THE WORKSHOP OF THE WORLD

PART I. ENGLISH FOR GENERAL PURPOSES

UNIT I. THE WORKSHOP OF THE WORLD

Assignment 1

Read the text. Translate it (orally). Make use of the Notes and the Vocabulary.

TEXT

THE WORKSHOP OF THE WORLD

Little more than a century ago, Britain was «the workshop of the world». It

had as many merchant ships as the rest of the world put together and it led the world in most manufacturing industries. This did not last long. In 1885 one analysis reported, «We have come to occupy a position in which we are no longer progressing, but even falling back... We find other nations able to compete with us to such an extent as we have never before experienced.» Early in the twentieth century Britain was overtaken economically by the United States and Germany. After two world wars and the rapid loss of its empire, Britain found it increasingly difficult to maintain its position even in Europe.

At present, the nation's industries can be divided into three sectors of activity.

The primary sector is concerned with 'raw materials such as cereals and minerals.

Processing these materials is the field of the manufacturing sector. The service sector provides services of various kinds such as transport or distribution, but does not

manufacture goods. The construction industry can be thought of either as part of the manufacturing sector, or as a separate fourth sector.

Earlier in its history, Britain had a very large manufacturing sector. Food, fuel and raw materials such as cotton were imported in large quantities and paid for with finished goods manufactured in Britain: the country was known as «the workshop of the world». Today, the manufacturing sector and the small primary sector are employing fewer and fewer people. For example, during the second half of the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s the mining and energy industries lost 20 per cent of their jobs. This was mainly through increases in productivity, so that fewer workers were producing the same output more efficiently. Productivity rose by 14 per cent in the same period in British industry as a whole, although it had previously been low by comparison with other advanced industrial nations. Meanwhile service industries like banking and catering were expanding their workforce.

Generally speaking, among the main trends in industrial activity in Britain during the 1980s and 1990s have been the decline in heavy-industry andthe growth of the offshore oil and gas industries together with related productsand services; the rapid development of electronic and microelectronic technologies and their application to a wide range of other sectors; and a continuous rise in the service industries' share of total employment. Tourism, for example, is now one of Britain's most important industries and a growing source of employment (supporting more than one million jobs).

Britain has a mixed economy, based partly on state ownership but mainly on

private enterprise. In the mid-eighties the private sector accounted for 72 per cent of total employment and 74 per cent of the goods and services produced in Britain. Government policy throughout the 1980s was to sell state-owned industries such as British Telecom and British Airways to private investors, thereby further increasing the size of the private sector.