Методические указания по теме "Моя специальность" для студентов 2 курса отделения "Прикладная информатика (в экономике)". Терехова Г.В. - 10 стр.

      The British Isles form a group lying off the north – west coast of Europe with a
total area of about 121,600 square miles.The seas surrounding the British Isles are
everywhere shallow. These shallow waters are important because they provide
excellent fishing grounds as well as breeding grounds for the fish.Britain has a
generally mild and temperate climate. It lies in middle latitudes to the north-west of
the great continental land mass of Eurasia.The climate is subject to frequent changes
but to few extremes of temperature.
      Most of Britain is agricultural land of which about a third is arable and the rest
pasture and meadow. Farming land is divided into fields by hedges, stone walls or
wire fences and, specially in the mixed farms which cover most of the country,
presents a pattern of contrasting color. The cool temperate climate of Britain and the
even distribution of rainfall ensure a long growing season.
      According to the Ministry of Labor there are 17000 different occupations in
Great Britain, but they fall into three main classes. First, there is industry, i.e. the
work of turning raw materials into finished goods. Secondly, there is commerce, i.e.
the distribution of goods, there transport and all the financial operations connected
with them. Thirdly, there are direct services to the community, the work of, for
example, the teacher, the doctor or the actor.
      Industrial work is of two types: first, the extractive industries, i.e. the industries
which are concerned with the getting of wealth from the land or sea, e.g. agriculture,
fishing, mining; and secondly, the manufacturing industries whose work it is to
change the gifts of nature into the forms the people require, e. g. the engineering and
textile industries, or the constructive industries which take the finished products of
the manufacturers to build them into something else.
     When one speaks of the industries of Britain, it is chiefly the ‘heavy industries’
or the textile industries that one has in mind.
      About 3-5 per cent of the coal produced in Britain is exported, chiefly from
Newcastle, Hull, Cardiff, Liverpool and Glasgow. About one quarter of the coal is
coked for smelting iron or for producting coal gas, and from the by-products of this
process are manufactured a whole host of things, ranging from explosives to dyes,
from fertilisers to aspirins, from saccharine to plastics.
      Within recent years the motor – engineering industry has become one of the
most important in Britain. It is located in the Birmingham area, the Greater London
area, the Oxford area and the Luton area.
      Though the textile industries of Britain are not so fundamental as coal or iron,
they employ nearly a million people and, since they account for almost 10 per sent of
Britain’s exports,they are among the ones best known abroad.
      Few British industries have so long a history or have done so much to forward
Britain’s commercial prosperity as the woolen industry, and there is perhaps no
British industry that owes more to the foreigner for its development.
      Bradford of Yorkshire holds pride of place in almost every branch of the trade
whether for the manufacture of woolen or mohair goods.



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