , .
V. Read and dramatize the following dialogue:
B.: When did modern production methods take a giant leap forward, I wonder?
C.: Modern production methods took a giant leap forward in
1913 when Henry Ford (18631947) introduced the use of the assembly line in the production of automobiles. fn those days, automobiles were built in much the same way as a house.
What do you mean?
C.: That is, workers simply picked a spot on the factory floor and assembled the car from the bottom up. As business grew Ford began manufacturing many of the component parts formerly purchased from suppliers. Typically the components were put together by one worker who performed all the operations necessary to assemble them.
B.: The method was likely to be costly, and so only the wealthy could afford to buy automobiles in those days.
C For sure. This did not please Henry Ford who wanted to bring the price of automobiles down to the point where most families could afford them.
S.: What was the key to achieving this goal?
C.: The key to achieving this goal, in Ford's view, was through the improvement of labor productivity. He needed to find
a way to
1) limit the number of operations performed by each worker; 2) bring the work to the worker rather, than the other way around;
3) perform each operation in the most efficient sequence he could find.
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B.: Thus he found what he was seeking in his new creation: the assembly line. Ford's first line, introduced in April 1913. was used to assemble generators. Working in the old way, one worker had been able to put together 25 to 30 generators in a 9-hour day. This transtaled to something around 20 minutes per assembly. The new line broke the operation into 29 steps performed by individual workers on parts that were brought to them by the steadily moving assembly line.
C.: And what about the price of automobiles?
S.: Assembly line methods brought the price of automobiles within the reach of millions of American families. As a result,
automobile registrations jumped from 944.000 in 1912 to 2.5 million in 1915 and 20 million by 1925.
C.: So Henry Ford was not an economist, but his innovative production strategies had a revolutionary impact on American industry and living standards,
B.: Well, certainly. As automobiles, appliances and other labor saving goods of the new industrial age became less expensive and more affordable for the average family, it was clear that the assembly lines of a Michigan factory had changed American households as dramatically as its factories.
IX. Make up your own dialogue using the following expressions:
principal ingredients of productivity division of labor to lack motivation to do one's best skilled worker to bring the price down to the point consumption
to gain dignity and respect to go into production to perform one's task process
X. Put questions to the italicized words:
1. Many appliances and other labor saving goods are becoming /ess expensive and mdre afford able for the average family. 2. The population is growing now at a fasfer rate than production in that country, 3. Steps to restore full employment
are increasing. 4. They are producing more and better products with the same time and resources. 5. Union restrictions are
preventing employers from laying off workers as quickly as they might prefer.
