Vocabulary notes

laundry product – прачечный продукт

to put off – отстранить

to perceive – воспринимать

fabric softener – смягчитель ткани

liquid – жидкость

premium – надбавка, премия

to slash – резко сократить

landfills – местные рынки

shift – сдвиг, смещение

capturing – охватывающий

otherwise – иначе, иным способом

environmental consultant – консультант по окружающей среде

conspicuous – заметный

undesirable – нежелательный

disposal – удаление, избавление

source reduction – сокращение источника

buzzword – ходкое слово, молва

to embrace – охватывать

light-weighting – лёгкий вес

refillable – восполняемый

to overlap – частично покрывать

recycling – переработка втор сырья

virgin materials – первичные материалы

available - доступный

Comprehension and Discussion Questions

1. If you are put off by something, does it attract you?

2. If you keep a good idea down, do you

   1. suppress it, or

   2. keep it to use later?

3. If a success is conspicuous is it visible?

4. Is critical mass a good thing in this context?

Unit IX Text I. Support for Economic and Political Freedom

In 1776, the Declaration of Independence heralded the birth of the United States of America. In that same year Adam Smith’s seminal work on the importance of free markets and fair competition, The Wealth of Nations, was published. The principles in the Declaration of Independence have informed and enriched the lives of Americans and peoples the world over who yearn for civil and political freedom. Adam Smith’s work sparked a debate on economic freedom and the role of the state in a nation’s economy – a debate that raged in the 20^th century between those favoring a free market-based economy and those favoring a state-planned economy. With few exceptions in the world today, nations have chosen to let market forces determine the direction and speed at which their economies develop.

We believe that intellectual property – copyrights, trademarks, patents, trade secrets, and related right – provides important support to those freedoms. Barbara Ringer, former U.S. register of copyrights, observed that the copyright laws of England and the United States were “based on the harsh but free system of enterprise that grew up in England and America. Under this system, authors are free to write and live by writing if they can manage to command the attention of a large enough segment of the populace to make the dissemination of their works even marginally profitable.”

Trademark protection is similarly imbued with these characteristics. A free market can hardly exist without a strong and effective trademark law. Without sanctity for a commercial identity – thereby to enjoy the fruits of one’s labor – free enterprise and the beneficial competition it engenders are without motivation. Patent protection gives inventors the exclusive right to exploit their inventions. This exclusive right gives them the economic security and, thereby, the freedom to follow any path along which their human ingenuity and imagination may lead them. It is not without reason that the 1948 International Declaration of Human Rights states, in Article 27(2), that every creator has the right to the protection of his or her interest “resulting from any scientific, literary, or artistic production of which he is the author.”