Английский для экономистов (учебник английского языка) - Денис Шевчук

Economic Institution

– a physical or mental structure that significantly influences economic decisions

Economic policy

– an action (or inaction) taken, usually by government, to influence economic events.

Economic model

– simplified representation of reality.

Positive Economics

– the study of what is, and how the economy works.

Normative Economics

– the study of how the economy should be, from society’s standpoint.

Ex. 1. To show that you understand the words given above, choose the best word to complete the following sentences. Add noun, verb or adverb endings if necessary.

1. Home … is a subject studied at school and college in which students are taught how to run a house well and efficiently.

2. New England’s … is still largely based on manufacturing.

3. All Western … are competing against each other.

4.These businesses contribute hundreds of millions of pounds to the … of the country.

5. I switched off the lights as an … measure.

6. If you make …, you take action in order to save money, by not spending it on unnecessary things.

7. You’ll have to travel … class.

8. Buy our new … packs of 100.

9. If you are really going to buy a car, we’ll have to … on other things.

10. In his works he explains the ideas of the great English … J.M. Keynes.

11. She thought of herself as an … wife.

12. This system was extremely … because it ran on half-price electricity.

13. What has gone wrong with the … system during the last ten years?

14. The book is very … written, but very warm.

15. … is the oldest of social sciences.

Ex. 2. Look at the following derivatives. Use your knowledge of English and logical reasoning to explain the meaning of each word below.

system, systematic, systematically, systematize, systemic

Use these words in the following sentences.

1. The police made a .... search of the building.

2. You need some … in your work if you want to succeed.

3. I wish they’d organize themselves more … .

4. … insecticides spread all through a plant and kill any insects that feed on it.

5. This method helps … the information received.

Ex. 3. Add appropriate words where there are blanks in the sentences below and you’ll get the definitions of the words in bold. Some words can be used in their different meanings.

imply, convey, standpoint, overall, range, scarce, free, available, utility, rate, output, environment, artifact, discretion

1. The … is the total set of outside forces surrounding and shaping the behaviour of the organization and its members.

2. To … information, ideas, feelings, etc. means to cause them to be known or understood by someone.

3. Someone or something that is … is not restricted, controlled by rules, customs, or other people.

4. An … is an object that is made by a person.

5. The … of something is the total area or extent within which it can operate effectively, and beyond which it is no longer effective.

6. If something is …, there is not very much of it, and there may be enough for those who want or need it.

7. If something is …, you can have it or use it without paying for it.

8. If you … people or things, you arrange them in a line or in lines.

9. If you … that something is the case, you suggest that it is the case without actually saying so.

10. The … at which something happens is the speed at which it happens over a period of time.

11. The … of something is how useful and practical it is.

12. … is used to describe a situation in general, including everything but not considering the details.

13. The … of taxation is the level of it.

14. If something is …, you are able to use it or obtain it.

15. A … is an important service such as water, electricity, or gas provided for everyone.

16. If you … something highly, you consider that it is important.

17. Someone who is … is not busy and is therefore free for you to talk to.

18. A … is a particular way of looking at or thinking about an event, situation, or idea.

19. Someone’s … is the amount of something that they make or produce.

20. … is the quality of behaving in a quiet and controlled way without drawing attention to yourself or giving away personal or private information.

Ex. 4. Give synonyms to the following words. Be ready to give your own examples to show the difference in their meanings.

Affect, effect, aggregate, change, demand, allocate, borrow, income, seek, require, fair, refer to, scarcity, ultimate, restrict.

Ex. 5.  Give the opposite meaning to each word. Make up your own sentence with each word.

Push, appear, diverse, lend, facilitate, available, output, fair, increase, completely, complicate.

Ex. 6. Consult the dictionary and find the root words to the following:

Help, participate, contribute, allocate, mean, equitable, prevent, assemble, perform, imply, consider, scarce, benefit, value, societal, vary, certainly, compete.

Ex. 7. Make the following words negative.

Regard, responsible, desirable, respective, checked, doubt, certainty.

Ex. 8. Read the following definitions. Can you guess the word they all refer to?

1. A company or a business.

2. Something new, difficult, or important that you do or try to do.

3. A system of business, especially one in a particular country.

4. The ability to think of new and effective things to do, together with an eagerness to do them

(You can find the word in text 1, paragraph 1).

Now check your understanding. Insert the missing words. Translate the sentences into Russian.

1. He said he had doubts about the whole … .

2. This has done much to damage national … .

3. They are known to be the men of …, energy, and ambition.

4. I admire their … in trying to start up a new business.

5. This company is one of the largest … of this kind.

Ex. 9. Study the following words and word-combinations. What are their Russian equivalents?

to aim at, to arrange (for), game plan, to go ahead, a means to an end, on purpose, to set up, to tackle, to take action (on), to take steps, to take the initiative.

Translate the following sentences into Russian.

1. Our products are aimed at working mothers.

2. Let’s arrange for a meeting now. How about Friday, nine o’clock, your office?

3. OK, so we have arranged for finance and now we can go ahead with marketing.

4. The game plan for this morning’s meeting is to finish ordinary business in the first half hour, then take time out for coffee, so that, in the second half, we can zero in on the all-important question of new product development.

5. We use special offers in order to attract bigger orders – in other words, as a means to an end.

6. We have to reduce our overhead expenses. This will lead to job losses in some departments – an unpleasant fact, I’m afraid, but the end justifies the means.

7. Although everyone has to be at the meeting on time, the chairman will be a few minutes late, as usual, He does this on purpose, just to let everyone know who’s who in charge.

8. The company was set up ten years ago.

9. The government is doing all it can do to tackle the problems of housing and unemployment.

10. We need to take firm action, now, on the reduction in our market share – before matters get worse.

11. In the course of the next day or so, we shall be taking steps to put our plans into action.

12. For this job, we’re looking for someone with a go-ahead attitude, a self-starter, someone who’s prepared to take and maintain the initiative.

13. 

Ex. 10. Look at the following Latin words. They may be helpful in your work with the texts on Economics and Business.

e.g. exempli gratia for example

i.e. id est that is

etc. et cetera and so on

viz. vide licet namely

c circa about, around (time)

v vide see

et al et ali and others

per se in itself

qua as

vice versa the reverse

ad hoc for this particular purpose

vs versus opposed

via 1.through

2.with the help of

per capita per head

ceteris paribus other things equal

ad valorem according to value

Ex. 11. What do the following words have in common and what do they differ in?

 Matter, problem, dilemma, trouble, alternative, predicament, difficulty.

Ex. 12. Translate into Russian in written form.

In 1776, the Scottish professor of philosophy, Adam Smith, published The Wealth of Nations. In this book, the first systematic study of capitalism, Smith described his principle of the “invisible hand”. This principle states that each person, pursuing his or her self-interest without interference by government, will be led, as if by an invisible hand, to achievethe best good for society.

Self-interest drives people to action, but alone it is not enough. People must understand the effects of their decision and their economic well-being. They must think rationally if they are to make the right decisions.

Because of this, economists long ago introduced the concept of economic man. This notion holds that each person is motivated by economic forces. In other words, each person will always attempt to obtain the greatest amount of satisfaction for the least amount of sacrifice or cost. This satisfaction may take the form of greater profits for a businessperson, higher wages or more leisure time for a worker, and greater pleasure from goods purchased for a consumer.

Of course, these assumptions are not entirely realistic. People may be motivated by forces other than self-interest. Nevertheless, the idea of economic man does deserve as a reasonable approximation of the prevailing pattern of economic behaviour in a capitalistic society. And in economics, as in other social sciences, reasonable approximations are often the best that can be made.

LET’S READ AND TALK

1. What is meant by the word «system»? How do you understand it?

2. What systems do you know? Give your examples.

3. To what systems do you belong?

TEXT 1

WHAT IS SYSTEM?

Everybody is familiar with the word system and uses it in everyday language. We speak of heating systems, communication systems, economic systems, and transportation systems. We talk of cultural and social systems. The word system is used because it conveys the idea that these things are made up of parts and that the parts somehow interact with each other for some purpose or reason.  A system is an organized or complex whole – an assemblage or combination of thingsor parts performing asa complex or unitary whole.

This definition implies several ideas. First is the concept ofinterdependency. If a change occurs in one part or set of parts, it affects all other parts of the system. This affect on each part may be direct or indirect.

A second implication of the definition of a system is the concept of wholism. This means that the system should be considered as a functioning whole. Changes in parts of the system and in the functioning of elements of the system should be considered from the standpoint of the system’s overall performance.

A third concept implied by the definition is synergism. This refers to the interactive effect of the parts of the system working together. The actual interaction of the parts creates an effect which is greater than the effect of the parts acting separately.

We’ve started our work with this small text about a system because we want you to bear in mind and apply the systematic approach to everything you see, hear, read or discuss, for everything in this world belongs to this or that system. While reading the texts pay attention to the economic and business terms. They’ll become the basis of your professional vocabulary.

TEXT 2

HISTORY OF ECONOMICS

In the 1500s there were few universities. Those that existed taught religion, Latin, Greek, philosophy, history, and mathematics. No economics. Then came the Enlightenment (about 1700) in which reasoning replaced God as the explanation of why things were the way they were. Pre-Enlightenment thinkers would answer the question, “Why am I poor?” with, “Because God wills it.” Enlightenment scholars looked for a different explanation. “Because of the nature of land ownership” is one answer they found.

Such reasoned explanations required more knowledge of the way things were, and the amount of information expanded so rapidly that it had to be divided or categorized for an individual to have hope of knowing a subject. Soon philosophy was subdivided into science and philosophy. In the 1700s, the sciences were split into natural sciences and social sciences. The amount of knowledge kept increasing, and in the late 1800s and early 1900s social science itself split into subdivisions: economics, political science, history, geography, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. Many of the insights about how the economic system worked were codified in Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, written in 1776. Notice that this is before economics as a subdiscipline developed, and Adam Smith could also be classified as an anthropologist, a sociologist, a political scientist, and a social philosopher.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries economists such as Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, John Stuart Mill, David Ricardo, and Karl Marx were more than economists; they were social philosophers who covered all aspects of social science. These writers were subsequently called Classical economists. Alfred Marshall continued in that classical tradition, and his book, Principles of Economics, published in the late 1800s, was written with the other social sciences in evidence. But Marshall also changed the question economists ask; he focused on the questions that could be asked in a graphical supply-demand framework. In doing so he began what is called neo-classical economics.

For a while economics got lost in itself, and economists learned little else. Marshall’s analysis was downplayed, and the work of more formal economists of the 1800s (such as Leon Walras, Francis Edgeworth, and Antoine Cournot) was seen as the basis of the science of economics. Economic analysis that focuses only on formal interrelationships is called Walrasian economics.…….