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A Countrys Standard of Living The standard of living of any country means the average persons share of the goods and services the country produces. A countrys standard of living, ____1____, depends first and _____2____ on its capacity to produce wealth. Wealth in this sense is not money, for we do not live on money ______3_____ on things that money can buy: goods such as food and clothing, and services such as transport and entertainment1. A countrys capacity to produce wealth depends upon many factors, most of ____4___ have an effect on one another. Wealth depends _____5_____ a great extent upon a countrys natural resources. Some regions of the world are well supplied with coal and minerals, and have fertile soil and a favorable climate; other regions possess none of them. Next to natural resources ____6____ the ability to turn them to use. China is perhaps as well-off ____7_____ the USA in natural resources, but suffered for many years from civil and external was, and _____8_____ this and other reasons was _____9____ to develop her resources. Sound and stable political conditions, and ____10____ from foreign invasions, enable a country to develop its natural resources peacefully and steadily, and to produce more wealth than another country equally well favoured by nature but less well ordered2. A countrys standard of living does not only depend upon the wealth that is produced and consumed ______11_____ its own borders, but also upon what is directly produced through international trade. _____12______, Britains wealth in foodstuffs and other agricultural products would be much less if she had to depend only on ____13____ grown at home. Trade makes it possible for her surplus manufactured goods to be traded abroad for the agricultural products that would _____14_____ be lacking. A countrys wealth is, therefore, much influenced by its manufacturing capacity, _____15____ that other countries can be found ready to accept its manufactures. | 
