Text-based Exercises

Ex.1 Choose the best answer:

1) What difference have the new regulations made to the money-lending business?

1. Money-lenders cannot operate without a licence.

2. More information has to be given to the government.

3. Customers may now ask more questions.

b) What do we learn from Roy Bragg about the amount of capital money-lenders need?

1. 45000pounds is about the right amount.

2. They must balance their lending policy and their capital.

3. They will need more than they first thought.

c) What did Mr. Bragg’s young assistant realize when he first began to work for the business?

1. He tended to undervalue precious articles.

2. He overvalued everything.

3. He needed help from more experienced staff.

d) In the old trick described a money-lender might make the mistake of

1. offering 500 pounds too much.

2. not realizing there were two rings.

3. not examining the ring carefully when the customer first produced it.

e) How does Mr. Bragg know when he is being offered things which have been stolen?

1. Experience tells him when something is wrong.

2. He can now recognize all the local burglars.

3. He calls the National Association at once.

Ex. 2 Define the meaning of the given words in the text:

1. short (par. II)

1. thrifty 2) in need of 3) generous

2. genuine (par. III)

1. real 2) expensive 3) fashionable

Ex. III Choose the best variant of translation in accordance with the text:

1. …until both the loan and the interest due on it are repaid. (par.I)

1. …при условии, что клиент возвратит и заем, и полученную им прибыль с этих денег.

2. … до тех пор, пока и деньги, полученные под залог, и установленный процент на них не будут отданы,

3. … если клиент не вернет кредит и проценты, как положено.

в) ‘Some of the best-dressed and most well-spoken people are the ones you have to watch’ (par.IV)

1. Богатые и образованные на вид люди – это единственно, кого нужно остерегаться.

2. Единицы из тех, за кем нужно наблюдать – это те, кто лучше всех одет и лучше всех говорит.

3. Некоторые из наиболее прилично одетых людей с прекрасными манерами – это как раз те, за кем нужно следить.

c) And meanwhile they’ve done a switch with a cheaper ring. (par. IV)

1. А за это время эти люди меняются между собой кольцами.

2. А в это время они заменяют кольцо на более дешевое.

3. И одновременно они переключают внимание на более дешевое кольцо.

Unit V Text 1 History of Accounting

Accounting has been called 'the language of business'. Perhaps a better term is the 'language of financial decisions'. The better you understand the language, the better you can manage the financial aspects of living.

Accounting has a long history. Some scholars claim that writing arose in order to record accounting information. Account records date back to the ancient civilizations of China, Babylonia, Greece, and Egypt. The rules of these civilizations used accounting to keep track of the cost of labour and materials used in building structures like the great pyramids.

Accounting developed further as a result of the information needs of merchants in the city-states of Italy during the 1400s. In that commercial climate the monk Luca Pacioli, a mathematician and friend of Leonardo da Vince, published the first known description of double-entry bookkeeping in 1494.

The double-entry accounting system – in which for every 'debit dare' there is a 'debet habere' – has evolved to the point where it is very much like the present day system. Debit dare and debet habere are Latin terms meaning 'should give' and ' should have' respectively.

The pace of accounting development increased during the Industrial Revolution as the economies of developed countries began to mass-produce goods. Until that time, merchandise had been prices based on managers' hunches about cost, but increased competition required merchants to adopt more sophisticated accounting systems.

In the nineteenth century, the growth of corporations, especially those in the railroad and steel industries, spurred the development of accounting. Corporation owners – the stockholders – were no longer necessarily the managers of their business. Managers had to create accounting systems to report to the owners how well their businesses were doing.

The role of government has led to still more accounting developments. When the federal government started the income tax, accounting supplied the concept of "income". Also, government at all levels has assumed expanded roles in health, education, labour, and economic planning. To ensure that the information that it uses to make decisions is reliable, the government has required strict accountability and compliance with standards in the business community.

Accounting standards may be defined as "…uniform rules for external financial reporting applicable either to all or to a certain class of entity". Accounting standards may be viewed as a method of resolving potential conflicts of interests between the various user groups which have access to company accounts. The various groups have different objectives, information and, therefore conflicts may arise between groups outside the entity. It is a role of accounting standards to attempt to reconcile the conflicts. A number of important issues for the accounting profession should be mentioned here. These issues are as follows:

- Reliability. Accounting information should be reliable in use.

- Uniformity. The pressure for the standardization of accounting practices is to ensure a uniformity of treatment of data and hence an identity of the meaning of information.

- Comparability. Reliability and uniformity are integrated in the notion of comparability.

- Judgment. Accountants say that they should be allowed to exercise some judgment in interpreting data. This implies that some variety should be allowed for in the procedures available for transforming data into information.

Accounting practice and financial reporting regulation have shown great variety internationally. In recent years there has been growing interest in the harmonization of international accounting. Factors which have stimulated the movement towards harmonization have included the increasing internationalization of business, the development if international capital markets. In 1973 the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) was established in an attempt to coordinate the development of accounting standards internationally.