Small business in the USA

Not all people who start businesses dream of huge multimillion-dollar corporations with international sales. Many just want to sell things – fruits and vegetables, home appliances, clothes or computers so that they can be «their own bosses». These small businesses are an important part of the economy. Many of them provide needed goods and services in city neighborhood, in small towns or in rural areas, where large companies might not provide adequate service.

Every year hundreds of thousands of Americans start their own businesses. A government agency, the Small Business Administration helps with information, advice, and, sometimes, loans and grants. Many large companies with many stores started as one-store operations.

The Coca-Cola Company, which distributes its soft drinks around the world, began when a pharmacist mixed together the first Coca-Cola drink and began selling in the southern city of Atlanta, Georgia.

Blue jeans, the popular denim trousers known to teenagers around the world, were invented by a poor cloth peddler who sold his first pair to gold miners in California in the 1880s. His company, Levi Strauss, remains one of the largest clothing manufacturers in the United States.

One of the most significant changes in recent decades has been a shift away from the production of goods to the delivery of services as the dominant feature of the American economy. Where once most workers in the United States produced actual goods – from toothpaste to tires – most Americans today work in the sector of the economy that is broadly defined as providing services. Service industries include retail businesses, hotels and restaurants, federal and local government, office administration, banking and finance, and many other types of work. At the same time, as many traditional manufacturing enterprises in the United States decline or grow slowly, new companies spring up that are developing high technology computer, aerospace or biochemical products and services.

Business organizations in the US have been eager to spread the message of free enterprise to new generations of Americans. Through a variety of means, they carry their message into the schools and into the television screens of the nation. One of many activities sponsored by US businesses is a nationwide program called Junior Achievement. Local business people help high-school-age «junior achievers» to organize small companies, sell stock to friends and parents, produce and market a product (key chains, perhaps, or wall decorations) and pay stockholders a dividend. The same young people act as company officers, sales people and production workers. The idea is to give young people a deeper appreciation to the role entrepreneurship plays in a capitalist society and to give them experience in business practices.

The list of best selling books often includes works by successful business people relating their personal formulas for getting ahead.

VI. Give English equivalents to the following word combinations:

основать, открыть дело; международная торговля; снабжать, обеспечивать товарами; изменение, сдвиг, смена; существенный признак, основная черта экономики; производить товары; розничное торговое предприятие; промышленное предприятие; приходить в упадок; расти, увеличиваться; возникать, появляться; свободное предпринимательство; продавать акции; торговать, продавать на рынке, сбывать; работать в качестве кого-либо; служащий компании; производственный рабочий; предпринимательство; преуспевать.

UNIT 5

Text 1