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简答题Reasons for the British coal mining is called a “sick” industry today.
  • Today the coal industry in Britain is on the decline，the number of miners, collieries and the total output have been falling.
    The reasons for the decline are as follows: exhaustion of old mines, costly operations of extraction, poor old equipment, little investment, fall in demand due to imports of cleaner, cheaper and more efficient fuels, etc.
    Britain’s oil and natural gas
    Natural gas was discovered in 1965 and oil in 1970 under the North Sea. Today Britain is not only self-sufficient in oil but also has a surplus for export. The transport and domestic heating systems mostly depend on oil. So does the food supply, because most agriculture is highly mechanized. Modern farming requires things which are all oil-based.
    British iron and steel industry is declining for the following reasons:
    1. Local supplies of iron ore have become exhausted;
    2. Old fashioned furnaces for making coke cannot recover valuable by-products;
    3. Blast furnaces高炉, steelworks钢铁厂, and rolling mills轧钢厂 are often separated from each other and thus cannot perform as well as more compact operation;
    4. Many steelworks have to be closed down, causing major unemployment in an area.
    The main textile producing regions of Britain are the East Midlands, Yorkshire约克郡, Humberside汉伯塞德郡, and Northern Ireland. New Industries
    New industries include microprocessors and computers, biotechnology and other high-tech industries. There are three areas in Britain which have seen some high-tech industrial growth: (1). the area between London and South Wales, (2). the Cambridge area of East Anglia and (3). the area between Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland. The third area is the most spectacular of the three and is now of ten referred to as the “Silicon Glen”. By the end of 1985 half of Britain’s microchip output was estimated to have come from Scotland. The reasons behind the decline of Britain's textile industry are:
    (1) Exports of textiles have not competed well with those of other foreign producers who have managed to produce cheaper goods.
    (2) There has been a rise in cheaper imports of textiles to Britain from foreign producers.
    (3) Poor and outdated management decisions have caused problem.
    (4) Substitutions of human-made fibers have been made for natural fibers.
    (5) An improvement of output per worker has been achieved, due to mechanization.

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