Unit twelve

Notes

l) the hunter's trap — ловушка (капкан, западня) охотника

2) the dream has come true — мечта сбылась

3) labour-intensive operation — трудоемкая операция

4) programme-controlled units — устройства, регулируемые с помощью программы

5) can take over individual production operations — может брать на себя выполнение отдельных производственных операций

IV. Answer the following questions:

1. What dream of mankind has come true? 2. What operations do automatic systems perform? 3. How do you understand the main trend of automation?

V. Render the information of text В to your partner.

LESSON FOUR

I. Look through the list of words facilitating reading text C:

to lend — придавать; to relieve — облегчать, освобождать; to be engaged in — быть занятым; employed in industry — занятый в промышленности; at a faster rate — с большей скоростью; hardly — едва; to regard — рассматривать; conventional labour — обычный труд; mental work — умственная работа; a unique opportunity-единственная возможность; to do away with — покончить (с чём-л.); a heap of metal — гора металла; scope — масштаб, возможность; volume of output —• объем продукции.

II. Read the following text carefully. While reading look for the answers to the given questions:

1. How does automation help a worker in his hard physical labour? 2. What does automation offer the society? 3. Is unemployment an inevitable consequence of automation?

Text С

Humanization of Labour

1. And what happens to a worker whose place is taken by an automatic machine? Specialists believe that automation alters the character of labour, lending it a new social status, rather than ousts the worker from the production process¹.

2. First of all, thanks to automation, the worker is relieved of traditionally hard physical labour. To keep machinery working properly, a worker needs knowledge and an engineering qualification rather than strong hands. The number of such workers in industry is increasing. Actually, the number of those engaged in operations that are fully mechanized or automated is growing at a faster rate than the number of workers employed in industry. What many of them do can hardly be regarded as the conventional labour of an industrial worker. For instance, the adjusters and operators² of automatic metal-machining equipment, workers at chemical plants, steel smelters and rolling-operators³ spend more than half their time doing mental work. The proportion of such work in some branches of industry has reached 80 per cent. In terms of social progress, automation offers society a unique opportunity to humanize labour. Both hard physical work and monotonous work that is bad for one's mental health can be done away with to a large extent or altogether, while in other cases their dangerous intensification can be reduced, occupational risks brought down to zero.

3. Having relieved the worker of heavy or monotonous operations the automatic machine can add to his productivity and greatly increase man's power over nature. But even a fully automatic factory is nothing but a heap of metal. Only the worker's hands and brain can set it in motion.

4. It goes without saying⁴ that automation in a particular factory or industry reduces the amount of labour needed. However, does that mean that unemployment is an inevitable consequence of automation? Practice indicates that this is not so. Planned management of the economy makes it possible to obtain and maintain an optimal balance between the scope of automation, volume of output and labour resources.

Notes

1) ousts the worker from the production process — вытесняет рабочего из производственного процесса

2) the adjusters and operators — монтеры (сборщики) и операторы

3) steel smelters and rolling-mill operators — сталелитейщики и операторы прокатного стана

4) it goes without saying — само собой разумеется

III. Say whether the following statements are true or false:

1. Specialists believe that automation alters the character of labour. 2. Thanks to automation the worker is relieved of hard physical labour. 3. Automation doesn't offer a unique opportunity to humanize labour. 4. Automation in a particular factory or industry reduces the amount of labour needed.

IV. Find the answers to the following questions:

1. What does automation alter? 2. How can the worker be relieved of traditionally physical labour? 3. Why does a worker need an engineering qualification? 4. What can set in motion a fully automatic factory?

V. Find the main information of paragraph 2 and render it to your group-mate.

VI. Say what planned management of economy obtains and maintains.

VII. You are asked to make a report. The subject of your report is

"Automation". While preparing it you may use the information of texts А, В and С. The following plan will help you:

1. Automation.

2. Mechanization.

3. The difference between automation and mechanization.

4. Automation and the character of labour.

■ Grammar: Complex Subject (§ 13). Emphatic Construction. It is (was)... that (who) (§18). Form-words both... and, neither... nor, either... or.

• Word Formation: v + – en/-ant= adj

adj + -ify/-fy = v

• Individual Work: Lab Work "Complex Subject".

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