Assignments:

3. Answer the following questions in a written form:

• What is the origin of the word “economics”?

• Why do people have to economize and to make choices?

• How can we define “economics”⁹

• What factors influence our need to choose?

• What is macroeconomics?

• What is microeconomics?

• What do we call the factors of production?

• What is rent?

• What do we call labour and human resources?

• What is wages?

•What is capital?

• How can one define the word “entrepreneurship”?

• What is profit?

• What are the fundamental economic questions?

4. Compose the plan of the text and retell the text according it

5. Communicative Situations:

• Assume that you deliver a report on major economic notion. Which of them would you emphasize?

• Suppose that Ukrainian government decided to give your family a material help of 1000 hryvnas. How would you spend them?

• Give your definition of the word “economy”. Is there any difference in terms “economy” and “economics”? Explain it.

Unit 5. What is business?

1. Read and translate the text:

What do we think of when we hear the word "business”? Some of us think of our jobs, others of the merchants they deal with as consumers, and still others of the millions of firms that make up the world’s economy. This broad, all-inclusive term can be applied to many kinds of enterprise. Business provides the bulk of our employment as well as the products we enjoy.

Business consists of all profit-seeking activities and enterprises that provide goods and services necessary to an economic system. Some businesses produce tangible goods, such as automobiles, breakfast cereals, and computers chips. Others provide services, such as insurance, car rentals, and lodging. German firm Munich Re has even built a billion dollar business from serving the service industry. Its business is reinsurance: insuring insurance companies so they do not go broke from backing major catastrophes. Business is the economic pulse of a nation, the means through which society's standard of living improves. Profits are a primary mechanism for accomplishing these goals. Accountants and business people define profits as the difference between a company’s revenues (receipts) and expensesjexpenditures). Profits are the financial rewards by successful people who take the risk involved in business.

Just as important as profits are the social and ethical responsibilities that successful businesses must meet. This means companies must be responsible in their dealing with employees, consumers, suppliers, competitors, government, and the general public if they are to succeed in the long rim. Robert D. Haas, chairman and chief executive officer of Levi Strauss & Company, says, "A company's values - what it stands for, what its people believe in - are crucial to its competitive success. Indeed, values drive the business." Haas feels so strongly about the social responsibilities of business that he drafted an Aspirations Statement for Levi Strauss that emphasizes the importance of "affirming the best of our company's traditions, closing gaps that may exist between principles and updating some of our values to reflect contemporary circumstances."