11. Summarize the main idea of the text in 8-10 sentences.

12. Now you know how it all started in Great Britain. Read the following text, which deals with the main idea of the first text of this Unit. Job changes and job records. Death in the city

During the 18th century, more and more families in Britain came to earn a living from industrial work rather than from agricultural work. And this trend continued in the 19th century, although work providing services rather than in making goods rose to prominence. At the same time, the country's population increased more rapidly than ever before, a marked upturn in the rate of growth occurring from the late 1700s. As a result, a far greater number of people were involved in making manufactured goods in early Victorian times than had been the case in early Georgian times.

The rapidity of population growth from the late 18th century caused a great deal of interest at the time and brought no little anxiety. Thus the gloomy Thomas Malthus predicted that, unless checked, such rapid population growth would outstrip food supplies, leading to starvation. In the event this did not happen, but concern about population growth led to the first national census of Britain's population taking place in 1801.

Since then, censuses have been taken every ten years, except during 1941 when wartime disruption occurred. The early censuses give some information on occupations and hence on how people earned a living. But it is only from 1841 that detail of the occupations of individuals rather than of groups of people is given.

This crucial change arose because, for the first time, households were issued with forms (or schedules) on which they were legally required to record details of everyone who stayed in the household on census night. In 1851, the schedules required fuller information, including occupations. This information was usually collected by local people.

The census of 1851 recorded half of the population of Britain as living in towns - the first society in human history to do so. Over the previous 70 years, the population of Britain had risen at an unprecedented rate, passing the levels reached in an earlier period of growth, in the early 14th century, when the population had been decimated by epidemics such as the Black Death.

But was there any reason for optimism? The towns offered a better chance of work and higher wages than the countryside, where many families were trapped in dire poverty and seasonal employment. On the other hand, the countryside was healthier. A baby born in a large town with a population of more than 100,000 in the 1820s might expect to live to 35 - in the 1830s, life expectancy was down to a miserable 29.

A comparison between a desperately unhealthy large town and a small market town shows the costs of migrating in search of work and prosperity. In 1851, a boy born in inner Liverpool had a life expectancy of only 26 years, compared with a boy born in the small market town of Oakhampton, who could expect to live to 57.

Large towns were thus desperately unhealthy, with death from sickness at a level not seen since the Black Death. New epidemics were stalking the cities - cholera and typhoid were carried by polluted water, typhus was spread by lice, and 'summer diarrhea' was caused by swarms of flies feeding on horse manure and human waste. The problem was easy to identify and difficult to solve. Too little was invested in the urban environment, in sewers, street paving and cleansing, and in pure water and decent housing.