Министерство образования и науки Российской Федерации
Государственное образовательное учреждение
высшего профессионального образования
«Санкт-Петербургский государственный
инженерно-экономический университет»
Кафедра романо-германских языков
Посвящается 105-летию ИНЖЭКОНа
С. Н. Артёмов
Иностранный язык (английский).
Факультатив
THE SCOPE OF ECONOMIC PROBLEMS
Тексты и упражнения по экономике
на английском языке для самостоятельной работы
Учебное пособие
Санкт-Петербург
2011
УДК 802
ББК 81.2 Англ
Утверждено редакционно-издательским советом СПбГИЭУ в качестве учебного пособия по специальности 080502
Рецензенты:
Артёмов С.Н.
Иностранный язык (английский). Факультатив. The Scope of Economic Problems: учеб. пособие / С. Н. Артёмов. – СПб. : СПбГИЭУ, 2011. – 92 с.
Данное учебное пособие по содержанию соответствует программе высшей школы по дисциплине «Иностранный язык (английский). Факультатив». Пособие включает в себя большое количество текстов, заданий и упражнений. Целью настоящего пособия является закрепление и совершенствование навыков студентов в профессиональной сфере.
Предназначено для самостоятельной работы студентов III-IV курсов очной формы обучения по специальности 080502 «Экономика и управление на предприятии машиностроения».
© СПбГИЭУ, 2011.
CONTENTS
I. The scope of economic problems 6
Opportunity Cost 8
The scope of economics and the role of the economist 9
II. Production 17
Division of labour 18
Classification of trades 24
Products 25
Consumer products 26
Producer products 27
Products and technology 29
Product life cycle 31
Product quality 32
Economies of scale 35
Productivity 35
Types of production 38
Push and pull production 38
Continuous and batch production 39
Large scale production 40
III. BUSINESS ORGANISATION 48
Sole trader 50
Partnership 52
Joint stock company 53
Co-operative 54
Business combinations 55
Capital Structure 57
IV. ECONOMIC SYSTEMS 65
Free enterprise 66
Planned economy 69
Mixed economy 71
Recent State Enterprise in Europe 76
V. GOVERNMENT IN A MARKET ECONOMY 82
Supplemental reading 82
References 95
Настоящее учебное пособие предназначено для студентов III-V курсов, обучающихся на специальности «Экономика и управление на предприятии (машиностроение)» по дисциплине «Иностранный язык (английский). Факультатив». Однако пособие может быть использовано для самостоятельной работы студентами старших курсов и других специальностей, владеющими в определённой степени английским языком и стремящимися совершенствовать свои знания в области иностранного языка и экономики.
Пособие рассчитано для продвинутого этапа работы над языком и преследует следующие цели:
развитие и совершенствование навыков понимания оригинального текста по специальности на английском языке;
совершенствования языковых знаний и умений посредством пополнения словарного запаса;
развитие и закрепление навыков устной речи.
Тексты в данном пособии подобраны из целого ряда современных работ по экономике английских и американских авторов. Тексты адаптации не подвергались.
Структурно работа состоит из четырёх тематических разделов по экономике и текста для дополнительного чтения. Каждый раздел включает тексты по теме и комплекс упражнений к ним со следующими заданиями:
ключевая лексика раздела;
вопросы для всестороннего и систематизированного обсуждения материала;
задания и упражнения на подстановку и замещения;
задания на понимание отдельных элементов текста;
упражнения для закрепления отдельных терминов и словосочетаний;
задания на расширение лексической базы за счёт синонимии и антонимии.
Текст для дополнительного чтения знакомит с современными тенденциями развития государственного регулирования в экономической системе США.
I. The scope of economic problems
Ever since economics emerged as a more popular subject for study, teachers have been troubled by the difficulty in giving a concise but comprehensive definition of the field of study. One difficulty is that every man in the street knows what economics is - at least he knows its importance, he knows that in the modern world Economics and Politics go hand in hand and together they affect many aspects of his everyday life - but ask him to be precise and what is the result? He will give a list of topics he has heard discussed on radio and TV programmes or read in newspapers such as wages, prices, balance of payment, level of employment, inflation, devaluation etc. Can the professional economist do any better? There have been many definitions given over the last two centuries; some have stressed particular aspects while others (often made by distinguished economists) are meaningful only to other economists, certainly not much help to the young student at the beginning of course.
The word Economics is itself derived from the Greek word meaning "the management of the household". Faced with this the cynical student might say, "Is that all?" The harassed housewife trying to make the housekeeping money stretch to cover not only the necessities of life, as prices constantly rise, but to afford some little luxury occasionally, would scoff at such cynicism. So too would the Financial Director, the Chairman of the Finance Committee and his Treasurer, to say nothing of the Chancellor of the Exchequer as they grapple with the management of their "households". The problem is the same, it is only the scale of operations which is different. The problem is the age-old one which first confronted us when as small children with noses pressed against the shop window - a veritable Aladdin's cave of delights and pleasures - we realized all too clearly that the weekly pocket money clutched tightly in our hands was totally inadequate when faced with such a dazzling display. Lord Robbins summarised this realisation as follows: "Economics is the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses". The economist studies how man reacts to the dilemma, how he tries to live within the limits of his income. We all know that our income is insufficient to buy all the things we would like to have and we also know that some "ends" are quite beyond our reach and so we have to make a choice. We have to decide which particular want we are going to satisfy at the moment and which will have to be left unsatisfied. We are able to choose because for most people our scarce resources, i.e., income, is received in the form of money which can be used in alternative ways. It is easy to see then why every man in the street knows what economics is all about, he has lived with it since childhood: the scarcity of resources, the problem of choice, the need to economise. For Man in general the problem is the same because it would seem that the world’s resources are insufficient to give adequate food, shelter, clothing and warmth to all the people of the world. However perhaps it is not the stock of goods which is inadequate but the present pattern of the ownership and distribution which is wrong – but that is too early a digression, or some may say politics not economics.
It is therefore the same basic problem which links the housewife at one end of the scale and the Chancellor at the other, both fully understand the wisdom of Mr. Micawber's remarks. The former knows the consequences of living beyond the family income, she knows that all the hire-purchase and credit card schemes together do not allow her to avoid payment. Indeed she must ultimately pay more (because of interest charges) than if she had waited until she could have paid in full. Similarly the Chancellor knows the inflationary consequences of a nation living beyond its income; and the TUC, the CBI and Parliament know that all the arguments about wages and profits are really arguments about the allocation of a limited income, dissension which would disappear if the National Income were not limited and everyone could have as big a slice as he wanted.
The economic problem therefore does not change, only its scale and context. If it were not that man's wants were constantly greater than his means there would be no science of economics, no need for the economist to study man's behavior as he tries to make ends meet. However there seems to be no likelihood that his means will ever be satisfied completely because new wants continually appear. If we compare the average worker of today in Western Europe or North America with the landed aristocrat of the 18th century, we see that in many ways he enjoys a higher standard of living. The unsatisfied wants of former times have been satisfied, but modern man has another list of unsatisfied wants which have been created by the very progress he has enjoyed. If we ever achieved the truly Affluent Society there would still be the problem of choice - how to live our lives, what to do with our time, because that would still be limited.