Exercise 1

Before you start working with the materials of this Unit, study the following words that we have chosen for you from the text.

1) due to - благодаря (чему-либо), из-за (чего-то) /Syn. - on account of/;

2) per annum (annually) - в год, ежегодно;

3) total man-power - людские ресурсы;

4) to be worth - стоить ( зд. - стоить усилий);

5) to estimate - оценивать;

6) (to) demand - требовать; спрос;

7) to achieve - достигать;

8) (to) set - устанавливать; набор, комплект.

Exercise 2

Consult the textbook and other reference materials you have at your disposal, in order to repeat the formation, use and Russian translation of the Passive Voice constructions.

Grammar Note: Remember that Passive is typically employed when the agent is not known or not of consideration, and when principle attention is paid to the action proper or to its result. Also, note the use of propositions by and with in the Passive.

Now, read the following text, paying attention to the meanings of the sentences containing predicates in the Passive Voice.

Text 4

In the United States of America, the national Department of Agriculture (USDA) published in 1998-2001 much statistical information which indicates that the dominant trend in American agriculture in the past years could be summarized in two words - increased productivity. It is apparent that productivity per farm worker had been steadily increased, for the most part, due to the intensive use of power machines, farm automation and application of other scientific developments, which is a sure result of technological revolution.

In 1820, each farm worker produced enough agricultural products to provide for himself and 3 others, and in the mid-1900s - for 14 people already. It was estimated that half of 44 per cent of an increased productionper worker between 1917-21 and 1945 was due to mechanization and the rest to scientific advances which resulted in growing yields. The production increase in crop farming dominates over livestock breeding, because crop production mechanization has been advanced to a considerably greater extent than that of livestock industry.

The increase in productivity per worker at the present round is about 4-5 per cent per annum. Say, in 1955, 12.5 per cent of total man-power in the USA were engaged in agriculture, and it has been estimated by the USDA that the proportion needed by 2004 should be down to about 5.3 per cent. Fifty years ago, labour made up over 32 per cent of the costs of farming; now it is only 3.1 per cent, and the machinery costs in agricultural production, on the other hand, have continued to increase sharply.

In regions, such as parts of the Middle West and of the Eastern States, where the farming is broadly comparable with that of Britain, American methods are worth studying on the account of economic matter, in which the farms are mechanized. Compared with similar British farms, the Americans usually have fewer machines. Yet, they work that equipment for long hours when the occasion demands, and achieve a high output per worker. Economy in mechanization is assisted by uniform easy-working soils and good-sized fields of regular shape. Moreover, the fact that there is often only one regular worker - the farmer himself - makes it easy to decide that only one set of implements is needed.

Mechanization methods applied in the USA attract the attention of many agricultural scientists and economists in Western and Eastern Europe. The organization of agriculture in the years to come will use less land, less labour, fewer but better trained and well skilled managers, and much more capital, machinery and various types of technology and know-how borrowed from related industries and distant fields of human activities. These trends have been in progress for decades, although it is likely that there will be a drastic change here, which seems to be originating from information technologies that will experience their introduction into farming practices and find puzzling use there that can even hardly be predicted today.