The World Bank

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programs. Its core activities:

Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger: From 1990 through 2004, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty fell from almost a third to less than a fifth. Although results vary widely within regions and countries, the trend indicates that the world as a whole can meet the goal of halving the percentage of people living in poverty. Africa's poverty, however, is expected to rise, and most of the 36 countries where 90% of the world's undernourished children live are in Africa. Less than a quarter of countries are on track for achieving the goal of halving under-nutrition.

Achieve Universal Primary Education: The number of children in school in developing countries increased from 80% in 1991 to 88% in 2005. Still, about 72 million children of primary school age, 57% of them girls, were not being educated as of 2005.

Promote Gender Equality: The tide is turning slowly for women in the labor market, yet far more women than men- worldwide more than 60% – are contributing but unpaid family workers. The World Bank Gender Action Plan was created to advance women's economic empowerment and promote shared growth.

Reduce Child Mortality: There is some what improvement in survival rates globally; accelerated improvements are needed most urgently in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated 10 million-plus children under five died in 2005; most of their deaths were from preventable causes.

Combat AIDS, Malaria, and Other Diseases: Annual numbers of new HIV infections and AIDS deaths have fallen, but the number of people living with HIV continues to grow. In the eight worst-hit southern African countries, prevalence is above 15 percent. Treatment has increased globally, but still meets only 30 percent of needs (with wide variations across countries). AIDS remains the leading cause of death in Sub-Saharan Africa (1.6 million deaths in 2007). There are 300 to 500 million cases of malaria each year, leading to more than 1 million deaths. Nearly all the cases and more than 95 percent of the deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Ensure Environmental Sustainability: Deforestation remains a critical problem, particularly in regions of biological diversity, which continues to decline. Greenhouse gas emissions are increasing faster than energy technology advancement.

Ex. 3. Form a word which fits in the blank space.

1.It’s not always possible to calculate product costs of multiple products … (ACCURATE).

2. You need product costs to make a …(COMPARE) between products.

3. Management may wish to expand the sales of the more … (PROFIT) product.

4. Process costing looks at the… (ACCUMULATE) costs in a department over a period of time.

5. Operating costing is the way of calculating the cost of the … (PROVIDE) of services.

6. Material losses which result from the nature of the operating method are usually not … (AVOID).

7.Losses caused by inefficient operations are … (PREVENT).

8. The disposal of waste might incur … (EXPEND).

9. Some costs may be … (RECOVER) by the sale of scrap.

10. Bookkepers normally don’t make a … (DISTINCT) between scrap and waste.

11. … (RECTIFY) may be possible on some products whichfail quality control.

12.In jobbing production there is usually no … (REPEAT) in desgn from previous orders.

UNIT 2

Text. Translate the text consulting your dictionary.