Unit 1. What is economics?
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TEXT A: What is economics? TEXT B: What economics isn't TEXT C: Micro, macro and fantasy economics BUSINESS COMMUNICATION: Introductions GRAMMAR: Present Tenses. The Present Simple and the Present Continuous Tenses
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The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood.
John Maynard Keynes (1883 – 1946),
a British economist
Lead-in
The dictionary defines economics as “the study of the production of wealth and the consumption of goods and services in a society”. List five economic issues relating to production and consumption that your national or local government has to deal with today.
Why do you think everyone should understand basic economics?
Pre-text exercises
A. Reading drills
Ex.1. Practice reading the following words.
tion [ʃn]: action, nation, station, dictation, translation, position, condition
ssion, ssian [ʃ(ə)n]: session, expression, impression, permission, Prussian, Russian
cia [ʃə], cean [ʃ(ə)n]: ocean, special, especially, official, politician, musician, social
a [a:] перед ss, sk, sp, st, ns, nd, nt, ft, th, nce: class, glass, grass, pass; after, craft, raft, daft; ask, task, answer, father, rather, bath, path; fast, faster, last, past, master, castle, can't; gasp, grasp; command, demand, plant, grant; chance, dance, glance, France.
Ex.2. Read the words in the following groups. Pay attention to the word stress.
words with the stress on the first syllable:
answer, numbers, household, human, market, concept, actually, services, product, produce (n), surplus, previous, limit, object (n), purchase, action, labour, labourer, capital, enterprise, timber, profit, business, scarcity, satisfy, constitute, income, option, benefit, equity, issue;
words withthe stress on the second syllable:
economy, economist, accept, resources, statistics, specifically, behaviour, endeavour, defence, invisible, amount, variety, sufficient, incentive, produce (v), abandon, interpret, production, tentative, explain, decision, desire, consume, consumer, consumption, activity, object (v), attempt, perform, except, combine, reward, machinery, available, unlimited;
polysyllabic words with the main and secondary stress:
administration, availability, economics, economic, economical, economically, complicated, constitution, constitutional, constitutionally, publication, comprehensive, influential, insufficient, definition, distribution, individual, satisfaction, satisfactory, unemployment, microeconomics, macroeconomics.
В. Word formation with the help of suffixes
Ex.3. Explain the difference between the words in groups.
act, acting, active, activity, action;
consume, consumer, consumption, consumerism;
economy, economics, economic, economical, economically;
satisfy, satisfaction, satisfactory;
product, produce, produce, productive, productivity, production.
Ex.4. Make up nouns as in the model:
from the verbs
Model: verb + -ment → noun
e.g. govern - government
Enjoy, employ, develop, accomplish, encourage, punish, fulfil, equip, agree, adjust, acknowledge, commit, enrich, establish, move, judge, measure, recruit, manage;
from the adjectives
Model: adjective + -ity → noun
e.g. reliable - reliability
Possible, probable, responsible, familiar, complex, hilarious, curious, prosperous, punctual, real, senior, special, able, public, similar, sensitive, active, minor, scarce.
Ex.5. Make up
adjectives from the following nouns:
Model: noun + -ant → adjective
e.g.assistance (n) → assistant (adj)
Distance, significance, importance, resistance, brilliance, consultancy, dependence;
adjectives from the verbs:
Model: verb + -less → adjective
e.g. hope (v) → hopeless (adj)
End, use, care, aim, thank, fear, harm, rest, mind, brake, doubt, dream, form, love.