1. Answer the following questions on the contents of the text.

1. Is economics a science?

2. Who is considered to be the father of economics?

3. What is the origin of the word ‘economics’?

4. Is it difficult to define economics? What definitions of economics have you learned from the text?

5. What is the subject of economics?

6. What problems are economists concerned with?

7. Differentiate between the major divisions of economics.

8. Explain why scarcity is one of the main issues in economics.

9. What is the relationship between the government and economics?

10.What is the role of economists in the development of modern societies?

2. Read the text again and say if the following statements are true or false according to the information in the text.

1. Most economists define economics as an applied science concerned with the production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of goods and services.

2. Bread, bicycles, jeans are examples of free goods.

3. Today more people work in service industries than in the production of actual goods.

4. For a country, limited resources include time, money, skills.

5. Economics is a system by which industry, trade and money are organized.

6. Microeconomics is the branch of economics that studies decision making for the economy as a whole.

7. Macroeconomics is the branch of economics that studies decision making by a single individual, household, firm, industry, or level of the government.

2. Choose the right variant.

1.The subject of economics is primarily the study of:

a) the government decision making process;

b) how to operate a business successfully;

c) decision-making because of the problem of scarcity;

d) how to make money in the stock market.

2.The condition of scarcity:

a) cannot be eliminated;

b) prevails in poor economies;

c) prevails in rich economies;

d) all of the above;

e) none of the above.

3.The condition of scarcity can be eliminated if:

a) people satisfy needs rather than false wants;

b) sufficient new resources were discovered;

c) output of goods and services was increased;

d) all of the above;

e) none of the above.

4.Which of the following is included in the study of macroeconomics?

a) salaries of college professors;

b) computer prices;

c) unemployment in the nation;

d) silver prices.

5.Microeconomics approaches the study of economics from the viewpoint of:

a) individual or specific markets;

b) the national economy;

c) government units;

d) economy-wide markets

4. Expand the sentences, using the information from the text.

1. Economics is the study of how ……

2. Economy is …..

3. Scarcity is the condition in which….

4. Macroeconomics is the branch of economics that ….

5. Microeconomics is ……

READING II

1. Read the text and focus on the following:

- a difference between wants and needs;

- economic goods;

- economic services;

- factors of production/productive resources;

- sectors in the economy;

- opportunity cost