Revision (Units 1 - 5)

1. Сегодня невозможно представить успешное поступательное развитие экономики без современной транспортной системы и достаточных доступных энергоресурсов.

2. Потребители стремятся экономить на счетах за электроэнергию и другие коммунальные услуги, поэтому и покупают энергосберегающие электроприборы и бытовую технику.

3. По оценкам экспертов, только разведанных неосвоенных запасов нефти в Российской Арктике достаточно для придания мощного импульса развитию экономики страны и поддержания ее устойчивого роста в ближайшие 50-60 лет.

4. В последнее время все большую озабоченность у общественности вызывают вопросы, связанные с вредом, наносимым некоторыми устаревшими промышленных предприятий, причем многие призывают закрыть как действующие, так и простаивающие.

5. Часто недружественными странами применяется режим эмбарго, либо другие торговые ограничения.

6. Люди расточительны в своих тратах электроэнергии и топлива, - а ведь их потомки вряд ли обрадуются, узнав, что нефть иссякла, запасы газа истощены, зато необходимо избавиться или переработать огромные запасы ядерных отходов.

7. В условиях неустойчивости экономики, убыточнее компании стремятся либо объединяться, либо сокращать издержки за счет массовых увольнений персонала, при этом пытаясь стимулировать спрос на свои товары или услуги, предлагая огромные скидки.

Exercise № 30

Revision (Units 1-5)

1. There is unlikely to be a substantial drop in demand even if economic weakness continues.

2. The falling sales in Eastern European markets have been offset by stronger performance elsewhere.

3. In America, big businesses account for a much greater share of manufacturing employment than they do in Britain.

4. Quite a number of production inputs including cheap labor and abundant raw materials account for more outsourced jobs in the region.

5. With protection on the rise, cross-border trade is collapsing.

6. The worse-than-expected data on Eurozone’s industrial output drop is an indication that the recession is becoming more pronounced.

7. Many domestic businesses enjoy a steady growth, but some are in hard-hit industries like capital goods and cars, with surging seasonal demand for oil and gas.

8. A recovery worthy of the name is still to come.

9. Germany’s recent decision to forgo nuclear power will have a huge impact on acceleration of clean energy demand. Yet, despite these gains, cohesive action on a global or at least multilateral scale remains elusive.

10. Some fast-food restaurants and takeaway businesses in Manchester and Newcastle have seen trade drop by as much as much as 40 per cent since reports emerged that the Chinese community was linked to the outbreak of the ‘bird flu’ epidemic.

11. The biggest challenge was that we had a great product but we had no idea how to break into the market.

12. Germany still suffers shortages of skilled labour in some industries and it hardly looks like El Dorado to unskilled migrants: the latest forecast is that the economy will shrink by another 6% this year.

13. With lean manufacturing in place, today multinationals needn’t carry large inventories and can enjoy the benefits of ‘just-in-time’ production scheme.

14. Many consider the EU’s decision to negotiate bilateral tariff cuts to be a sign of Russia’s rising economic influence in Europe: the EU accounted for almost a half of Russia’s trade in 2010, with the total at about $300bn, according to Renaissance Capital.

15. Every crisis, it is assumed, is also an opportunity. Fewer subsidies and import duties would provide incentives for farmers around the world to increase food production and exports, the WTO argues.

16. Oil was in a holding pattern Wednesday near $101 a barrel as the U.S. government shutdown put the release of weekly crude supplies figures on hold.

17. Yet those wanting to join the WTO must strike deals with each of the existing members - now a daunting 152.

18. The recent seizure of a stateless ship in international waters 2,600 miles off Alaska’s coast has spotlighted the challenge that the U.S. and other nations face in trying to crack down on illegal fishing, an activity that accounts for up to $23.5 bln year in global economic losses.

19. The UN estimates suggest that the global population will cross 10 billion by 2085.

20. The challenge is being met partly through foreign investor’s expertise and improving infrastructure.

21. Yet it is clear in the trucking and air cargo sectors that rapid improvements are under way.

22. However, the transport sector enjoys advantages from its low costs and the location near the Pearl and Yangtze Rivers.

23. Progress has been slowest on China’s railways, which suffer from limited capacity and tend to shunt freight out of the way to make way for passenger trains and military shipments.

24. Still a rapid improvement in performance would be no surprise in the railways, given how quickly other modes of transport have improved.

25. But the combination of increased commodity revenues and investors seeking safety in Canadian assets has caused the local currency to take off.

26. Given the dicey economics of the New York stage, especially for musicals (which can cost around $10m to put on), it seems understandable that producers are becoming more creative in how they raise funds.

27. Traditionally, Radio Shack traded on convenience and its inventory of odd electronics parts that one couldn't find elsewhere. In its heyday, RS customers would willingly pay premium prices for the value it provided.

28. While our competitions were only interested in their customers coming to patronize them, we were more concerned about strengthening our relationship with our clients. We believed in a very simple logic: make every customer into a friend by caring first about their life before asking for their money and it will be hard for any competition to steal them away.

29. Today coal accounts for some 43% (by weight) of what is moved on American freight trains.

30. The sharp decline of marriage among manual workers may be down to the relative decline of blue collars’ earning power.

31. A study by the Resolution Foundation, a think-tank, found that between 1968 and 2008 women accounted for three times more of working class families’ income growth than men. Coupled with a more generous welfare system, this has made women far less dependent on a man’s income to raise children.

32. “The support will start with analysis by a consultancy firm to assess the selected companies’ business operations to identify issues that constrain growth, and their opportunities for expansion,” said the RDB manufacturing development division manager.

33. The race to ever-bigger ships has a downside: The “Party” can’t last forever in the notoriously cyclical shipping industry. And a slowdown in demand for Chinese goods could be disastrous for the companies that build, own, and operate the giant ships. That means the push for bigger ships could be sowing the seeds of the industry’s next downturn. Some analysts, though, predict growing exports from China will absorb the new capacity.

34. Foreign orders are still falling despite a weaker rouble, according to the HSBC survey.

35. Russia’s principal trading partner, Europe, along with the United States, is slowing and this is hitting demand for energy and metals. Thus Asia is considered to be the main hope for exporters.

36. There’s no clear legal standard for an “adequate” weighing of costs and benefits of financial regulations, since both are so difficult to measure. And putting the question into the laps of federal judges gives the Wall Street a huge tactical advantage because the Street has almost an infinite amount of money to hire so-called “experts” who will use elaborate methodologies to show benefits have been exaggerated and costs underestimated.

37. Despite a big tax increase on January 1st, employment, retail sales and housing all performed sturdily in January and February this year. Gross domestic product, which stalled at the end of 2012, is thought to have grown at a healthy 3% or more, at an annualized rate, in the first quarter. The stock market duly hit fresh highs.

38. Then in March the news abruptly turned sour. After averaging 208,000 in January and February, employment growth slowed sharply to just 88,000. Retail sales, excluding cars and petrol, dropped—as did new construction starts on single-family homes.

39. Government statisticians use models to adjust the raw data for seasonally recurring effects, such as extra-strong retail sales in December or slack construction in the winter. But any residual change should reflect actual trends in the economy, not the vicissitudes of the calendar (смена времен года).

40. Michael Feroli, an economist at J.P. Morgan, offers a slightly different take. Large firms, he says, tend to do most of their hiring in the fourth quarter, whereas smaller ones mostly hire in the second quarter. Since the recession ended in 2009, large firms have been healthier than small firms, which could explain the pattern - why employment consistently strengthens in the fourth quarter and weakens in the second.

41. The average starting salary for a member of the class of 2013 is around $44,000, up 5.3% from the previous year, driven by big gains in fields such as health sciences and business. But these figures are relevant only for those graduates lucky enough to find a job during college-recruiting season or soon after.

42. Engineering salaries rose, on average, 4% over the previous year to $62,535, but other industries saw larger increases. Those majoring in health sciences will see a 9.4% increase over last year, while business majors’ salaries will rise 7.1%. The grads seeing the smallest pay bump are humanities and social-science majors, whose starting salaries inched up 1.9%, to $37,058.

43. Engineers took seven of the top ten spots in NACE’s April survey, with petroleum engineers–a category added this year–earning the most, with average starting salaries of $93,500. The survey is based on data from 400,000 employers, gathered from government and private sources. And the data reflects actual starting salaries, not offers. [NACE - National Association of Colleges and Employers]

44. Boeing’s design priority on the 787 Dreamliner — aside from safety — was to have a system that could generate enough electricity. It produces as much electricity as a small village; you could power 400 houses or thereabouts just with electricity generated on this airplane.

45. Shares in Costa Coffee owner Whitbread have given up most of their gains this morning, after earlier climbing as much as 2.2pc on the release of the group's full-year results.

46. With health savings accounts, employers set up new company-funded accounts that employees use to pay out-of-pocket health costs for, say, visiting a specialist or getting treatment for the flu.

47. Some experts say the luxury industry’s involvement in charitable and social projects can create consumer confusion. “While individuals can be both ‘selfish’ and ‘selfless’ depending on the circumstances, they can never be both at the same time,” says Carlos Torelli, associate professor of marketing at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota.

48. But while in order to change things you’d need people to stop buying luxury watches, and give more money to developing countries, it may be easier to persuade them to give a small percentage of their purchase price to good causes.”

49. Bloomberg Businessweek has seen a strong pattern of growth since relaunching in 2010 and the rate base increase and new regional editions further demonstrate its commitment to continued investment.

50. Pearson’s trading update this morning releases figures that demonstrate impressive digital growth at the Financial Times after their recent shiftto a single global print edition.

51. Today, Amazon surprised its investors by demonstrating growth that was more anemic than usual, thanks in part to a slow holiday season.

52. The company [Ono] will update the market on its recent trading in the next few days, said one person with knowledge of the situation, which is expected to show an improvement in mobile subscription numbers and internet customers, offsetting the effect on revenues from competition in the pay-TV market.

53. The future still belongs to the emerging markets: Just as the west has emerged from crisis before, the newcomer economies will return to growth.

54. The reason for this is that the factors that have propelled the rise of non-western economies in the past 40 years still apply. These include lower labour costs, rising productivity, huge improvements in the communications and transport that connect them to global markets, a rising middle class, a boom in world trade as tariffs have fallen and the spread of best practice in everything from management techniques to macroeconomic policy. Added to this is the drive of people all over the world – from factory hands to entrepreneurs – who have realised that they are not condemned to poverty, and that a better life is there for the taking.

55. There is an odd divide here. Ask why one person had an unproductive day at work, and lack of sleep often seems an obvious answer. But ask why national productivity has fallen, and reduced sleep can appear to be a frivolous answer. Yet what is total output but the sum of all individuals’ work?

56. Incoming orders had picked up considerably, but we hadn’t figured out how to match the pace on the shop floor. This new pattern was hard to see looking at yearly statistics, because 2012 had been a disaster, and we had only completed a single month of 2013.

57. While the small vessels (суда) have always played a part in moving goods to and from the ports on China’s coast, they are becoming increasingly important because manufacturing is no longer so concentrated in places a short truck ride from the sea.

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