IV. Make up a plan covering the main ideas. Discuss the text according to the plan with your fellow students.

1. Ukraine is an integral part of the Soviet Union.

2. Economic decline.

3. Overcoming the problem.

4. Three economic districts.

5. Mining industry.

6. Resources of Ukraine.

7. Areas of natural gas and oil production.

8. Minerals.

9. The labor force of Ukraine.

V. Write a short summary of the text.

Ukraine 's modern economy developed as an integral part of the larger economy of the Soviet Union. In effect, a centrally directed transfer of wealth from Ukraine amounting to one-fifth of its national income helped finance economic development in other parts of the Soviet Union, notably Russia and Kazakhstan.

The collapse of the Soviet economy and a subsequent period of extreme currency inflation in Ukraine brought great hardship to most of the population. Citizens have compensated in a number of ways: more than half grow their own food, workers often hold two or three jobs, and many acquire basic necessities through a flourishing barter economy.

In 1995 and 1996 року, however, a strict monetary policy significantly reduced inflation and reforms toward a system based on free enterprise were accelerated. Ukraine introduced its new currency, the hryvnia. The country's bank of issue is the National Bank of Ukraine, founded in 1991 and located in Kyiv.

Ukraine can be divided into three economic areas: Southwestern, Donets-Dniprо and Southern. The Southwestern economic area has a high population density, a dense network of roads and railways.

Extractive industry is concentrated in the Donbas and along the Dnipro River. In the far west, mining takes place in the Lviv-Volyn coal basin north of Lviv and in Subcarpathia, south of Lviv and northeast of the Carpathian Mountains.

Ukraine has extremely rich mineral resources in high concentrations and close proximity to each other. It is rich in iron ore, manganese ore, bituminous and anthracite coal, brown coal. Ukraine has also deposits of titanium ore, bauxite, nepheline (a source of soda),mercury and uranium.

The three major areas producing natural gas and petroleum in Ukraine are Subcarpathian region, the Dnipro-Donets and Crimean regions. The most promising deposit of oil in Western Ukraine is the Dolyna field. In the Dnipro-Donets region the largest gas fields are Kharkiv Province.

Ukraine's depths are rich in non-metallic minerals, which are widely used in the national economy. The important ones among them are rock and potassium salts, sulfur, fire clay and building materials. The largest deposits of rock salt are centred in the Donbas and in Solotvyno in Transcarpathia.

The country 's labour force totaled 25.4 million people in 1996. Some 40 per cent of workers are employed in industry, 40 per cent in the service sector, and 20 per cent in agriculture. Unemployment is rising steadily, especially in the form of hidden unemployment, which includes people who have been kept on payrolls but have not been paid salaries.