Денис Шевчук - Английский для экономистов (учебник английского языка)

Ex. 10. Look at the following Latin words. They may be helpful in your work with the texts on Economics and Business.

e.g. exempli gratia for example

i.e. id est that is

etc. et cetera and so on

viz. vide licet namely

c circa about, around (time)

v vide see

et al et ali and others

per se in itself

qua as

vice versa the reverse

ad hoc for this particular purpose

vs versus opposed

via 1.through

2.with the help of

per capita per head

ceteris paribus other things equal

ad valorem according to value

Ex. 11. What do the following words have in common and what do they differ in?

Matter, problem, dilemma, trouble, alternative, predicament, difficulty.

Ex. 12. Translate into Russian in written form.

In 1776, the Scottish professor of philosophy, Adam Smith, published The Wealth of Nations. In this book, the first systematic study of capitalism, Smith described his principle of the “ invisible hand”. This principle states that each person, pursuing his or her self-interest without interference by government, will be led, as if by an invisible hand, to achievethe best good for society.

Self-interest drives people to action, but alone it is not enough. People must understand the effects of their decision and their economic well-being. They must think rationally if they are to make the right decisions.

Because of this, economists long ago introduced the concept of economic man. This notion holds that each person is motivated by economic forces. In other words, each person will always attempt to obtain the greatest amount of satisfaction for the least amount of sacrifice or cost. This satisfaction may take the form of greater profits for a businessperson, higher wages or more leisure time for a worker, and greater pleasure from goods purchased for a consumer.

Of course, these assumptions are not entirely realistic. People may be motivated by forces other than self-interest. Nevertheless, the idea of economic man does deserve as a reasonable approximation of the prevailing pattern of economic behaviour in a capitalistic society. And in economics, as in other social sciences, reasonable approximations are often the best that can be made.

LET’S READ AND TALK

1. What is meant by the word «system»? How do you understand it?

2. What systems do you know? Give your examples.

3. To what systems do you belong?

TEXT 1

WHAT IS SYSTEM?

Everybody is familiar with the word system and uses it in everyday language. We speak of heating systems, communication systems, economic systems, and transportation systems. We talk of cultural and social systems. The word system is used because it conveys the idea that these things are made up of parts and that the parts somehow interact with each other for some purpose or reason. A system is an organized or complex whole – an assemblage or combination of thingsor parts performing asa complex or unitary whole .

This definition implies several ideas. First is the concept of interdependency . If a change occurs in one part or set of parts, it affects all other parts of the system. This affect on each part may be direct or indirect.

A second implication of the definition of a system is the concept of wholism . This means that the system should be considered as a functioning whole. Changes in parts of the system and in the functioning of elements of the system should be considered from the standpoint of the system’s overall performance.

A third concept implied by the definition is synergism . This refers to the interactive effect of the parts of the system working together. The actual interaction of the parts creates an effect which is greater than the effect of the parts acting separately.

We’ve started our work with this small text about a system because we want you to bear in mind and apply the systematic approach to everything you see, hear, read or discuss, for everything in this world belongs to this or that system. While reading the texts pay attention to the economic and business terms. They’ll become the basis of your professional vocabulary.

TEXT 2

HISTORY OF ECONOMICS

In the 1500s there were few universities. Those that existed taught religion, Latin, Greek, philosophy, history, and mathematics. No economics. Then came the Enlightenment (about 1700) in which reasoning replaced God as the explanation of why things were the way they were. Pre-Enlightenment thinkers would answer the question, “Why am I poor?” with, “Because God wills it.” Enlightenment scholars looked for a different explanation. “Because of the nature of land ownership” is one answer they found.

Such reasoned explanations required more knowledge of the way things were, and the amount of information expanded so rapidly that it had to be divided or categorized for an individual to have hope of knowing a subject. Soon philosophy was subdivided into science and philosophy. In the 1700s, the sciences were split into natural sciences and social sciences. The amount of knowledge kept increasing, and in the late 1800s and early 1900s social science itself split into subdivisions: economics, political science, history, geography, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. Many of the insights about how the economic system worked were codified in Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations , written in 1776. Notice that this is before economics as a subdiscipline developed, and Adam Smith could also be classified as an anthropologist, a sociologist, a political scientist, and a social philosopher.

Throughout the 18 thand 19 thcenturies economists such as Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, John Stuart Mill, David Ricardo, and Karl Marx were more than economists; they were social philosophers who covered all aspects of social science. These writers were subsequently called Classical economists. Alfred Marshall continued in that classical tradition, and his book, Principles of Economics , published in the late 1800s, was written with the other social sciences in evidence. But Marshall also changed the question economists ask; he focused on the questions that could be asked in a graphical supply-demand framework. In doing so he began what is called neo-classical economics.

For a while economics got lost in itself, and economists learned little else. Marshall’s analysis was downplayed, and the work of more formal economists of the 1800s (such as Leon Walras, Francis Edgeworth, and Antoine Cournot) was seen as the basis of the science of economics. Economic analysis that focuses only on formal interrelationships is called Walrasian economics.…….

1. The text you’ve read gives a very brief view of the history of Economics. What other names (schools, theories) can you give to continue the story?

TEXT 3

Read the text. Define the main idea of each paragraph.

THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM

There are many forms of economic order, ranging from the mixed private enterprise system to partially or completely controlled economies. Regardless of their form, however, economic system is the system that a society uses for allocation and distribution of scarce resources. Private enterprise means that decisions about what and how much to produce are left to the discretion of owners and managers. In controlled economies such decisions are the responsibility of some governmental agency. There is, of course, no economy today that is completely free of governmental influence, nor is this condition necessarily undesirable. There are many beneficial services and protections available from government. The question then is a matter of degree. Irrespective of the form of economic order, it performs certain valuable functions in the life of organizations of all types.

Among the functions of the economic order the most important one is to provide some means of resource allocation. In a private enterprise this function is basically performed by the price mechanism. This simply means that demand forand supply ofgoods and services interact to set their market price. In the case of regulated utilities, there are governmental agencies such as public service commissions that determine the rates that may be charged by utility companies. These rates are set at the level that will allow a fair return on investments made by the companies . This form of regulated monopoly is considered, on balance, preferable to unchecked competition. This is true because of efficiency reasons. In taking actions in the area of employment, government is attempting to control the economy in such a fashion as to help the business community operate at the level of production that will yield full employment.

Without a system of distributioneconomy simply could not exist. A major part of this distribution system is credit. Economy flourishes on credit or extended methods of payment. Such a system literally affects every link in the distribution chain from the supplier of raw materials to the ultimate consumer. Without this vital financing function being performed, the economy would doubtless be forced to a lower order of production.

Economic goals for a nation include price stability, full employment, economic growth, and equitable distribution of income. Price stability contributes to the efficient allocation of resources and facilitates long-term planning. Full employment means that jobs are available for those seeking work. Higher standards of living require increased output per person (economic growth per capita). An equitable distribution of income means that the fruits of the economy are divided in a way that seems fair to the majority of the people. With the long-run trend toward a more sophisticated, highly integrated economic system, it is becoming increasingly important for an individual decision maker to be aware of the macroeconomic environment.

1. What is a system?

2. What are three main concepts of a system? What do they imply?

3. What is an economic system?

4. What functions does economic order perform?

5. What do economic goals for a nation usually include?

TEXT 4

Read the text. Make up the plan and retell the text using your plan.

PROLOGUE TO ECONOMICS

There is almost universal agreement that economies are becoming more complex every year and that an understanding of how an economy works is more important than ever before. For someone who is just beginning to study economics, the task indeed appears to be a difficult one. Economics is the study of the way in which mankind organizes itself to solve the basic problem of scarcity. All societies have more wants than resources, so that a system must be devised to allocate these resources between competing ends. In a very real sense, the complexity of the economy makes it difficult to decide exactly where to start. Simultaneously, production is taking place, goods and services are being allocated, and a great number of market participants are being motivated by a diverse set of goals. In addition, there is the complex financial system in which individuals, firms, and governments borrow and lend funds.

Economics is divided into two major branches: macroeconomics and microeconomics . Macroeconomics is the study of behavior of the economy as a whole with emphasis on the factors that determine growth and fluctuations in output, employment, and the level of prices. Macroeconomics studies broad economic events that are largely beyond the control of individual decision makers and yet affect nearly all firms, households, and other institutions in the economy. Specialists in macroeconomics are particularly interested in understanding those factors that determine inflation, unemployment, and growthin the production of goods and services. Such an understanding is necessary in order to develop policies that encourage production and employment while controlling inflation.