Английский язык для студентов, изучающих экономику, 3 курс, сокращенная версия, часть 1 (1 семестр) (стр. 7 )

2.  Because … this, the owner might be able to keep the gas station open 24 hours a day … a fairly low cost.

3.  … the variable costs are small, they may be covered … the profits … the extra sales.

4.  … this reason, many stores are doing business … the Internet.

5.  Total revenue is equal … the number … units sold multiplied … the average price … unit.

2. Linking: match the first half of each sentence with the most appropriate second half.

1.  The goal of any business is …	a) is called overhead.
2.  Total fixed cost …	b) because different inputs have different costs
3.  Fixed and variable costs affect the way …	c) is the most useful measure of cost.
4.  Businesses find that marginal cost …	d) a business chooses to operate.
5.  Profit is the money …	e) reduce their fixed costs in many ways.
6.  Businesses engaged in e-commerce …	f) there is no cost for electricity.
7.  If the machines are not running, …	g) to earn as much profit as possible.
8.  Inputs affect production …	h) that businesses get from selling their products

plete: use appropriate information from the text to finish the following sentences.

1.  Marginal analysis is the decision made … .

2.  Fixed cost includes such things as… .

3.  Variable costs are production costs that … . For example, … .

4.  The profit-maximising quantity of input is reached when … .

5.  When a business knows its total costs, it … .

6.  Businesses use two key measures … .

7.  Businesses find their marginal value by … .

4. Translate: give the English equivalents for the following word combinations.

Издержки производства; постоянные затраты (издержки); переменные затраты; предельные затраты; полная себестоимость; накладные затраты; приносить прибыль; приносить убыток; порог (точка) рентабельности; работать сверхурочно; быть уволенным; маржинальный анализ (анализ по предельным показателям); работать эффективно; покрывать расходы; максимизация прибыли; процентные платежи по долгам и аренде; снижающаяся ценность средств производства.

5. Translate the following sentences into English.

1.  Главная цель деятельности любой фирмы в рыночных условиях - максимизация прибыли.

2.  При выпуске продукции одни издержки фирмы носят постоянный характер, другие - переменный. Постоянные издержки - это затраты на содержание зданий, аренду земли, амортизацию, оплату обслуживающего персонала, страхование, рекламу, платежи за кредит и т. д. Переменные издержки - это издержки, которые изменяются в зависимости от увеличения или уменьшения объема производства. К переменным издержкам относятся затраты на сырье, электроэнергию, оплату труда и т. п.

3.  Категория предельных издержек имеет важное значение, поскольку позволяет показать те издержки, которые придется понести фирме в случае производства еще одной единицы продукции или сэкономить в случае сокращения производства на эту единицу.

4.  Крупнейший производитель грузовых машин в мире сокращает производственные издержки за счет закрытия предприятий и увольнения сотрудников.

5.  Чтобы получать прибыль, фирма должна производить такое количество продукта и иметь такой объем деятельности, которые превышали бы величину, соответствующую точке рентабельности. Если же эти показатели ниже показателя, соответствующего этой точке, деятельность становится убыточной.

IV. Reading

A. Reading for the Main Idea

Read the text to understand the main idea of it and answer the following questions.

1.What should a business do to operate efficiently?

2. Why are many stores doing their business on the Internet nowadays?

3. Do you share the opinion that inputs affect production? Why / Why not?

B. Reading for Details

Read the text again to understand details and try the following tasks.

1. Understanding Expressions: give the best explanation for each of these phrases used in the text.

To generate profit; to yield a product; to be laid-off; extra benefit; marginal analysis; average price; to affect production; profit-maximizing quantity of input.

2. According to the text, mark these statements T (true) or F (false).

1.  The goal of every business is to make profit.

2.  Fixed cost includes such things as interest payments on debts, rents, the cost of the electric power, etc.

3.  The sum of all fixed costs and variable costs is the total cost.

4.  Businesses find that the variable cost is the most useful measure of cost.

5.  Many stores are doing businesses on the Internet because it has low fixed costs.

6.  Marginal analysis is the decision made by examining extra costs and extra labour.

7.  The break-even point is the total product the business needs to sell in order to cover its costs.

8.  If marginal cost exceeds marginal revenue, profits will begin to rise.

9.  When the profit-maximizing quantity of input is reached, it means that the firm has reached its greatest total profit.

10.As long as marginal cost is higher than marginal revenue, the business can continue to increase its variable inputs.

3. Give the best definition for the following economic terms.

Production costs, fixed cost, depreciation, variable cost, break-even point, interest payments on debts and rents, total cost, marginal cost, revenue, decreasing value of capital goods.

4. Choose the variants that best explain the ideas of the sentences below.

1. Profit is the money that businesses get from selling their products, once the money it costs to make those products has been subtracted.

a)  Profit generally is the making of gain in business activity for the benefit of the owners of the business.

b)  The positive gain from an investment or business operation after subtracting of all expenses.

c)  This is the money gained in business or trade.

2. When a business knows its total costs, it can determine how many goods and services it must produce for its total costs to equal its total revenue.

a)  It means the price where the investor has neither a gain nor a loss from the transaction.

b)  This implies the point when expenses match income.

c)The point where total costs equal total sales revenue and the company neither makes a profit nor suffers a loss.

5. Give profound answers to the following questions.

1.  What is the goal of any business?

2.  What is the difference between fixed and variable costs?

3.  Why is marginal cost considered to be the most useful measure of cost?

4.  How do fixed and variable costs affect the way the business operates?

5.  Why is it worthwhile to keep a gas station open 24 hours a day?

6.  What is break-even point?

7.  Why is labour an important variable cost for most businesses?

8.  What happens when marginal cost of producing a product continues to be greater than marginal revenue of a product?

9.  At which stage of production is the profit-maximizing quantity of input most likely to be reached?

6.  Practise reading §§ 2 and 3. Translate them into Russian. Give a short summary of the passage.

C. How the text is organised

1. What do these words refer to in the text?

1) that (§1); 2) it (§1); 3) they (§2); 4) them (§3); 5) it (§7); 6) its (§7).

2. Find the paragraphs of the text dealing with the following concepts.

1) the measure of marginal revenue; 2) the reasons for business on the Internet; 3) the measures used for calculating the greatest profit; 4) marginal revenue and marginal cost interconnection; 5) the concept of marginal analysis; 6) the objective of any business; 7) the concept of fixed cost; 8) the break-even point of business; 9) interconnection between input and production; 10) the concept of variable costs.

V. Speaking

A.  Discussion

Work in pairs or groups. Discuss your answers to the following questions.

1. A farmer has to pay rent for a warehouse in which to store peaches that have just been picked. He has to pay this rent even during the winter, when there are no peaches in the warehouse. Is the rent a fixed cost or a variable cost? Explain.

2. Suppose a business pays its workers a total of $10,000 a year. Last year, the business earned $9,765. Has the business reached the break-even point? Explain.

B. Giving Your Opinion

Comment on the following statement.

E-commerce booksellers have lower fixed costs than bookstores located in shopping centres.

C.  The Debate

Divide into two teams (A and B) for a debate.

The debate will focus on the problem of how to reduce high production costs and improve the whole situation in the company.

The Teams:

Team A will argue in the necessity of reducing production costs.

Team B will argue against it.

Prepare your arguments. Appoint a moderator to lead the debate.

The Procedure:

1. Team A and Team B prepare their arguments in small groups, citing evidence from the text.

2. Teams A and B face each other for a debate.

3. Team A begins with a one-minute presentation.

2.  Team B responds in one minute or less.

3.  Continue in this fashion. A member of a team is not allowed to speak until someone from the opposite team has made a counterargument.

After the debate the moderator evaluates the strength of both arguments.

VI. Writing

Write an essay on the following topic.

Think of a task, such as washing a car or cooking a meal, which you have completed by yourself. Describe the task and the main steps you took to complete it. Consider how the marginal product would change if you had the help of one more person, two more people, and three more people.

Unit 7 Employment and Unemployment

I. Anticipating the Issue

Discuss your answers to the following questions.

1.  What is employment? What is unemployment? Are there any countries with full employment?

2.  What does high unemployment level indicate?

3.  How does unemployment affect the country’s economy? Individuals?

II. Background Reading

Read the following text. Focus on the meaning of the boldfaced words. Determine whether what you anticipated coincides with the information of the text.

Employment and Unemployment

1. Types of Unemployment: After the Great Depression (1929-33), two major economic problems that world economies have been facing are Unemployment and Inflation. Expert economists advise government officials about the causes and cures of economic problems. One statistic they consider is the unemployment rate. This is the percentage of the civilian labour force without jobs but actively looking for work. High unemployment indicates that the economy is not doing well and human resources are being wasted. Therefore, low unemployment is a major goal in stabilizing the economy.

2. The public authority of any nation today has the primary responsibility of minimizing the level of unemployment and aiming for the full employment condition. This requires large-scale public spending on employment promotion schemes and on the payment of unemployment doles. So that this function can be performed promptly and satisfactorily, it is important that the information about unemployment conditions should be quickly available.

3. For most of the twentieth century, people often thought of “a job” (or at least a good job) as something you typically did Monday through Friday, 40 hours a week, for a wage or salary and benefits (such as health insurance and pension plans). People often expected to stay in the same job for years, or even decades. In recent years, it has become popular to talk about how employment is becoming more flexible.

4. Despite its name, full employment does not mean a zero unemployment rate. Instead, it means a level of unemployment in which none of the unemployment is caused by a decreased economic activity. Economists generally believe that full employment exists when unemployment rate is below 5 percent. Even in a healthy economy there is always some level of unemployment. Sometimes people become unemployed when they relocate or when they leave one job to try to find another job that suits them better. Sometimes the available jobs do not match up with the skills of the available workers. In other words, some amount of unemployment is inevitable.

5. Economists pay attention not only to the unemployment statistics, but also to the reasons for unemployment. Economists recognize the following main types of unemployment:

6. Frictional unemployment, temporary unemployment experienced by people changing jobs. It is a reflection of workers’ freedom to find the work best suited for them at the highest possible wage. Economists consider frictional unemployment normal and not a threat to economic stability.

7.Seasonal unemployment, unemployment linked to seasonal work. Demand for some jobs changes dramatically from season to season, resulting in seasonal unemployment.

8.Structural unemployment, a situation where jobs exist but workers looking for work do not have the necessary skills for these jobs. A dynamic economy will often create structural unemployment as businesses become more efficient and require fewer workers to create the same amount of output. There are a number of possible triggers for structural unemployment. New technology can replace human workers or require workers to retrain. New industries requiring specialized education can leave less well-educated workers out of work. A change in consumer demand can shift the type of workers needed. Offshore outsourcing – the contracting of work to suppliers in other countries – is another source of structural unemployment.

9.Cyclical unemployment, unemployment caused by a part of the business cycle with a decreased economic activity. It results when the economy hits a low point in the business cycle and employers decide to lay off workers. Workers who lose their jobs during a recession can have trouble finding new jobs because the economy as a whole is scaling back, and the demand for labour declines. When the economy picks up again, many workers are again able to find jobs.

10.Disguised Unemployment, a situation under which productivity of the working force is very low. This is because an excessive number of workers are employed than what is optimally desirable.

11. The duration of unemployment in these types ranges widely, but the average duration of unemployment is relatively short.

12. The impact of unemployment: Although some unemployment is unavoidable, excessive or persistent unemployment hurts the economy in several ways. It reduces efficiency, it hurts the least economically secure, it damages workers’ self-confidence.

Efficiency. Unemployment is inefficient. It wastes human resources, one of the key factors of economic growth.

Inequality. Unemployment does not follow equal opportunity rules. In an economic slowdown, those with the least experience lose their jobs first. Also, with fewer jobs available, people on the lower rungs of the employment ladder have less opportunity to advance.

Discouraged Workers. People who are unemployed – or underemployed – for long periods of time may begin to lose faith in their abilities to get a job that suits their skills. Potentially productive workers may give up their search for work. If they are underemployed, they may not be motivated to do their work best.

13. Whether an economy is able to generate and sustain “good jobs” depends on the whole institutional structure and dynamics of the national economy. The actions of business, governmental units, nonprofits (including unions, industry associations, and universities) and households all work together to determine the numbers and types of jobs that are generated, the number of workers in the labor force, and the skills with which workers are equipped. The responses of a country’s business leaders, policy makers, workers and consumers to natural resource constraints and to the challenges and opportunities offered by participation in global markets for goods, services, and finance have a further significant impact on the employment situation.

III. Vocabulary Reinforcement

A. Vocabulary

1. Match the following nouns with their definitions.

unemployment, n	something that tests strength, skill, or ability
the unemployed, n	the possibility that something very bad will happen
threat, n	the effect or influence that an event, situation etc has on someone or something
constraint, n	out of work, the jobless
challenge, n	something that limits your freedom to do what you want
impact, n	the number of people in a particular country or area who cannot get a job

2. Match the following verbs with their definitions.

affect	have a bad effect on something or somebody, especially by making them less successful or powerful
cause	hide a fact so that people will not notice it
waste	improve a bad situation
hurt (the economy)	make something continue to exist or happen for a period of time
outsource	show or be a sign of a particular situation or feeling
cure	use more money, time, energy etc than it is useful or sensible
sustain	do something that produces an effect or change in something
reflect	get external companies to do work for your company.
disguise	make something happen

B. Word Families

Complete the chart.

Verb	Adjective	Noun
reduce
	stable
lose
		employment
create
reflect
		impact
sustain
		constraint
		rate

C. Word Groups

1. Match the words having similar meanings.

unemployed	unavoidable
level of unemployment	influence
unemployment doles	danger
lay off (workers)	decreased economic activity
inevitable	diminish, decrease
impact	hidden
persistent	jobless
economic slowdown	generate
decline	dismiss, discharge
threat	unemployment rate
disguised	constant
create (new jobs)	unemployment benefit

2. Match the words having opposite meanings.