Text 15 Eating in Britain

Years ago a Frenchman said that the only way to eat well in Britain was to eat breakfast three times a day. And, let’s be honest, most British food was terrible – overcooked vegetables, greasy sausages, boring sandwiches. For a lot of people, eating was something you had to do to survive; it was certainly not an enjoyable experience. But things have changed…

Food has become more important in Britain. TV cooks are more famous than writers and their recipe books are bestsellers.

More of us eat out regularly and we can get excellent food in lots of different kinds of restaurants – French, Indian, Italian, Greek, Thai, Indonesian … even British!

Traditional British pubs serve surprisingly good meals at good prices.

British supermarkets are now full of exotic cooking ingredients, sauces, pasta, cheese, fruit and vegetables.

The British love all kinds of ‘international’ food. The most popular is now pizza and, according to a recent survey, 40% of British families have a curry for Sunday lunch, instead of traditional dishes like roast beef.

We eat less meat and more fresh fruit and vegetables. A growing number of people are becoming vegetarians. Even children know about sugar-free sweets.

That is the good news.

Unfortunately, there is also some bad news. As we work harder and have less time, we are eating more and more fast food and doing less exercise. For lunch many of us have a hamburger or sandwich and when we come home in the evening we put our ready-made dinner into the microwave before sitting down in front of the TV. Meals are no longer family occasions.

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Students at home and abroad

At 18, British school-leavers with A-levels can apply for a degree course at university. Most of these courses last for three years, and students must pay all of their own accommodation and living costs, and some of their tuition fees. Since 1990, the government has offered student loans to help the situation. The loans are between £3,000 and £5,000 per year depending on whether students live with their parents or away from home, and also whether or not they live in London.

Students have to pay back their loans when they leave university, but not until their income reaches £ 10,000 per year. The interest rates are low and there is no deadline for repayment.

However, most students find that the loans do not fully meet their needs, so many have to stay in the family home to avoid accommodation costs, or take part-time jobs while they are studying .

It is common these days for 18-year-old school leavers to take a ‘gap year'. Instead of going to university immediately after their A-levels, they go travelling for a year or do charity work abroad, often in exotic locations. Popular destinations for British gap year students are Australia , India and South Africa.

(1200 печатн.зн)

Answer the questions:

1. Who can apply for a degree course at university?

2. How long most of these courses last?

3. What must students pay?

4. What has the government offered since 1990?

5. What do the loans depend on?

6. Are the interest rates low?

7. What is a ‘gap year’?

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Adam Smith And The Wealth Of Nations

Seventeen seventy-six, the year that we associate with the signing of the Declaration of Independence, also marked the publication in England of one of the most influential books of our time, The Wealth of Nations. Written by Adam Smith, it earned the author the title "The father of economics."

Smith objected to the principal economic beliefs of his day. He differed with the physiocrats who argued that land was the only source of wealth. He also disagreed with the mercantilists who measured the wealth of a nation by its money supply, and who called for government regulation of the economy in order to promote a "favorable balance of trade."

In Smith's view, a nation's wealth was dependent upon production, not agriculture alone. How much it produced, he believed, depended upon how well it combined labor and the other factors of production. The more efficient the combination, the greater the output, and the greater the nation's wealth.

The heart of Smith's economic philosophy was his belief that the economy would work best if left to function on its own without government regulation. In those circumstances, self-interest would lead business firms to produce only those products that consumers wanted, and to produce them at the lowest possible cost. They would do this, not as a means of benefiting society, but in an effort to outperform their competitors and gain the greatest profit. But all this self-interest would benefit society as a whole by providing it with more and better goods and services, at the lowest prices.

To explain why all society benefits when the economy is free of regulation, Smith used the metaphor of the "invisible hand": "Every individual is continually exerting himself to find the most advantageous employment for whatever capital he can command. It is his own advantage, and not that of society, which he has in mind, but he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his inten­tion, for the pursuit of his own advantage necessarily leads him to prefer that employment which is most advantageous to society."

The "invisible hand" was Smith's name for the economic forces that we today would call supply and demand, or the marketplace. He sharply disagreed with the mercantilists who, in their quest for a "favorable balance of trade," called for regulation of the economy.

Instead, Smith agreed with the physiocrats and their policy of "laissez faire," letting individuals and businesses func­tion without interference from government regulation or private monopolies. In that way, the "invisible hand" would be free to guide the economy and maximize production.

The Wealth of Nations goes on to describe the principal elements of the economic system. In a famous section, Smith turned to the pin industry to demonstrate how the division of labor and the use of machinery increased output.

"One man draws out the wire, another straights it, a third cuts it, a fourth points it, a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the head; to make the head requires two or three distinct operations."

Although modern technology has improved the methods by which pins are produced, the principles pertaining to the division of labor remain unchanged.

Similarly, other sections dealing with the factors of produc­tion, money and international trade are as meaningful today as when they were first written.

You can see, therefore, that Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence and Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations have more in common than a birthday. More importantly, both contain some of the best descriptions of the principles upon which our political and economic systems are based.

(1505 печатн.зн)

Answer the questions:

1. What year do we associate with the signing of the Declaration of Independence?

2. What did Smith object to?

3. Why does all society benefits when the economy is free of regulation?

4. Who did Smith disagree with?

5. What does "laissez faire" mean?

6. Why do Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence and Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations have more in common than a birthday?