Improve your English. Учебное пособие по английскому языку

1.Read and translate the text.

2.Match the word combinations.

2. The ……. is responsible for keeping a continuous supply of work flowing to all production staff.

a) Production Manager b) Sales Manager c) Distribution Manager

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3.The ……. has the major responsibility for running of the company. a) Distribution Manager b) Managing Director c) Production Manager

4.A human resources department is responsible for recruitment of new ……..

a) employers b) directors c) employees

5. A marketing department is responsible for ………

a) recruitment b) market research c) promotion

6. Answer the questions.

1.What is organizational structure?

2.Who are directors chosen by?

3.What is the function of a human resources department?

4.What are the main departments needed for a company to function properly?

5.What department is responsible for servicing the functional areas of the company?

Are you a workaholic?

Work through this questionnaire as if you were your partner. If neither of the suggestions is appropriate, write in what you think would be right for your partner.

If you haven’t had any work experience, do this test as a simulation exercise.

1. You work

a)for work’s sake;

b)to make a major impact;

c)…………….

2. After work you need to relax. You know this

a)but never get down to it because you thrive on pressure;

b)and you do it regularly;

c)………………

3.In the decision making process, you are in favour of a) delegating authority;

b) centralized authority; c) ……………

4.When choosing subordinates\ co-workers you make it a point to a) surround yourself with competent people;

b) outsmart people at work; c) ……………

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5. In your work strategy, you

a)foster a nose-to-the-grindstone strategy;

b)are overwhelmed by work and events;

c)set goals and stick to them;

d)…………..

6.Your communication with people at work is a) nothing to be proud of;

b) businesslike and efficient; c) ………….

7.About work, you often

a)get/give useful feedback;

b)mistrust what anyone has to say;

c)…………..

8. Your work habits make you

a)labour at your desk from dawn to dusk;

b)do overtime only when it’s reasonable;

c)………..

9.When you are working on a project, you focus on the a) quality of the work;

b) volume; c) ……

10.Your family life is in shambles due to your long working hours. a) yes;

b) no; c) ….

11.Your kids are doing poorly at school.

a)no;

b)yes;

c)….

12.There is a pain in your chest/back. a) yes;

b) no; c) …..

13.You have difficulty sleeping at night even though you are exhausted. a) yes;

b) no; c) ….

14.Family and health risks are part of the price you have to pay for success. a) true;

b) false; c) ……

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0-5 pts: Congratulations! You are an OPTIMAL PERFORMER. You have a passionate commitments but are not addicted to it.

5-10 pts: Be careful! You are not yet a workaholic but very close to it. Think again about your priorities.

10-15 pts: Take heed! You are an EAGER BEAVER. You are overdoing your work-first commitment. A workaholic is not necessarily beckoned to the executive suite but may well be a candidate for cardiac arrest. Don’t despair, there’s hope yet!

Why work?

Go round the class and interview as many people as you can, including your teachers. Ask them why they work (study). (CM — classmate).

-Appoint one of the classmates as secretary, who puts the statistics on the

board.

-Discuss the results.

-What are the top three reasons why people work.

-Compare the results of your classmates with your teachers’ results.

-What conclusions can you make?

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UNIT 3

ECONOMICS

Text 1. From the history of economics. Economics as a science today

Economics is a social science studying economy. Why study economics? In fact, people do it for countless reasons. For many people concern for the economy goes no further than the price of tuition or the fear losing a job. Many others, however, are becoming aware that their job prospects and the prices they pay are somehow related to national trends in prices, unemployment, and economic growth. Although few people think in terms of price indexes and graphs, most of us now recognize the importance of major economic events. And that’s why so many people worry about such abstractions as unemployment rates, inflation, economic growth, etc.

As a scholarly discipline, economics is two centuries old. The first scientist who made extraordinary contributions in economics was Adam Smith. He was born in a small fishing town near Edinburg, Scotland. At the age of 28 Adam Smith became Professor of Logic at the University of Glasgow. Some time later he became a tutor to a wealthy Scottish duke. Then he received a grant and with the financial security of this grant, Smith devoted 10 years to writing his work “The Wealth of Nations” which founded economic science. It was published in 1776. His contribution was to analyze the way that markets organized economic life and produced rapid economic growth. He showed that a system of prices and markets is able to coordinate people and business without any central direction. Almost a century later, as capitalist enterprises began to spread, there appeared the massive critique of capitalism: Karl

Marx’s “Capital”. Marx proclaimed that capitalism was doomed and would soon be followed by business depressions, revolutionary upheavals and socialism.

In 1936 John Maynard Keynes published “the General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money”. Economics was supposed to help government monetary and fiscal policies to tame the worst ravages of business cycles. Later in the 80s and 90s the fundamental insights of A. Smith were discovered again.

What exactly is the subject that the economists from Smith to Marx to the present generation have analyzed?

Economics is the study of how societies use scarce resources to produce valuable commodities and distribute them among different people.

No brief description can offer clean guidance to the content and character of economics but numerous writers have attempted that. A notable economist of the last century Alfred Marshall called economics “a study of mankind in the ordinary business of life”. Another notable economics Lionel Robbins, in the 1930s, described economics as “the science of choice among scarce means to accomplish unlimited

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ends”. During much of modern history, especially in the nineteenth century, economics was called simply “the science of wealth”.

The scope of economics is indicated by the facts with which it deals. These consist mainly of data on output, income, employment, expenditure, interest rates, prices and related magnitudes associated with individual activities of production, transportation and trade.

There are four major economic goals that are generally accepted. These goals are:

-full employment;

-price stability;

-economic growth;

-an equitable distribution of income.

In each case, the goal itself is formulated through the political process. The economist’s job is to help design policies that will allocate the economy’s resources in ways that best achieve these goals.

Glossary

economics — экономика;

graph — график, диаграмма, кривая; unemployment rate — уровень безработицы; inflation — инфляция;

economic growth — экономический рост; revolutionary upheaval — революционный переворот; monetary policy — монетарная политика;

fiscal policy — фискальная политика; ravage — разрушительное действие; scarce — ограниченный;

commodity — товар; output — продукция; income — доход; expenditure — расход;

interest rate — процентная ставка.

1. Read and translate the text.

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2. Match the words and their definitions.

3. Put the right word in the blanks.

Economy, economics, economic, economical, economically, economist

1.Marx and Keynes ate two famous ______________________.

2.Those people are studying the science of ________________.

3.We sometimes call a person’s work his _______________activity.

4.People should be very _____________with the money they earn.

5.The ____________ system of a country is usually called the national _____.

6.The people in that town live very ___________________.

4. True or false?

1.People all over the world are interested in economics.

2.Economics is an old discipline.

3.It was Karl Marx who founded economic science.

4.Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” was published in 1676.

5.People never returned to the basic principles of Smith’s theory on economics.

6.Economics is a social science.

5. Answer the questions.

1.Why do people study economics? Give your personal opinion.

2.When did economics appear?

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3.Who made extraordinary contributions in economics? Do you know the names of other scientists studying economics?

4.When was Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” published?

5.What was the subject of A. Smith’s analysis?

6.What is John Keynes famous for?

7.What is economics? What is the difference between “economy” and “economics”?

Text 2. Economic problems, policies and decisions

Economics promotes a better understanding of the nature and organization of different societies, the arguments underlying many of the great public issues of the day, and the operation and behaviour of business firms and other decision-making units. Economics relates to many problems in the real world. Every human society — whether it is an advanced industrial nation, a centrally planned economy, or an isolated tribal society — must confront and resolve three fundamental and interdependent economic problems.

They are:

1.What commodities are to be produced and in what quantities?

2.How will goods be produced? By whom and with what resources and in what technological manner are they to be produced?

3.For whom will goods be produced?

These three basic problems are common to all economies. But different societies take different approaches in solving them. The three economic tasks of every society are really about choices among economy’s resources.

A resource is a material or service that is used to make goods or services. Not all resources are scarce. Free resources, such as air, are so abundant that they can be obtained without charge. Scarce resources are called economic resources.

Because resources are scarce, only a limited amount of goods and services can be produced from them, and there arises the necessity for choice. If society increases the output of one good, it must decrease the output of some other good. The alternative cost of using resources to increase the production of one good is the reduction in the output of the other good.

Economists are particularly interested in four basic questions:

1.What determines what society produces?

2.What determines how it is produced?

3.What determines how society’s output is distributed among the people?

4.What determines the rate at which the society’s productive capacity will

grow?

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Today, societies solve all these questions and problems differently. But they are generally organized in one of two fashions. In some questions, government makes economic decisions about production and distribution, with those on top of the hierarchy giving economic commands to those further down the ladder. This type of economy is called a command economy.

In other cases, decisions are made in markets — a market economy. Here most economic questions about production and consumption are solved by individuals and private firms.

No contemporary society falls completely into either of these polar categories. Rather, all societies are mixed economies, with elements of market and command.

Glossary

to confront/resolve economic problems — решать экономические проблемы; resources — ресурсы;

alternative cost — альтернативная стоимость;

command economy — административно-командная экономика; market economy — рыночная экономика;

consumption — потребление;

mixed economy — смешанная экономика.

1.Read and translate the text.

2.Define and explain the following key concepts.

- resource;

- alternative cost;

- command economy; - market economy;

- mixed economy.

3.Complete the sentences using the following words.

Best, inflation, government, forecast, compete, choice, prices, uncertainty, firms

1.A characteristic of many economic problems is that they involve choices concerning the role of ________________ in economic affairs.

2.The level of __________ may tend to rise when we reduce the level of unemployment. In other words, ________ may occur.

3.The American economic system is built on the idea that firms should _______

may occur.

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4.In democratic countries industrial decision making is dispersed among many

__________, each sizing up the demand for its products and choosing its own methods of production.

5.Economic problems generally involve _________. There is often a number of alternative ways to handle a problem, and the question is which is _______.

6.A characteristic of many economic problems is that, to choose among a number of solutions, one must _________ what will occur if each solution is adopted. The emphasis on the future necessarily entails some _________.

4. Make up sentences following the model:

Keynes/ famous/ his/ day/ economist/ own/ a/ in … (be)

Keynes was a famous economist in his own day.

1.1915/ Treasury/ London/ in/ he/ in/ the/ … (join)

2.Best-known/ 1935/ his/ book/ in … (publish)

3.Public/ war/ during/ he/ service/ the/ to … (recall)

4.5th/ in/ Cambridge/ June/ Keynes/ 1883/ on … (bear)

5.Student/ he/ distinguished/ a … (be)

6.Instrumental/ the IMF/ in/ 1944/ World Bank/ he/ in/ and/ starting … (be)

7.Cambridge University/ to/ 1902/ he/ in … (go)

8.a/ he/ as/ Cambridge/ teacher/ to … (return)

9.time/ he/ a/ economist/ by/ as/ this/ brilliant … (accept)

10.also/ heavy/ his/ he/ by/ workload … (exhaust)

11.The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money/ the … (resign, disillusion)

12.April/ on/ 21st/ he/ 1946 … (die)

13.Book/ conventional/ this/ thinking/ enemies/ many/ and/ him … (go against,

make)

5. Translate from Russian into English.

1. Основная задача экономики — определить наиболее эффективный способ размещения ресурсов. Это в свою очередь означает такое использование факторов производства, которое позволяет выпускать товары и услуги, необходимые людям. Для решения этой задачи каждое общество должно найти ответ на следующие три вопроса:

1)Что из товаров и услуг должно быть произведено и в каком количестве?

2)Как должны быть произведены эти товары и услуги,

3)Кто получит и сможет потребить эти товары и услуги?

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