Macmillan “Guide to Economics”. Unit 1 (I)

I.Vocabulary.

Reading 1 ”What does Economics Study? What are Microeconomics and Macroeconomics?”

Task 1. Suggest the Russian equivalents:

1) to make (take) decisions; 8) to collect data;

2) to study the trade-offs people make; 9) to be closely related;

3) to deal with people and private businesses; 10) to create economic models;

4) to practice positive economics; 11) to formulate theories;

5) to study economic data; 12) limited resources;

6) to explain the behavior of the economy; 13) birth rate;

7) to guess economic changes before they happen; 14)to show relationships between money

people earn and unemployment.

Task 2. Combine active vocabulary with suitable words to make word-combinations:

to deal with people; private businesses; companies

to spend time; theories; decisions

to improve economy

to limit resources

to manage time/hours

to make household budgets

Task 3. Fill in the blanks with prepositions:

1) Microeconomics deals ______ companies and how they run their business.

2) All _____ our daily microeconomic decisions have an effect _____ the world around us.

3) Resources may be material goods _________ food, housing and heating.

4) Positive economists study economic data and try to explain the behaviour ____ the economy.

5) Economic models show relationships ____________ different data.

6) Microeconomics looks _______ the economy ______ a country and ______ the whole world.

7) Our everyday lives are full ______ decisions.

8) Every decision we make is a trade- _____.

Task 4. Translate the sentences with active vocabulary:

1) This case is more complicated than we thought.

2) Small cars are in great demand now.

3) He notices nothing but what relates to himself.

4) One problem we both have is of course that of housing.

5) They felt satisfaction that a fair compromise had been reached.

6) We have been cheated over the trade-off.

7) Positive economics is the study of how economic processes work. As it is concerned with what actually

happens, it needs a lot of institutional and statistical information.

8) Normative economics study the aspects of economics concerning how the economy ought to be run.

9) Economic models show relationships between different processes in the economy.

10) His uncle was a real miser, he managed his household budget and resources carefully.

Task 5. Translate into English:

1) микроэкономика/макроэкономика 11) создавать экономические модели

2) принимать решения 12) объяснять поведение экономики

3) нормативная экономика 13) быть тесно связанным

4) изучать экономические показатели 14) руководить бизнесом

5) обмен; компромисс, уступки 15) собирать данные

6) ограниченные ресурсы 16) иметь влияние на

7) вести семейный бюджет 17) благоприятная возможность

8) более сложные вещи 18) уровень рождаемости

9) занятость трудом/безработица 19) ежедневные микроэконом.решения

10) угадывать экономические изменения наперед; 20) материальные ресурсы, такие как

еда, жилье, отопление

Task 6. Answer the questions on the text “What does economics study?”:

1) What do economists study?

2) What does microeconomics deal with/look at/examine?

3) What does macroeconomics look at?

4) What types of economies do some economists practice?

5) What do economists do?