Описание тенденций, колебаний на рынке

Going up	verbs		to advance, to climb, to increase, to rise, to grow, to gain ground, to head north, to improve, to go up
	nouns		an advance, an increase, a rise, a growth, a climb, a hike, an upturn
Going down	verbs		to decline, to drop, to fall, to head south, to lose ground, to retreat, to slide, to go down, to contract, to shrink
	nouns		a decline, a drop, a fall, a retreat, a slide, a downturn
These words used to talk of an upward or downward trend do not in themselves indicate by how much indicators have gone up or down.
Going up by small or moderate amounts		v	to edge ahead, to edge higher, to edge up, to firm
Going down by small or moderate amounts		v	to dip, to drift (lower), to ease, to edge down, to edge lower, to slip (lower)
		n	a dip, a drift, a slip
Going up by large amounts		v	to jump, to leap, to roar ahead, to roar up, to rocket, to shoot ahead, to shoot up, to skyrocket, to soar, to surge (ahead)
		n	a jump, a leap, a surge
Going down by large amounts		v	to dive, to nosedive, to plunge, to plummet, to tumble
		n	a dive, a nosedive, a plunge, a tumble
Going down fast by very large amounts		v	to collapse, to crash, to crumble, to slump
		n	a crash, a collapse, a slump
No change		v	to remain stable, to level off, to stay at the same level, to remain constant, flat to stagnate, to stabilize, to remain steady
Change of direction		v	to peak, to reach a peak, to top out, to reach a low point, to bottom, to bottom out, to recover, to rebound, to revive
The amount of increase or decline can also be indicated using these verbs:		v	to double, to triple, to quadruple, to increase fivefold; to halve

Unit two the three sectors of the economy

LEAD-IN

Read the text and answer the questions that follow.

There are three main types of industry in which firms operate. These sectors form a chain of production which provides customers with finished goods or services.

• Primary production: this involves acquiring raw materials. For example, metals and coal have to be mined, oil drilled from the ground, rubber tapped from trees, foodstuffs farmed and fish trawled. This is sometimes known as extractive production.

• Secondary production: this is the manufacturing and assembly process. It involves converting raw materials into components, for example, making plastics from oil. It also involves assembling the product, e.g. building houses, bridges and roads.

• Tertiary production: this refers to the commercial services that support the production and distribution process, e.g. insurance, transport, advertising, warehousing and other services such as teaching and health care.

Industries in the primary sector include agriculture, commercial fishing, mining, and the timber industry. Generally, the products produced in the primary sector are not sold directly to households for final consumption but are sold to manufacturers as inputs.

A primitive economy will rely on the primary sector, economic development allows more refinement of raw materials to produce goods and services with greater value added.

Mining industry

Extractive or mining industry involves extraction of solid mineral resources from the earth. These resources include ores, which contain commercially valuable amounts of metals, such as iron and aluminum; precious stones, such as diamonds; building stones, such as granite; and solid fuels, such as coal and oil shale.

The search for and discovery of mineral deposits is called prospecting, or exploration. When a mineral deposit is found, it is studied to determine if it can be mined profitably.

Any material that cannot be grown through agricultural processes, or created artificially in a laboratory or factory, is usually mined.

Energy Sector

The reliance of virtually all industries on electric power and fuels means that all sectors have some dependence on the Energy Sector. It is one of the largest, most dynamic, and often most controversial industries in the world.

This sector includes companies involved in the exploration and development of oil or gas reserves, oil and gas drilling, or integrated power firms. The energy industry is very broad, but it can be divided into three primary categories:

1. Energy sources: fuels that are used to generate energy or power. These include fossil fuels (coal, gas and oil), water, wind, solar, geothermal, and nuclear sources. For the past 200 years, humans have depended on two primary sources of energy: fossil fuels and hydropower (water), but these traditional sources of energy are finite. Moreover, increasing conventional energy consumption is creating pollution and causing global warming.

2. Forms of energy: how the energy is transmitted and distributed to customers. The two primary forms of energy are electricity and heat.

3. End uses of energy: once the energy is generated it is primarily used for transportation purposes, lighting, space conditioning (heating and cooling), and for industrial processes.

Scientists and engineers work to develop energy sources and generation methods that are renewable, eco-friendly and sustainable.

A renewable resource is a substance of economic value that can be replenished simultaneously or in less time as it takes to draw the supply down. Some renewable resources have essentially an endless supply, such as solar energy, wind, sea waves and geothermal pressure. There are many incentives for using alternative energy. For example, energy taxes put a surcharge on fossil fuels so that the prices of renewable resources are more competitive and people will be more inclined to switch over.

Yet, even as the industry focuses on developing alternative fuel sources, petroleum and natural gas companies continue to search for new sources of these products and new ways for extracting them from previously difficult-to-access locations.

Manufacturing industry

The secondary sector includes manufacturing as well as the construction of buildings and highways and utilities such as those that generate and distribute electricity.

Manufacturing is the process of converting raw materials and/or parts into finished products suitable for use or consumption that can be sold in wholesale or retail markets or exported for sale in other countries. It covers a wide range of industries, from food and beverages to pharmaceuticals, iron and steel to textiles, as well as tobacco, automobiles, aerospace, and petrochemicals and many others. All manufactured goods fall under one of the following categories: durable or nondurable goods. Durable goods, such as cars, airplanes, and large household appliances, may be used for a long time. Nondurable goods, such as food, cosmetics, and clothing, are consumed more rapidly.

The manufacturing industry accounts for a significant share of the industrial sector in developed countries. Final products can either serve as finished goods for sale to customers or as intermediate goods used in the production process. Manufacturing industries are important for an economy as they employ a huge share of the labour force and produce materials required by sectors of strategic importance such as national infrastructure and defence.

To produce any goods manufacturers have to make some inputs into production. Usually economists distinguish four main factors of production: labour, capital, land and entrepreneurship.

There are different types of manufacturing depending on the factor which dominates in the production process. For example, production can be labour-intensive, capital-intensive, knowledge-intensive and raw material intensive.

Any manufacturing process requires specific production facilities. These are buildings, machinery and equipment which are used in the production process. And certainly it needs people who will operate these facilities. They are called blue collars and work in the workshops. There are also white collars who do not participate directly in the production process and work in the office.

Any production process involves a series of links in a production chain. At each stage value is added in the course of production. Adding value involves making a product more desirable to consumers so that they will pay more for it. The manufacturing process begins with the product design, and material specification from which the product is made. These materials are then modified through manufacturing process to become the required part. Later these parts or components are assembled in the workshops, and, finally, finished goods are normally sent to the warehouse where they are stored pending sale.

The expenses of the production process are called production costs. These can be fixed costs, which do not depend on the output, such as rent, or variable costs, which do change with the output, for example, raw material costs. Some costs can be either fixed or variable, for example, wages of blue collar workers. Any business tries to cut costs and maximize profit.

Goods which are produced at the factories, plants and mills are called manufactured products. They can be of two main kinds: capital goods, such as machine tools, which are used to produce other goods, and consumer goods, which are consumed by final customers.

Some countries are called industrialized or industrially developed, which means that they have a lot of factories, plants and mills with large capacity where the most modern equipment is installed and the most advanced production techniques and know-how are used. These countries have high level of labour productivity and efficiency of machinery.

Services

The last but not least sector of the global economy is the service sector which is comprised of firms offering ‘intangible goods’. Nowadays services account for about 64% of global GDP. In post-industrial economies they play increasingly important role. The service sector primarily consists of transportation, messenger services and warehousing; information services; banking and financial investment services; accounting and insurance, rental and leasing services; administrative and technical support; waste management; health care and social assistance; as well as entertainment and recreation services.

A sector or industry characterized by high growth rates, high degree of innovation, numerous start-ups and an abundance of venture capital funding is called a “sunrise industry”. Examples of sunrise industries include alternative energy in the period from 2003 to 2007, and social media and cloud computing in 2011 and 2012. A mature industry that has little or no growth prospects and is becoming less important to the economy is referred to as a “sunset industry”.

In the past 100 years, developed economies have seen a transition from a manufacturing based economy to one where the ‘service sector’ or ‘tertiary sector’ dominates.

Answer the questions.

1. What are the three main sectors of economy? Which of them are mostly developed in Russia?

2. What is mining industry? What role does it play in global economy?

3. Why is energy sector so important to the world economy?

4. What exhaustible energy sources are used today to generate power?

5. What are the advantages and disadvantages of major alternative sources?

6. What does it mean if a country is called industrialized? Can you name any industrialized countries?

7. Describe the main stages of production process. What role do white-collars and blue-collars play in it?

8. What types of manufacturing do you know? Which of them do you think is the best one and why?

9. How are manufactured goods generally classified?

10. What role do services play in global economy? What are the main service sectors?

11. What do the terms “sunrise” and “sunset” industries imply?

12. Why is it important for a country to have a diversified economy?

13. Which new services have emerged and become popular of late?

14. What structural changes have been typical for the developed economies in the past 100 years?