Обучение навыкам разговорной речи на английском языке. Страноведение США (120

Чтобы иметь реальные шансы выиграть выборы, кандидат, как правило, должен быть поддержан одной из двух основных партий. Иногда успеха добиваются и независимые кандидаты, но это происходит редко, особенно для высоких должностей. За поддержку партий, особенно таких влиятельных, как республиканская и демократическая, при выдвижении на выборные посты обычно борются несколько претендентов. Для их демократического выбора были созданы праймериз. Для некоторых групп избирателей личная кандидатура кандидата не играет большой роли — в первую очередь важна партия, к которой он принадлежит. В штатах, где доминирует одна партия, кандидат, победивший на первичных выборах этой партии, практически гарантированно побеждает и на основных выборах, и именно на праймериз в этих штатах развертывается серьезная борьба между основными кандидатами.

Праймериз фактически возникли как реакция избирателей на попытки партийных руководителей вывести процесс выдвижения кандидатов из-под контроля рядовых членов партий.

К 1927 году уже все штаты приняли законы об обязательном проведении таких выборов. Праймериз используются для отбора кандидатов на местных выборах, а также для выдвижения кандидатов в Сенат и Палату представителей Конгресса США и Конгрессов штатов.

Законы штатов определяют, имеют ли право участвовать в праймериз только зарегистрированные члены партии (закрытые праймериз) или все избиратели (открытые праймериз).

Выдвижение кандидатов в президенты проводится на партийных съездах, но с 1968 года съезды фактически лишь утверждают кандидатуру лидера, которого поддержало большинство членов партии на праймериз.

Unit 2

ECONOMY OF THE UNITED STATES

The economy of the USA is the largest national economy in the world in both nominal value and by purchasing power parity. The United States economy maintains a very high level of output per person (GDP per capita).

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It has maintained a stable overall GDP growth rate, a low unemployment rate, and high levels of research and capital investment, funded by both national and, because of decreasing saving rates, increasingly by foreign investors. Since the 1970s, the United States economy has absorbed savings from the rest of the world. The phenomenon is subject to discussion among economists. Like other developed countries, The United States faces retiring baby boomers who have already begun withdrawing from their Social Security accounts; however, the American population is young and growing when compared to Europe or Japan.

The United States has become one of the best-performing developed countries, consistently outperforming European countries. The American labor market has attracted immigrants from all over the world and has one of the world’s highest migration rates. Americans have the second highest income per hour worked.

Historical Background

The vast dimensions and ample natural resources of the United States proved from the first to be a major advantage for national economic development. With the fourth largest area and population in the world, the United States still benefits greatly from the size of its internal market. The Constitution of the United States bars all kinds of internal tariffs, so manufacturers do not have to worry about tariff barriers when shipping goods from one part of the country to another.

A population of more than 260 million people provides both workers and consumers for American businesses. Thanks to several waves of immigration, the United States gained population rapidly throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, when business and industry were expanding.

Rapid growth helped to promote a remarkable mobility in the American population — a mobility that contributes a useful flexibility to business life.

The American people have possessed to an unusual degree the entrepreneurial spirit. Some have traced this entrepreneurial drive to religious sources They say that many Americans believe that devotion to one’s work is a way of pleasing God, and that success in business can be an outward sign of God’s blessing.

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A variety of institutional factors have favored the success of American business and industry. The founders of America’s political institutions sought to limit governmental powers while widening opportunities for individual initiative. The relative reluctance of American political leaders to intervene in economic activities gave great freedom to market forces. By channeling economic initiative into activities that promised the greatest return on investment, free market institutions fostered dynamic growth and rapid change. One result was a rapid accumulation of capital, which could then be used to produce further growth.

The United States that emerged from the American Revolution of 1776 was principally an agricultural country. It would remain so for another century, but some early decisions by American social and political leaders planted the seeds of industrial growth.

One key development was the introduction of the factory system, which gathered many workers together in one workplace and produced goods for distribution over a wide area.

The second development was the ‘American system’ of mass production, which originated in the firearms industry in about 1800. The new system required precision engineering to create parts that were interchangeable. This, in turn, allowed the final product to be assembled in stages, each worker specializing in a specific operation.

A third development was the application of new sources of power to industrial tasks. Large water wheels and water turbines drove the machinery of early factories. As the steam engine was perfected, it provided an alternative source of energy, first for mobile operations such as powering steamboats and locomotives, then for factories.

New forms of business organization — notably the bank and the corporation — facilitated the growth of industry.

The construction of railroads beginning in the 1830s, marked the start of new era for the United States. Large infusions of private capital from Europe, mainly after 1850, helped to pay for the railroad lines that soon snaked across the North American continent. Local, state and national governments contributed both money and land. By providing transportation links between far-flung parts of the United States the railroads increased business activities and the spread of settlements. Railroad construction created a growing demand for coal, iron and steel, helping to support the heavy industries that expanded rapidly in the decades after the Civil War.

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Up to the 1880s, the bulk of American’s income came from farming. The census of 1890 was the first in which the output of American factories was shown to exceed that of American farms. Thereafter industry in the United States grew by leaps and bounds. By 1913, more than one-third of the world’s industrial production came from the United States.

The rise of industry caused what amounted to the upheaval in American life. Workers had to adapt to new forms of discipline — regular hours; strict rules of behavior; various forms of supervision. Relations between employers and employees took a more impersonal and sometimes hostile cast. As time passed, industrial enterprises grew larger, stirring widespread concern about dangers of monopoly.

Meanwhile, the ways in which businesses in the United States organized their work were changing. In 1913, the automaker Henry Ford introduced the ‘moving assembly’ line. This was a variation on the earlier practice of continuous assembly. By improving efficiency, it made possible a major saving in labor costs.

During the first half of the 20th century, mass production of consumer goods such as cars, refrigerators and kitchen ranges helped to revolutionize the ways in which Americans lived.

The century’s two world wars spared the United States the devastation suffered by Europe and Asia, and American industries proved capable of great production increases to meet war needs. By the time World War 11 ended in 1945, the United States had the greatest productive capacity of any of the world’s nations.

The 20th century saw the rise and decline of a succession of industries in the United States. The auto industry, long the centerpiece of the American economy, had to struggle to meet the challenge of foreign competition. But over the years many new industries appeared Their products ranged from airplanes to television sets; from microchips to space satellites; from microwave ovens to ultra-high speed computers. Many of rising industries were among what are known as ‘high-tech’ industries, because of their dependence on the latest developments in technology.

High-tech industries in the United States tend to be highly automated and thus to need fewer workers than traditional ones. As high-tech industries have grown and older industries have declined in recent years, the proportion of American workers employed in

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manufacturing has declined. Service industries — industries that sell a service rather than make a product — now dominate the economy. Service industries range from banking to telecommunications and the provision of meals in restaurants.

American Business Life

The role of government

For more than two centuries, the theory of laissez-faire has dominated government policy toward American business. Laissez-faire (leave it alone) allows private interests to have virtual free rein in operating business.

Devotion to laissez-faire has not prevented private interests in the United States from turning to the government for help on numerous occasions. Railroad builders accepted grants of land and public subsidies. Industries facing strong competition from abroad have appealed for a great degree of protectionism in trade policy. Farmers, manufacturers, labor unions, bankers and others have sought government assistance in many forms, from tax breaks to outright subsidies.

Thus, there has been a constant give-and-take between the theory of laissez-faire and concrete demands for government help for a specific economic purpose.

Trade Policy

Protectionist measures have often held sway. As a rule, manufacturers and industrial workers have been the strongest supporters of protectionism.

Big Business and Small Business

Supporters of concentration have argued that only large enterprises can benefit from the advantages of scale that accompany modern industrial methods. The larger the business grows, the lower its overhead costs per unit tend to be. If American business had not grown bigger, they would have been unable to compete with large foreign

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competitors, supporters of concentration say. Few if any Americans believe that complete return to small scale enterprise would be either possible or desirable.

Management and Labor

While management has usually held the upper hand in management-labor disputes in the United states, organized labor, promising higher wages and improved benefits, made major gains under laws adopted by Congress in the 1930s. Those laws established a legal framework for worker representation and for the collective bargaining process.

The Ups and Downs of the Business cycle

Business activity in the United States has followed a cyclical pattern of ups and downs, as is common in market economies. The period of time from the peak (high point) to the trough (low point) of a cycle varies greatly, from as little as three to as many as 15 years. Because of the cyclical nature of business activity, such economic indicators as employment rates and investment levels are constantly fluctuating.

Assignments to the texts

1. Context and topical questions

1.Specify a number of factors which favor the success of American business and industry.

2.Refer to the role of the factory system.

3.Name new forms of business organization in the USA.

4.Trace the idea of ‘moving assembly’ line.

5.Refer to the information concerning ‘high-tech’ industries.

6.Specify the ‘laisser-faire’ idea and policy.

7.Trace the information concerning the relations between:

a)big business and small business;

b)management and labor.

8. Explain the reasons for American early development of the entrepreneurial spirit. Substantiate you point.

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9.Explain some specifics of American business life today and characterize each of them.

10.Comment on the current relationship between management and

labor.

11.Speak on love-hate relationship towards business. Explain the reasons for that.

12.Comment on the nature of American economy today, its positives and negatives. Supply examples using mass media.

2. Scan the text and summarize it.

Rochester

Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, South of Lake Ontario in the USA. The Rochester metropolitan area is the second largest economy in New York State, behind the New York City metropolitan area. Rochester’s population is approximately 219,773, making it New York’s third most populous city.

Rochester has been ranked the sixth ‘most livable city’ among 379 United States metropolitan areas. It also has received the top ranking for overall quality of life among United States metros with population of more than one million.

The Rochester area is a home to a number of international businesses, including Fortune 1000 companies Eastman Kodak, Constellation Brands, and Paychex, as well as several national and regional companies. Xerox was founded in Rochester in 1906 as The Haloid Company, and retains a significant presence in Rochester, although its headquarters are now located in Norwalk, Connecticut. The Gannet newspaper company and Western Union were both founded in the Rochester area.

Because of the high prevalence of imaging and optical science among the industry and the universities, Rochester is known as the world capital of imaging. The Institute of Optics of the University of Rochester is ranked number one in the country, and the Rochester Institute of Technology has one of the best imaging science departments in the country.

One food product that Rochester calls its own is the ‘white hot’, a variant of the hot dog made by the local Zweigle’s company. Another

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local specialty is the ‘garbage plate’, first served at Nick Tahou Hots. Rochester was also home to French’s Mustard.

Rochester is also home to Wet Planet Beverages, producer of Jolt Cola and other beverages. The other food manufacturers include Bird eye, Bill Gray’s (a hamburger) hot dog joints that lays claim to having ‘The World’s Greatest Cheeseburger’ and the others.

The Rochester area is the birthplace of the Wegmans Grocery store chain which has been ranked the best grocery store in America by consumer Reports.

3. Read the text and give the most suitable heading.

US manufacturing’s competitive status is increasingly challenged by other economies. Established industrialized nations such as Japan, Germany, Korea and Taiwan are developing state-of-the art technologies, which range across all areas of manufacturing from electronics to discrete parts. Products based on technologies that originated in the US economy, such as semiconductors and robotics, are increasingly both developed and produced elsewhere. Emerging economies, such as China, are acquiring manufacturing capability through modest R&D intensities, tax and other incentives for foreign direct investment, and intellectual property theft. This second group then competes through low-cost labor and the use of exchange rate manipulation along with tariff and non-tariff barriers.

However, emerging technology-based economies have the longterm goal of attaining world-class status as innovators, which means they are not content to operate at the low-technology, labor-intensive portion of manufacturing. China already is producing 30,000 patents annually and its patent application rate trails only the US and Japan. Finally, event the huge US lead in biopharmaceuticals is now under attack, as an increasing number of economies invest in supporting science and technology infrastructures and provide financial incentives for foreign direct investment in this rapidly expanding technology.

The combined long-term impact on the US economy of investments by both established and newly industrialized economies has been the offshoring of substantial portions of US manufacturing supply chains — first the labor-intensive industries but now the hightech ones, as well.

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4. Render the text into English.

Роль США в мировой экономике

Американская модель экономики характеризуется такими принципиальными чертами, как глобализация бизнеса и информационная революция. Глобализация бизнеса означает интеграцию страны в мировую экономику. Свыше половины доходов крупных американских корпораций создается за рубежом: огромное значение приобрел процесс развития внешней торговли и иностранного инвестирования. В свою очередь США также получают передовые зарубежные инвестиционные товары и технологии; в стране действуют многочисленные филиалы и дочерние компании европейских и японских фирм. Сильные внешнеполитические позиции США, лидерство американской модели развития экономики определяют лидерство США в процессе глобализации.

Информационная революция является мощным фактором роста экономики США. Страна переживает настоящий информационный бум: совершенствуются цифровые технологии, постоянно образуются новые компании, возникают новые отрасли промышленности. Только в одной Силиконовой долине — центре американских технологий (штат Калифорния) каждую неделю образуется более десятка новых компаний.

Если раньше экономику страны двигало вперед автомобилестроение и жилищное строительство, то сейчас локомотивом развития служат информационные технологии, которые обеспечивают примерно треть всего экономического роста. В сфере информатики и информационных технологий США не имеют себе равных. Так, в рейтинге 100 компаний сферы информационных технологий журнала Business Week 75 представляют США, а в первой двадцатке — 17 американских компаний.

Unit 3

AMERICAN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

Financial Institutions

In finance, the financial system is the system that allows the transfer of money between savers and borrowers. It comprises a set of

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complex and closely interconnected financial institutions, markets, instruments, services, practices, and transactions. Financial systems are crucial to the allocation of resources in a modern economy.

Lenders of funds are primarily households and firms and banks. These lenders can supply funds to the ultimate borrowers, who are mainly firms, government, and households, in two ways. The first one is through financial markets, which consist of money markets, bond markets and equity markets. The second is through financial intermediaries. These are credit institutions, such as banks, funds, insurance companies and pension funds, and others.

The financial structure is important for at least three reasons: efficiency, financial stability, and monetary policy transmission channels.

The efficiency determines how well it allocates resources, how it allows risk to be shared and how effective corporate governance is implemented. In the US financial stability was achieved by severely restricting the efficiency properties of the financial system after the Great Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression which convinced almost all governments to regulate their financial system. The financial liberalization aimed at improving efficiency led to the re-emergence of instability: banking crises, currency crises, asset-price bubbles and crashes. With imperfect capital markets the effects of monetary policy through interest rates affect consumption and investment at all levels.

The Federal Reserve System

The Federal Reserve System (informally the Fed) is the central banking system of the USA. It was created in 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act. Over time, the roles and responsibilities of the Federal Reserve System have expanded and its structure has evolved. Its duties today fall into four general areas:

•Conducting the nation’s monetary policy by influencing monetary and credit conditions for maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.

•Supervising and regulating banking institutions to ensure the safety of the economy, and protect the credit rights of consumers.

•Maintaining stability of the financial system.

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