Unit 4. Demand and supply

TEXT A: Demand and supply TEXT B: The role of price TEXT C: Two factors that affect labor supply and demand BUSINESS COMMUNICATION: Making an appointment GRAMMAR: The Past Prefect Tense. The Past Perfect Continuous Tense. Past Tenses Review.

A system is in equilibrium when the forces constituting it are arranged in such a way as to compensate each other, like the two weights pulling at the arms of a pair of scales.

Rudolf Arnheim (1904 – 2007), German-born author, psychologist.

Lead-in

1. How different are expectations of sellers and buyers in the market? What are these expectations reflected in?

2. How does the market take into account sellers’ and buyers’ needs?

3. How do consumers and producers react to changes in the market?

4. What balances the amount of a product buyers want to buy with the amount sellers want to sell?

5. What do you think is the function of prices? What could happen if there were only fixed prices?

6. What other factors, apart from prices, affect the behavior of suppliers and demanders?

PRE-TEXT EXERCISES

A. Reading drills

Ex.1. Practice reading the following words.

aw [ɔ:] law, draw, saw, strawberries, raw, paw, pawl, bawl

ow [au] how, power, down, town,now, plow, mow, howl, scowl

ow[əu] low, show, slow,own,know, nowt

ou[ʌ] enough, country,double,touch, young, tough, rough

ea [i:] increase, cheaply, reach, peach, please, decrease, mean, each

ea [e] heavily, health, measure, pleasure, bread, breakfast, head

er [з:] refer, prefer, term,perfect, verb,service,certain

ur[з:] purchase, turn, hurt, burn,Thursday, nurse, curtain

c [s] society, choice, price, nice, produce, decision, force, once

c [k] consumer, cost, comprise, calm, conference, cooperative

Ex. 2. Read the words in the groups below. Pay attention to the word stress.

a) words with the stress on the first syllable:

influence, merely, therefore, equal, basically, willingness, preference, weigh, heavily, household, income, maximize, possible, budget, impact, effort, concept, specify, quantity, purchase, demonstrate, upward, revenue, temporary, permanent, obviously, compromise, variable, calculus, relative, offset, volume, vertical, curve, substitute;

b) words with the stress on the second syllable:

society, allow, consume, conventional, determine, afford, demand, behavior, desire, ability, condition, affect, decision, utility, consider, significant, analogous, depending, amount, available, effective, relationship, efficient, forgo, consumption, increase, equipment, facilities, responding, impose, necessity, incentive;

c)polysyllabic words with the main and secondary stress:

economic, competition, microeconomics, combination, independently, represent, fundamental, correlation, allocation, opportunity, unexpected, equilibrium, individual, fluctuation, inelastic.

B. Word formation

Ex. 3. Make up adjectives as in the model.

Model: noun+suffix –(c)ialor –(t)ial→ adjective

e.g. society – social

Adverb, commerce, essence, face, race, finance, potency, credence, prudence, president, torrent.

Ex.4. Make up nouns as in the model.

Model: adjective+suffix–ness→noun

e.g.ready – readiness

Ill, fit, dark, awkward, lazy, hard, soft, ready, calm, dark, kind, abrupt, absurd, awful, bitter.

Model: verb+suffix –ance or -ence →noun

e.g. appear- appearance, insure- insurance

Depend, ignore, maintain, prefer, resist, insist, interfere, assure, accept, absorb, deliver, clear.

What other adjective and noun suffixes do you know?

Find in the text other adjectives and nouns and translate them.