be employed | raise |
recession | minimize |
pick up | permanent, persistent |
economic growth | be laid off |
temporary | recovery |
reduce | scale back |
maximize | downturn |
C. Word Fields
1. Which of the words and phrases below are associated with unemployment?
To waste human resources; decreased economic activity; the economy picks up; economic slowdown; the economy scales back; to lay off workers; natural resources constraints; available jobs; a threat to economic stability; a wealthy economy.
2. Which of the words below can make word partnerships with the word economic?
Boom; stagnation; workers; recession; unemployment; downturn; inflation; stability; businesses; the unemployed; decline; trigger; owner; development.
D. Word Usage
plete: use an appropriate preposition where necessary.
to (2), for (4), in (2), at, from |
1. Low unemployment is a major goal … stabilizing the economy.
2. Economists pay attention … the reasons … unemployment.
3. People used to stay … the same job … years, or even decades.
4. People try to find the work best suited … them … the highest possible wage.
5. Demand … some jobs changes dramatically … season … season.
2. Linking: match the first half of each sentence with the most appropriate second half.
1. Two major economic problems are … | a) a level of unemployment in which none of the unemployment is caused by decreased economic activity. |
2. Low unemployment … | b) to minimize the level of unemployment. |
3. The public authority of any nation today is … | c) the whole institutional structure and dynamics of the national economy. |
4. Full employment is … | d) normal and not a threat to economic stability. |
5. Excessive or persistent unemployment hurts … | e) stabilizes the economy. |
6. Frictional unemployment is … 7. The ability of an economy to create new jobs depends on … | f) unemployment and inflation. g) the least economically secure. |
3.Complete: choose the words from the box that best complete the following sentences. Not all the words will be used.
cyclical unemployment, seasonal unemployment, frictional unemployment, structural unemployment, full employment, disguised unemployment, work force, unemployment rate |
There are different types of unemployment. 1 represents workers changing jobs to increase their working satisfaction or to accommodate a move to another region. 2 results from significant changes in the economy and in the way work is done. Even during periods of 3 about four to six percent of the 4 is still unemployed.
plete: use appropriate information from the text to finish the following sentences.
1. Expert economists advise government officials … .
2. The unemployment rate is … .
3. Cyclical unemployment is caused by …, while seasonal unemployment is determined by … .
4. A dynamic economy will often create structural unemployment because … .
5. Unemployment is inefficient because … .
5. Translate: give the English equivalents for the following word combinations.
Уровень безработицы; полная занятость; фрикционная безработица; сезонная занятость; динамично развивающаяся экономика; спад экономической активности; работники, занятые неполный рабочий день или месяц, (частично безработные); создавать новые рабочие места; выплата пособий по безработице; неизбежные траты; угрожать экономической стабильности государства; имеющиеся вакансии.
6. Translate the following sentences into English.
1. Вынужденная безработица возникает, когда работник может и хочет работать при данном уровне заработной платы, но не может найти работу.
2. Добровольная безработица связана с нежеланием людей работать, например, в условиях понижения заработной платы. Она усиливается во время экономического бума и снижается при спаде экономики; ее масштабы и продолжительность различны у лиц разных профессий, уровня квалификации, а также у различных социально-демографических групп населения.
3. Сезонная безработица зависит от колебаний в уровне экономической активности в течение года, характерных для некоторых отраслей экономики; структурная же безработица обусловлена изменениями в структуре спроса на труд, когда образуется структурное несовпадение между квалификацией безработных и требованием свободных рабочих мест.
4. Раньше люди предпочитали работать на одном месте всю жизнь, теперь ситуация изменилась. Иногда люди становятся безработными, когда они меняют место жительства. Создание новых рабочих мест, возможно, снизит уровень безработицы.
5. Считается, что фрикционная безработица не является угрозой экономической стабильности.
6. Известно, что во время депрессии снижаются занятость, зарплата, цены.
IV. Reading
A. Reading for the Main Idea
Read the text to understand the main idea of it and try the following tasks.
1. Choose the statement that best summarises the main idea of the text.
1. Expert economists advise government officials about the causes and cures of economic problems, unemployment being one of them.
2. Unemployment is unavoidable, inefficient and discouraging.
3. Paying attention to both the unemployment statistics and the reasons for unemployment economists recognize several main types of unemployment which hurt the economy.
2. Answer the following questions.
1. What main statistics related to economic problems do economists consider?
2. What main types of unemployment are recognized by economists?
3. What are the main impacts of unemployment?
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.
Unemployment rate; unemployment dole; employment is becoming more flexible; causes and cures of economic problems; high and low unemployment; the economy scales back; the economy picks up; some amount of unemployment is inevitable; natural resource constraints; to sustain jobs.
2. Understanding Expressions: match these words as they occur in the text and give the best explanation for each of these phrases.
1. large-scale a) growth
2. economic b) promotion schemes
3. decreased economic c) ladder
4. lay off d) activity
5. economic e) statistics
6. employment f) human resources
7. economic g) public spending
8. employment h) slowdown
9. waste i) stability
10. unemployment j)workers
3. According to the text, mark these statements T (true) or F (false):
1. Full employment means a zero unemployment rate.
2. Some amount of unemployment is inevitable in any economy.
3. Frictional unemployment is a threat to economic stability.
4. Unemployment wastes human resources.
5. The whole institutional structure and dynamics of the national economy influence the ability of an economy to generate and sustain jobs.
4. Explain the relationship between the terms in each of these pairs.
1) frictional unemployment – structural unemployment; 2) seasonal unemployment – cyclical unemployment; 3) economy is scaling back – economy is picking up; 4) to employ – to lay off, 5) unemployed people – underemployed people.
5. Give the best definition for each of these economic terms.
Employment promotion schemes, full employment, a healthy economy, a dynamic economy, offshore outsourcing, households, available jobs, a threat to economy.
6. Choose the variants that best explain the ideas of the sentences below.
1. Full employment does not mean a zero unemployment rate.
a) Some unemployment is inevitable.
b) Full employment is unavoidable.
c) Full unemployment cannot be avoided.
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.
a) The public authority should create new jobs.
b) The public authority should do their best to try and cope with unemployment.
c) The public authority should seek to achieve full employment.
ment on the following sentences.
1. Unemployment does not follow equal opportunity rules.
2. There are a number of possible triggers for structural unemployment.
8. Give profound answers to the following questions.
1. Why is it difficult to measure unemployment? What measures are required to eliminate unemployment?
2. What is full employment? Is it a myth or reality?
3. What type of unemployment depends on business cycles and what type of unemployment is caused by changes in the economy such as technology or prices of resources?
4. How does unemployment affect the country’s economy and individuals?
5. What factors affect the employment situation in a country?
9. Practise reading §8 of the text. Translate it into Russian. Give a short summary of it.
C. How the text is organised
1. What do these words refer to in the text?
1) this (§ 2); 2) it (§ 9); 3) what (§ 10); 4) those(§ 12).
2. Find the paragraphs of the text dealing with the following concepts.
1) workers who do not have the necessary skills for the available jobs;
2) the impact of unemployment on the country’s economy and individuals; 3) unemployment experienced by people changing jobs; 4) the information about unemployment conditions; 5) the ways unemployment hurts the economy; 6) there is always some level of unemployment; 7) the primary responsibility of the public authority; 8) the reasons for unemployment.
V. Speaking
A. Giving your opinion
1.Explain how you understand the following sayings.
1. To help the unemployed is not the same thing as dealing with unemployment.
2. It’s a recession when your neighbour loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours.
3. One man’s wage rise is another man’s price increase.
1. Give your opinion on the following issues.
1. Young people are two to three times more likely than older people to be unemployed. Why?
2. Read the following descriptions of unemployment scenarios. Decide which of the four types of unemployment each scenario describes.
· Because of reduced demand, a shoe making company temporarily closes one of its factories and lays off workers.
· In September, a part-time student at the University loses his job at a discount supermarket.
· A newspaper journalist leaves his job to make a switch into television journalism. He has been looking for a new job for several months.
· A local travel agency has to close down because of the widespread availability of direct online booking options.
B. Discussion
Work in pairs or groups. Discuss your answers to the following questions.
1. Think about the type of career you hope to start when you graduate from the Academy. Do you think it is more likely or less likely than other careers to be affected by each of the various types of unemployment? Explain each of your answers.
2. Are there any jobs that can never be affected by unemployment? Why?
VI. Writing
Write a cause-and-effect essay that predicts what would happen if the minimum wage were greatly increased nationwide.
Unit 8 Finance. Financial System
I. Anticipating the Issue
Discuss your answers to the following questions.
1. What is finance?
2. What types of finance do you know?
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.
Finance. Financial System.
1. Do you have a savings account? If so, you play a very important role in our economy. Your savings – what you gave up to get those assets – will be borrowed and invested by businesses and the government to build factories, offices, roads, and so on. The jobs and new products and services created by these investments, in turn, further help to fuel the nation’s economy.
2. There are two things you can do with your money – spend it or save it. Savings is income not used for consumption, in other words, not spent on immediate wants. Savings that are put to use are investments. In general, investment is the use of income today in a way that allows for a future benefit. More specifically, economic investment refers to money lent to businesses. Personal investment refers to the act of individuals putting their savings into financial assets, i. e. the written confirmation of the transaction. By saving, you make funds available for the bank to lend. Borrowers use these funds for many purposes, such as investing in new businesses or in new equipment for established businesses. The financial system, which consists of institutions such as banks, insurance markets, bond markets, and stock markets, allows for this transfer of funds between savers and investors.
3. Consumers, business firms, and governments often do not have the funds available to make expenditures, pay their debts, or complete other transactions and must borrow or sell equity to obtain the money they need to conduct their operations. Savers and investors, on the other hand, accumulate funds which could earn interest or dividends if put to productive use. These savings may accumulate in the form of savings deposits, savings and loan shares, or pension and insurance claims; when loaned out at interest or invested in equity shares, they provide a source of investment funds. Finance is the process of channeling these funds in the form of credit, loans, or invested capital to those economic entities that most need them or can put them to the most productive use. The institutions that channel funds from savers to users are called financial intermediaries. They include commercial banks, savings banks, savings and loan associations, and such nonbank institutions as credit unions, insurance companies, pension funds, investment companies, and finance companies.
4. Three broad areas in finance have developed specialized institutions, procedures, standards, and goals: business finance, personal finance, and public finance. In developed nations, an elaborate structure of financial markets and institutions exists to serve the needs of these areas jointly and separately.
5. Business finance is a form of applied economics that uses the quantitative data provided by accounting, the tools of statistics, and economic theory in an effort to optimize the goals of a corporation or other business entity. The basic financial decisions involved include an estimate of future asset requirements and the optimum combination of funds needed to obtain those assets. Business financing makes use of short-term credit in the form of trade credit, bank loans, and commercial paper. Long-term funds are obtained by the sale of securities (stocks and bonds) to a variety of financial institutions and individuals through the operations of national and international capital markets.
6. Personal finance deals primarily with family budgets, the investment of personal savings, and the use of consumer credit. Individuals typically obtain mortgages from commercial banks and savings and loan associations to purchase their homes, while financing for the purchase of consumer durable goods (automobiles, appliances) can be obtained from banks and finance companies. Charge accounts and credit cards are other important means by which banks and businesses extend short-term credit to consumers. If individuals need to consolidate their debts or borrow cash in an emergency, small cash loans can be obtained at banks, credit unions, or finance companies.
7. The level and importance of public, or government, finance has increased sharply in Western countries since the Great Depression of the 1930s. As a result, taxation, public expenditures, and the nature of the public debt now typically exert a much greater effect on a nation's economy than previously. Governments finance their expenditures through a number of different methods, by far the most important of which is taxes. Government budgets seldom balance, however, and in order to finance their deficits governments must borrow, which in turn creates public debt. Most public debt consists of marketable securities issued by a government, which must make specified payments at designated times to the holders of its securities.
III. Vocabulary Reinforcement
A. Vocabulary
Match the words with their definitions.
savings, n | the money that you earn from your work |
investment, n | the commercial activity of providing funds and capital |
income, n | money paid to you by a bank or financial institution when you keep money in an account there |
mortgage, n | an agreement with a company in which you pay them money and they pay the costs if something bad happens |
entity, n | the difference between the market value of a property and the claims held against it |
funds, n | a fund of money put by as a reserve |
transaction, n | the total amount of money that an organization, or person spends during a particular period of time |
expenditure, n | a person or an organization that tries to help two other people or groups to agree with each other |
interest, n | a legal agreement by which you borrow money from a bank in order to buy a house |
finance, n | something that exists as a single and complete unit |
insurance, n | a business deal or action, such as buying or selling smth |
intermediary, n | the use of money to get a profit or to make a business activity successful |
equity, n | assets in the form of money |
A. Word Families
Complete the chart.
Verb | Adjective | Noun |
finance | ||
debt | ||
insure | ||
account | ||
expend | ||
safe | ||
dividend | ||
tax | ||
invest |
C. Word Groups
1. Match the words having similar meanings.
save (money) | deal |
expend | get |
effect | go-between |
transaction | spend |
intermediary | put aside |
obtain | influence |
2. Match the words having opposite meanings.
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