Read the text and translate it into Russian

Vocabulary

1. Pattern – a particular way in which something is done, is organized, or happens

2. demand – a strongrequest

3. to share – to divide food, money, goods, etc. and give part of it to someone else

4. Public authorities – state organizations

5. revenue – the income that a government or company receives regularly

6. by virtue of their expertise in – благодаря их опыту в

7. census data – information of a count for official purposes

8. the primary source of information – the main origin of information about

9. m onograph – a long article or a short book on a particular subject

10. an academic scholar - a person who studies a subject in great detail, especially at a university

11. a panel of distinguished social scientists - an outstanding group of sociologists

12. heritage - features belonging to the culture of a particular society

13. the research director -scientific adviser

14. rumor -an unofficial, interesting story or piece of news that might be true or invented

15. to summarize to express the most important facts or ideas about something or someone in a short and clear formобобщать

16. served a valuable purpose - сыграли важную роль

17. to disband -to stop being a group

18. to point to – to make it seem likely that a particular fact is true or that a particular event will happen

19. the lack - the fact that something is not available

20. dissemination – the act of spreading news, information, ideas, etc. to a lot of people

21. link – connection

 

Ex.1. Give English equivalents for the following words and word combinations:

1. Указывать на социальные проблемы

2. Сыграли важную роль

3. Был расформирован

4. Социальные модели и тенденции

5. Ходили слухи

6. Группа выдающихся социологов

7. Научный руководитель

8. Данные переписей

Ex.2 Give Russian equivalents for the following words and word combinations

1. social and economic demand

2. to share experiences

3. academic scholars

4. It was rumored

5. careful monitoring of the social pulse

6. providing links

7. heritage

Ex.3 Match the lines in two columns together (find synonyms)

pattern                                       a) a count for official purposes

trend                                          b) a strong request

demand                                      c) a change in a situation

authority                                  d) a group of people with official responsibility

census                                        e) a person with great knowledge

a scholar                                    f) way in which something is done

 

                                                                          

Read the text and translate it into Russian

Perhaps the most illustrious publication of demographic research that attempts to reach beyond a completely academic audience is the journal Population and Development Review (PDR). The journal’s discouragement of technical virtuosity for its own sake has created an opening for research that illuminates general societal trends and patterns.

American Demographics began as an outlet for interesting accounts of demographic change in American society, but over the years, it has become more directed to the immediate information needs of business-oriented readers.

An extraordinarily valuable source of social demographic reporting on the United States is Current Population Reports (CPR), the periodic reports from the Census Bureau, based on the Current Population Survey (CPS). There are several series of CPR publications that describe the latest survey data on family and household living arrangements, school enrollment and attainment, fertility, migration, income and poverty, and other topics, usually presented in a time series with data from previous years. One of the great values of Current Population Reportsis the methodological discussion of the details of data collection, processing, and adjustment.

This knowledge gives social demographers an advantage in interpreting social trends relative to many sociologists (and other social scientists) who are oblivious to the problems in data collection and measurement in government surveys.

Another important but rarely understood issue in the study of inequality and stratification is the problematic measurement of income. Income is the most sensitive question in any census or survey and always encounters a high level of non response (about 10% in the CPS, see U.S. Bureau of the Census 1993: C-10). Even more consequential than non response is selective underreporting of certain types of income. This ‘‘methodological detail’’ has important implications for the often reported finding of increasing income inequality in the United States over the last two decades of the 20th century (DeNavas-Walt et al. 2001: 21).

Another part of the social demographic perspective is an appreciation of the significance of long-term population trends and differentials for understanding social change. The careful assembly of long-term trends in marriage, divorce, and remarriage (Cherlin 1992) and birth rates (Rindfuss and Sweet 1977) has provided important sociological insights about the economic and cultural changes in American society that produced the ‘‘return of tradition’’ in the 1950s and the tumultuous social changes of the 1960s and 1970s.

The elementary logic of demographic analysis focuses attention on the parallels between the life histories of individuals and cohorts as well as the distinction between period and cohort measures (Ryder 1964). This demographic perspective helps social demographers appreciate the value of summary measurements that describe social reality in an intuitive way.

The knowledge of methodological aspects of data sources, elementary demographic techniques, and the value of social description has permitted creative social demographers to ‘‘invent’’ new conceptual measures that illuminate the human condition.

Another major contribution of social demographic research was the extension of a measure of occupational prestige to a standardized index of the socioeconomic status of all occupations.

Sociological research had shown that a measure of the ‘‘social standing’’ of occupations yielded an interval scale index of occupational prestige that was almost invariant over time and across different populations (Hodge, Siegel, and Rossi 1964; Treiman 1977). The only problem was that occupational prestige was measured by detailed survey questions and only a few dozen of the hundreds of occupations had ever been rated and ranked. Duncan (1961a, 1961b) ‘‘invented’’ a method that showed that prestige scores could be reliably predicted as a weighted average of the income and educational attainments of occupational incumbents. The product of this research, the ‘‘Socioeconomic Index of Occupations,’’ has became a fundamental building block of modern social stratification research (Hauser and Warren 1997).

Although descriptive sociology is sometimes considered as a stepchild of the discipline, social demographers have invested considerable energy and ingenuity in social description and social accounting. They have a strong belief that cumulative science can develop only when important social science concepts are accurately and reliably measured.

Vocabulary

 

1. illuminates general societal trends and patterns – highlight common public vision regularities

2. the immediate information needs - the instant informative needs

3. An extraordinarily valuable source - A particularly essential source

4. family and household living arrangements - family lifestyle

5. school enrollment and attainment - school affiliation and achievement

6. fertility - the quality of being able to produce young (???)

7. income and poverty - money that is earned from doing work or received from investments and the condition of being extremely poor

8. the problematic measurement of income - the act or process of measuring money that is earned from doing work or received from investments

9. an appreciation of the significance of long-term population trends and differentials - an understanding of the importance of continuing a long time into the future all the people changing and various

10.  the tumultuous social changes – the violent social exchange one thing for another thing

11.   summary measurements - a short statement of the main ideas about the act of measuring

12. ‘‘social standing’’ - reputation, rank, or position in an area of activity, system, or organization

13.   An index of occupational prestige - a system of numbers used for comparing values of relating to or caused by your job a reputation for high quality, success, or social influence

14.   a weighted average - an average in which more value is given to some things than others depending on their importance

15.   descriptive sociology - A descriptive area of study in sociology is one that is based on saying what its subject is really like, rather than on developing theories about it

16.   cumulative science - increasing as each new amount is added or as each new fact or condition is considered in science