S.N. Karova

Introduction to the development of student’s skills in reading and understanding professional texts

( for students of the Economic Faculty)

TEXT 1

What is economics?

Everyone – individuals, business firms, governments - needs to make choices from among the things they want. But as the resources necessary to satisfy unlimited wants are limited, they will try to economize – to get the most from what they have.

With this in mind, economics can be defined as the social science that describes and analyzes how society chooses from among scarce resources to satisfy its wants.

Vocabulary

economics – экономическая теория, экономика

to economize - экономить

resources - ресурсы

to satisfy wants – удовлетворять нужды

scarce – скудный, недостаточный

science - наука

social – общественный, социальный

society – общество

TASKS

Task 1. Why are these verbs combined in the group? How are they to be pronounced?

economize

organize

prioritize

analyze

Task 2. Give synonyms to the following words.

individual

firm

society

needs

Task 3. Which one isn’t the same?

1. describe, among, choose, analyze;

2. individuals, society, economize, firm;

3. social, wants, scarce, necessary/

Task 4. Which one can logically combine the rest of the words?

Governments, business firms, everyone, individuals

Task 5. True or false?

1. The resources necessary to satisfy limited wants are unlimited.

2. Nobody needs to make choices from among the things they want.

3. They will try to economize – to get the most from what they have.

Task 6. From adjectives with the opposite meaning using the prefixes un-, il-, im-.

proper

legal

limited

necessary

social

important

possible

lawful

probable

Task 7. Match the Russian word combinations in columns B with the English ones in column A.

A

to face scarcity

to be scarce

a scarcity of money

scarce commodity

natural scarcity

нехватка денег

недостаточное снабжение

создавать дефицит (намеренно)

естественная ограниченность

ресурсов

недостаточные ресурсы

scarce resources

scarcity of supplies

to contrive scarcities

столкнуться с дефицитом

быть в дефиците

дефицитный товар

Task 8. Answer the following questions.

1. Who is to economize?

2. Why do they do it?

3. What is economics?

Text 2. Microeconomics and macroeconomics.

Economists have two ways of looking at economics and economy. One is the macro approach, and the other is the micro one.

Macroeconomics is the study of the economy as a whole. It examines questions such as how fast the economy is running, how much total income is, etc.

Microeconomics examines cause-and effect relationships that influence choices of individuals, firms and society. It is concerned with production and consumption. Much attention is paid by microeconomists to the study of prices.