Exercise 1:
Probably the most important cause of productivity growth is progress in technology.
Workers today are able to produce more than the workers in the past, because technology has improved. Even with the same amount of capital, they can produce more, thanks to technological innovations.
Technological innovations doesn’t need to be very complex to have big effects. Historians have noted that past economic growth has been caused not only by big inventions, such as the train or the computer, but also by thousands of modest innovations, such as the Post-it® note, introduced in 1981, which has had surprisingly large benefits for office productivity.
Note : if you do not understand a word, you can look for it in this dictionary (click on the link).
Question 1: What is technology?
Question 2: What is productivity growth?
Question 3: Why is technological progress an important cause of productivity growth?
Question 4: Does an innovation have to be complex to have big consequences?
Question 5: Try to find an innovation that has made you more productive to do you student work (to learn it, to understand it, etc.). Explain in English to the student sitting next to you how this innovation has made you more productive. (Remember: it does not have to be complex!)
Question 6: What sort of innovation would you like to be invented to make you more productive as a student? Explain it to the student sitting next to you.