7. Переведите текст в с английского языка на русский и ответьте на вопросы.

RISKS AND BENEFITS OF STARTING A NEW BUSINESS

Unfortunately, the record shows that two out of three new businesses fail within their first four years. The share of small businesses’ output has been declining since the early 1960's. Large companies due to their efficiency have taken over markets that previously belonged to small businesses. Nevertheless estimates for 1976 showed that small business, defined as business having fewer than 500 employees, accounted for 39 percent of all the goods services produced in America.

Small businesses face many problems. Bad economic times affect small businesses more than they do big businesses. In addition, small business profits tent to fall faster, and small businesses are more likely to fail.

According to a 1982 President's report, “The larger the firm, the better the chance it has of surviving. The report also said, “A firm with 21-50 employees has a 54 percent chance of surviving four years. A firm of under 20 employees has a 37 percent chance of surviving four years.”

The four top problems facing small business are taxes, slow sales, and high cost of borrowing money of competition from other businesses.

On the bright side, the innovativeness of entrepreneurs in small businesses is likely to enable a small business to reach quickly and successfully to changing times. The report points out that 80 percent of new jobs are provided by businesses with 100 or fewer employees. Small businesses produce twice as many innovations per employee as larger firms. Those innovations are the source of new jobs and new opportunities for entrepreneurs.

Вопросы к тексту В. Переведите на русский язык и ответьте на данные вопросы?

1. How was small business estimated for 1976?

2. How many and what top problems touch upon small business?

3. Do two out of three new businesses fail within their first four years?

4. What are the sources of new jobs?

5. By what are new jobs provided?

8. Составьте реферат текста c на русском языке.

PRODUCTION AND STANDARDS OF LIVING

A nation's standard of living is measured by the amount of goods and services available to citizens. One way to calculate living standard is to divide total production (the gross national product) by the population.

When production is increasing faster than the population, more goods and services are available per person, and living standards are likely to improve.

If the population grows at a faster rate than production, average living standards fall.

Nations wanting to increase production must ask themselves two questions:

1. Are the resources fully employed?

2. What can be done to increase production with the available resources?

If the answer to the first question is “no”, steps to increase full production must be taken.

The second question has to deal with productivity.

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 a usually measured in terms of output per worker per hour.

The nation's productivity is directly affected by each of the following factors:

1. The quality of our labor force.

2. The quality of our machinery and other capital equipment.

3. The effectiveness with which we use our resources.

4. Business conditions.