Английский разговорный язык. Практическое пособие по развитию устной речи - стр. 8

A socialist ministry ignores these challenges because bureaucrats learn that doing something is more likely to get them in trouble than doing nothing, unless doing nothing results in absolute disaster.

Absolute economic disaster was reached in the Soviet Union and its Eastern former satellites, which made President Mikhail Gorbachev announce his intention to reconstruct the economy from top to bottom by introducing the market, reestablishing private ownership, and opening the system to free economic interchange with the West. Seventy years of socialism had come to an end.

abort – прерывать (обыч. беременность)

apex – вершина, макушка

architect – архитектор

bureaucrat – бюрократ

bureaucratization – бюро – кратизация

centrally – централизованно

challenge – «вызов», опасность

clog – засорять, забивать

clot – сгущаться, тромбировать(ся), забивать

cornerstone – краеугольный камень

cruelty – жестокость

directive – директива

disaster – катастрофа, беда

failure – неудача, провал

force – сила; вынуждать силой

forsee – предвидеть

gap – провал, разрыв, пробел

ignore – игнорировать

institute – устанавливать, вводить

interchange – взаимообмен

malfunction – неправильное функционирование

maximize – максимизировать

ministry – министерство

mobilize – мобилизовать

partial – частичный

prerevolutionary – дореволюционный

ratio – коэффициент, соотношение

reestablish – восстанавливать

remedy – лекарство, лекарственное средство

stuff – вещество, вещи, мусор; набивать

surpass – превосходить, оставлять позади

target – цель

warehouse – склад (оптовый)

put in practice– ввести в практику

profit drive – стремление к прибыли

pyramid of command – командная пирамида

target rate of growth – целевые темпы роста

due to the fact – благодаря тому факту

on-site – «на месте»

is more likely – в большей степени вероятно

from top to bottom – сверху донизу

Exercise 4

Answer the questions:

1. What is the definition of socialism?

2. Who is usually thought to be the architect of socialism?

3. What was Lenin trying to substitute the profit drive and the market mechanism with?

4. What made Lenin introduce NEP?

5. What was the role of Gosplan?

6. What was the number one problem for the socialist planning?

7. What products were the Soviet goods to compete with?

8. Why was the economic flow increasingly clogged and clotted in the Soviet economic system?

9. What was the real danger of socialism for the national economic system?

10. What intention did Mikhail Gorbachev announce?

During the days of communism in the Soviet Union, an inspector was encharged with visiting local chicken farmers and inquiring about the amount of feed they were giving their chickens. Central planning was still in effect and each farmer was allocated 15 Roubles to spend on chicken feed.

One farmer very honestly answered that he spent five of the allocated 15 Roubles on chicken feed. The inspector took this to mean that the farmer stole the other ten and sent the farmer to prison.

Having heard of this, the next farmer down the road insisted that he spent all 15 Roubles on food for the chickens. The inspector saw this as a case of deficit spending and the second farmer too was imprisoned.

The third farmer heard of both episodes and was more prepared for the inspector's arrival.