Grammar Revision

Translate the following sentences into Russian paying attention to the use of the Participle. State its function in the sentence.

1. Workers and managers want to agree the wage rate for the coming year.

2. Firms usually sign contracts with suppliers specifying the price of raw materials.

3. Each country has its own currency named, for example, pound, mark, peso, dollar, franc, and so on.

4. The supplier provides the firm with an invoice requesting payment within a settled time period.

5. Only customers with good financial reputation can get an unsecured loan from the bank.

6. Idle cash earns no profit declining in value because of inflation.

7. The financial manager compared the expenses involved to the expected revenues.

8. Companies usually have their own financial manages working with the banks.

9. Businesses dealing in money are called financial institutions.

Quick Reading

I. Look through the following text and find the sentence where the narrow definition of money is given.

What should count as money?

What items, then, should be included in the definition of money? Must an item be able to fulfill all four functions of money to be able to be classed as money? Unfortunately, there is no clear answer to this. There is no sharp borderline between money and non-money.

Cash (notes and coin) obviously counts as money. It readily meets all the functions of money. Goods (fridges, cars and cabbages) do not count as money.

But what about various financial assets such as bank accounts, building society accounts and stocks and shares? Do they count as money? The answer is 'It depends': it depends on how narrowly money is defined.

Narrow definitions of money only include items that can be spent directly: items such as cash and current accounts in banks (since they can be spent directly by using cheques or debit cards). Note that cheques debit cards and credit cards, although they are used to pay for goods directly, do not themselves count as money. Rather it is the balance in the account on which they are drawn that counts as money.

II. Read the text to be able to answer the question given as the title. Give the definition of a credit card.

Is Plastic Money Really Money?

Credit cards are often referred to as 'plastic money'. On the surface this seems quite a good description. After all, we can use them to obtain goods and services in much the same way as we use cash. But are they really money?

The answer is no. They are no more money than is a cash machine or a bank clerk. These are all ways of obtaining access to money, but they are not money itself. When you use a credit card it is enabling you to transfer money from your account to that of the shop, but the card itself is not the money. It is similar with cheques. They are not money either. They too are merely a means of giving someone else access to the money in your account.

Text 2

Pre-reading task

a) Discuss the following questions before reading the text.

1. What is the most acceptable currency in the modern world? Can you guess why? Do you think a Russian rouble can be internationally accepted? What attributes must money have to be a single currency such as a dollar, a euro?

2. Do you often use small coins such as “a copeck”, “10 copecks”, “50 copecks”, “a rouble”? In what kind of shops do you use them? If not why?

b) Key words: commodity, money, medium, acceptability, durability, convenience, divisibility, uniformity.

Look up the key words in the dictionary to find out the exact meaning. Write them out.