Read the text Division of labour

Wonders of Cornwall

A glimpse of Great Britain.

Britain is washed by the Atlantic Ocean and has a much longer coast line than Sweden, so the tide there is much more noticeable. Maybe the best place to see it is Cornwall – the lowest western ‘corner’ of Bri tain, where the rocky coast forms a sharp angle into the ocean. The point of this angle has a very appropriate name: Land’s End. Because of the Gulf Stream, Cornwall is the warmest part of Britain. Even palm trees can grow there. That is why this part of the country attracts the British so much – just like the Crimea or Sochi attract the Russians.

Twice a day the gravitational force of the moon pulls the ocean backwards. This is called ‘low tide’. You can walk or sit on a sandy beach or enjoy rock-climbing.

Lots of people spend their holidays on the picturesque Cornish coast.

Unite 13

Pre-text exercises

1. Find the transcription of new words in a dictionary: division, successful, resource, sew, dye, society, specialization, responsible, industrialize, experience. Try to read them fluently.

2. Word-building
Compile and translate:
success n. + -ful →
special a. + -ize →
to hunt υ. + -er →
use n. + -ful →

Without the factors of production, companies cannot get started. To be successful, however, they need to make good use of those resources. To make best use of labour, you need to organize it. The division of labour is one way to achieve this.

Let’s take making shirts as an example. What do you need to do to make a shirt? You need to design it, find the right material, cut the material, sew the pieces together, dye the shirt and sew on the buttons. One person working on their own could probably do all these tasks. This is one way to organize labour. Another way is for a number of workers to share the job. Each worker is responsible for one task in the process. This is an example of the division of labour.

The division of labour isn’t a new idea. Even very early societies had some form of labour specialization. For example, in some societies men were hunters and gatherers of food, while women were responsible for child rearing. However, as societies became industrialized, the division of labour increased. Factories became the main means of production, and each factory worker became responsible for smaller and smaller stages in the process.

As each worker gets more and more experience at doing their particular task, they get better and better at it.

This should improve the quality of their work. With smaller tasks to do, workers can do things automatically, without thinking about them. This will speed up their productivity, and speed up the whole production process. Finally, small tasks are easier to learn. As the division of labour increases, the amount of time needed to train each worker decreases. All of this means a more efficient and productive workforce... at least, in theory.

There is, however, a human factor to consider. Workers are not machines. Their physical and emotional health has an impact on their productivity. Repeating the same simple task over and over again is very boring. Bored workers can’t concentrate easily, and their mistakes will reduce the quality of their output. In addition, there is the problem of ownership. Many workers take pride in their work. They don’t just work for wages, but also because they get satisfaction from doing a good job or from creating something useful or beautiful.

Thankfully, robots and machines can now do many of the mindless tasks that factory workers used to do. Nevertheless, the theory of the division of labour is still fundamental to all modern economies.

Words:

factors of production — факторы to improve — улучшать
производства to speed up — ускорять
division of labour — разделение productivity — производитель-
труда ность
right — подходящий to train — обучать
to sew — шить human factor — человеческий
to dye — красить фактор
responsible — ответственный impact — воздействие
a number of — несколько boring — утомительный
society — общество output — выход продукции
to rear — воспитывать ownership — собственность
experience — опыт useful — полезный

Post-text exercises

Working on the text

I. Find answers in the text:

1. What is the division of labour? 2. Is the division of labour a new idea? 3. Did the division of labour increase productivity in industrialized societies? 4. Did the division of labour improve the quality of work? 5. Will the division of labour speed up production processes? 6. What role do robots and machines play in production processes? 7. Will computers help to free people from boring and mindless work? 8. Why is it important to consider a human factor?

Дата добавления: 2014-12-29