VII. Answer the following questions:

1. What is necessary for any country to grow? 2. What factor does the growth of population influence? 3. How many categories of labour are mentioned in the text? What are they? 4. What kind of work do unskilled workers perform? 5. What category do workers with mechanical ability fall into? 6. What kind of work are skilled workers able to do? 7. What is professional labour? Give examples. 8. What do most occupations have? 9. What is a wage rate? 10. Can you explain how the rates are determined?

VIII. Translate into English:

1. Для розвитку будь-якої країни необхідно мати кваліфіковану робочу силу. 2. Якщо приріст населення знижується, це врешті-решт впливає на зростання робочої сили. 3. Згідно з кваліфікацією є чотири головні категорії праці. 4. Некваліфіковані робітники не підготовлені для роботи з машинами. 5. Напівкваліфіковані робітники працюють з технікою, яка потребує певних умінь. 6. Кваліфіковані працівники оперу­ють складним обладнанням. 7. Більшість видів робіт має встановлений рівень оплати за виконану роботу.

Reading drills

1. Practise the pronunciation of the following words:

a) stress the first syllable:

measuring, measurable, value, labour, payment, strict, scientist, regular, nature, standard, judge, human, different, nurse, social, simply, wages, nation, national, render, force, private, profit, business, surplus, partly, enterprise.

b) stress the second syllable:

economist, although, financial, reward, concern, essentially, distinction, aware, activity, provide, available, religious, engage, return, assistant, employ, employer, objective, subjective;

c) stress the third syllable:

undertake, economics, scientific, population.

Text B

Money is not only a means of exchange¹ but is also a means of measuring the value of men’s labour. In economic theory, labour is any work undertaken in return² for a fixed payment. The work undertaken by a mother in caring for her children may be hard work, but it receives no fixed payment. It is not therefore labour in the strict economic sense.

As a scientist, the economist is interested in measuring the services which people render to each other. Although he is aware of the services which people provide for no financial reward, he is not concerned with these services. He is interested essentially in services which are measurable in terms of money payments of a fixed and/or regular nature. In economics, money is the standard by which the value of things is judged. This standard is not a religious or subjective standard, but an objective and scientific one.

Human labour produces both goods and services. The activities of a farmworker and a nurse are very different, but both are measurable in terms of payment received. Labour in this sense is not concerned with distinctions of social class, but simply with the payment of wages in return for work. When we talk about «the national labour force», however, we are thinking of all those people who are available for work within the nation, i.e.³ the working population.

It should be noted that any person engaged in private business is not paid a fixed sum for his activities. He is self-employed⁴ and his activities are partly those of an employer⁵ and partly those of an employee⁶. If however he employs an assistant, to whom he pays a fixed wage, his new employee provides labour in return for payment. He receives his wages, while his employer receives the surplus (large or small) from the whole business. This surplus is the reward of private enterprise and is known as «profit⁷».