Vocabulary

Capital goods – основные средства, средства производства

Capital resources – капитал компании, собственные фонды

Consumer – потребитель

Consumer goods – потребительские товары, товары народного потребления

Economics – экономика, народное хозяйство

Entrepreneur – предприниматель

Entrepreneurship – предпринимательство

Factor of production – движущая сила производства

Fee (for a fee) – вознаграждение, гонорар (за плату)

Goods – товары

Human resources – кадры, персонал, людские резервы

Natural resources – природные богатства

Need – первостепенная необходимость, жизненная потребность

Producer – производитель

Product – продукт, продукция

Production - производство

Purchase – покупка, закупка; покупать, закупать

Resource – ресурсы, возможности

Satisfy – удовлетворять

Scarcity – нехватка, дефицит

Service – оказание услуг, обслуживание

Survival – выживание

technological advanceтs – технический прогресс

technology – техника, технические и прикладные науки

want – необходимость, потребность, нужда

Exercises

1. Fill the gaps with the words and expressions (Note: There are 2 expressions which you don’t need to use): producers, factors of production, human resources, technology, wants, service, capital resources, consumer goods, entrepreneur, economics

1. The study of the choices people make in a effort to satisfy their wants and needs is called _______________________.

2. A _____________is an action or activity done for others for fee.

3. The people who make the goods and provide services that satisfy consumers’ wants and needs are called__________________.

4. _______________are those goods or services that people consume beyond what is needed survival.

5. Resources that can be used to produce goods and services are called __________________.

6. The money and capital goods that are used to produce consumer products are called __________.

7. The use of science to create new products or more efficient ways to produce products is called _________________.

8. The ________________ is a person who attempts to start a new business or introduce a new product.

2. Translate the following sentences.

1. Термин «продукт» часто используется для названия как товаров, так и услуг.

2. Экономисты обычно классифицируют товары и услуги, которые необходимы для выживания, как жизненно необходимые.

3. Любое человеческое усилие, прилагаемое в производственном процессе, рассматривается как людские резервы.

4. Цель предпринимательства – создать новый продукт или новые факторы производства и таким образом создать что-либо, имеющее ценность.

5. Поскольку посыльный использует велосипед для доставки, чтобы обеспечить услуги, велосипед рассматривается как средство производства.

6. Дефицит существует потому, что потребности и желания людей больше, чем имеющиеся в наличии ресурсы для их удовлетворения.

WHAT IS ECONOMICS?

Economics is the study of how goods and services we want get produced, and how they are distributed among us. This part we call economic analysis. Economics is also the study of how we can make the system of production and distribution work better. This part we call economic policy. Economic analysis is the necessary foundation for sound economic policy.

Another, slightly different, definition of economics, favored by many economists, is this: Economics is the study of how our scarce productive resources are used to satisfy human wants. This definition emphasizes two central points. First, productive resources are scarce, in the sense that we are not able to produce all of everything that everyone wants free; thus we must “economize” our resources, or use them as efficiently as possible. Second, human wants, if not infinite, go so far beyond the ability of our productive resources to satisfy them, that we face a major problem in trying to make the best possible use of our productive resources so as to satisfy the largest possible number of these wants. Indeed, most major economic problems arise from this fact of scarcity, and the need to make effective use of our resources to satisfy our wants. If there were plenty of everything for everyone to have without working or paying for it, there would be no economic problems.