Обучение грамматическим основам чтения специального текста. англ книги. Практикум Обучение грамматическим основам чтения специального текста
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VIII. Прочитайте текст, выберите из приведенных в конце текста предложений те, которые по смыслу соответствуют тексту. Например: 1, 5, 6, 7, 8. MONEY AND ITS FUNCTIONS Although the crucial feature of money is its acceptance as the means of payment or medium of exchange, money has three other functions. It serves as a unit of account, as a store of value, and as a standard of deferred payment. We discuss each of the four functions of money in turn. The Medium of Exchange Money, the medium of exchange, is used in one-half of almost all exchange. Workers exchange labour services for money. People buy or sell goods in exchange for money. We accept money not to consume it directly but because it can subsequently be used to buy things we do wish to consume. Money is the medium through which people exchange goods and services. To see that society benefits from a medium of exchange, imagine a barter economy. A barter economy has no medium of exchange. Goods are traded directly or swapped for other goods. In a barter economy, the seller and the buyer each must want something the other has to offer. Each person is simultaneously a seller and a buyer. In order to see a film, you must hand over in exchange a good or service that the cinema manager wants. There has to be a double coincidence of wants. You have to find a cinema where the manager wants what you have to offer in exchange. Trading is very expensive in a barter economy. People must spend a lot of time and effort finding others with whom they can make mutually satisfactory swaps. Since time and effort are scarce resources, a barter economy is wasteful. The use of money any commodity generally accepted in payment for goods, services, and debts makes the trading process simpler and more efficient. Other Functions of Money The unit of account is the unit in which prices are quoted and accounts are kept. In Britain prices are quoted in pounds sterling; in France, in French francs. It is usually convenient to use the units in which the medium of exchange is measured as the unit of account as well. However there are exceptions. During the rapid German inflation of 1922 23 when prices in marks were changing very quickly, German shopkeepers found it more convenient to use dollars as the unit of account. Prices were quoted in dollars even though payment was made in marks, the German medium of exchange. Money is a store of value because it can be used to make purchases in the future. To be accepted in exchange, money has to be a store of value. Nobody would accept money as payment for goods supplied today if the money was going to be worthless when they tried to buy goods with it tomorrow. But money is neither the only nor necessarily the best store of value. Houses, stamp collections, and interest-bearing bank accounts all serve as stores of value. Since money pays no interest and its real purchasing power is eroded by inflation, there are almost certainly better ways to store value. Finally, money serves as a standard of deferred payment or a unit of account over time. When you borrow, the amount to be repaid next year is measured in pounds sterling. Although convenient, this is not an essential function of money. UK citizens can get bank loans specifying in dollars the amount that must be repaid next year. Thus the key feature of money is its use as a medium of exchange. For this, it must act as a store of value as well. And it is usually, though not invariably, convenient to make money the unit of account and standard of deferred payment as well. Different Kinds of Money In prisoner-of-war camps, cigarettes served as money. In the nineteenth century money was mainly gold and silver coins. These are examples of commodity money, ordinary goods with industrial uses (gold) and consumption uses (cigarettes) which also serve as a medium of exchange. To use a commodity money, society must either cut back on other uses of that commodity or devote scarce resources to producing additional quantities of the commodity. But there are less expensive ways for society to produce money. A token money is a means of payment whose value or purchasing power as money greatly exceeds its cost of production or value in uses other than as money. A £ 10 note is worth far more as money than as a 3 6 inch piece of high- quality paper. Similarly, the monetary value of most coins exceeds the amount you would get by melting them down and selling off the metals they contain. By collectively agreeing to use token money, society economizes on the scarce resources required to produce money as a medium of exchange. Since the manufacturing costs are tiny, why doesn’t everyone make £10 notes? The essential condition for the survival of token money is the restriction of the right to supply it. Private production is illegal. Society enforces the use of token money by making it legal tender. The law says it must be accepted as a means of payment. In modern economies, token money is supplemented by IOU money. An IOU money is a medium of exchange based on the debt of a private firm or individual. A bank deposit is IOU money because it is a debt of the bank. When you have a bank deposit the bank owes you money. You can write a cheque to yourself or a third party and the bank is obliged to pay whenever the cheque is presented. Bank deposits are a medium of exchange because they are generally accepted as payment. 1. Money is a medium of exchange. 2. People accept money not to consume it directly, but because it can be used to buy things they want to consume. 3. In a barter economy goods are swapped directly for other goods. 4. In a barter economy there is no double coincidence of wants. 5. The use of money makes the trading process simpler and more efficient. 6. In Britain prices are quoted in dollars. 7. During the rapid inflation in Germany it was convenient to use dollars as the unit of account and not marks. 8. To be accepted in exchange, money has to be a store of value. 9. Trading without money is cheaper than using money as a medium of exchange. 10.Since money’s real purchasing power in Britain is eroded by inflation, there is no better way to store value. 11.During the rapid inflation when prices in the country’s own currency are changing very quickly it is more convenient to use some other stable currency, dollars for example, as the unit of account. 12.There are examples of commodity money, originally goods with industrial uses and consumption uses, which also serve as a medium of exchange. 13.Bank deposits are not a medium of exchange because they are not accepted as payment. 14.Bank deposits are IOU money as they are debts of the bank. Список терминов к тексту 1. swap 1. обмен; 2. менять, обмениваться; 2. a store of value средство накопления ценностей (как функция денег); 3. a unit of account единица счета (отчета, учета); 4. a standard of deffered payment единица отсроченного платежа (средство погашения долга); 5. a token money символические деньги; 6. legal tender законное платежное средство; 7. IOU money долговая расписка. Assignment (задание) 1. Прочтите текст и изложите кратко содержание на английском языке. Marketing starts in a market, where individuals or organized groups who want to buy goods or services meet people who want to sell them. The buyers must have money to spend and a willingness to spend it, or a product or service they themselves are willing to trade. The sellers must have what the buyers want. The first step in marketing is to understand these groups. The marketers must determine the number of buyers, what they want to buy, how, when and where they want to buy it, at what price and what they expect from it. Elaborate techniques of research have been developed to supply this information. Of course marketers have to decide which needs they want to meet. A concept for a product or service may develop long before any marketing research is done, or it may be a response to identifying need. In part, at least, marketing determines what products and services are to be offered. Historically, marketing experts were supposed to sell any product in any way possible. The techniques of marketing research have now given marketers new ways to learn and analyze the needs and wants of consumers. They can now play a critical role in determining what as well as how to market. Most large companies now produce only what their market researchers tell them to sell. All products were new at one time. Today, a product is new if it is unique, or if it is new for the manufacturer who is entering the market to challenge the existing competition, or if it has had enough substantial design modifications to make it a new product issue. For the manufacturer, merchandising includes selecting the products to be produced, deciding on the size, appearance, form and packaging; and “having the right goods at the right place at the right time at the right price”. 2. Переведите письменно текст с английского языка на русский. Marginal Rate of Substitution We now introduce the concept of the marginal rate of substitution of meals for films. The marginal rate of substitution of meals for films is the quantity of films the consumer must sacrifice to increase the quantity of meals by one unit without changing total utility. Since consumers prefer more to less, an additional meal tends to increase utility. To hold utility constant, when one meal is added the consumer must simultaneously sacrifice some quantity of the other good (films). The marginal rate of substitution tells us how many films the consumer could exchange for an additional meal without changing total utility. The marginal rate of substitution must be a negative number: it is the ratio of a negative change in the quantity of films to the positive change in the quantity of meals when utility remains unaltered. Suppose the student begins with a bundle comprising 5 films and no meals. Having already seen 4 films that week, the student probably does not enjoy the fifth film very much. With no meals, the student is very hungry. The utility of this bundle is low: being so hungry, the student cannot really enjoy the films anyway. To obtain the same amount of utility the student could give up a lot of films in exchange for a little food. The marginal rate of substitution is a large negative number and we say that it is high. Suppose instead that the student is consuming a large number of meals but seeing few films. To obtain the same amount of utility, the student will be reluctant to sacrifice much cinema attendance to gain yet another meal. The marginal rate of substitution is a small negative number and we say that it is low. When the ratio of films to meals is already high the marginal rate of substitution of meals for films is high. It makes sense to sacrifice abundant films for scarce meals. Conversely, when the ratio of films to meals is already low the marginal rate of substitution of meals for films is low. It does not make sense to sacrifice scarce films for yet more meals. Economists believe that this common-sense reasoning about tastes or preferences is very robust. It will hold in a wide range of circumstances. Indeed, it is sufficiently plausible that it can become a general principle, the third assumption we need to make about consumer tastes. It is called the assumption of a diminishing marginal rate of substitution. Consumer tastes exhibit a diminishing marginal rate of substitution when, to hold utility constant, diminishing quantities of one good must be sacrificed to obtain successive equal increases in the quantity of the other good. For example, our student might be indifferent between, that is, be equally happy with, bundle X = (6 films, 0 meals), bundle Y = (3 films, 1 meal), and bundle Z = (2 films, 2 meals). Beginning from bundle X, a move to Y sacrifices 3 films for 1 meal, but a further move from Y to Z sacrifices only 1 film for 1 extra meal. Such tastes satisfy the assumption of a diminishing marginal rate of substitution. These three assumptions that consumers prefer more to less, can rankalternative bundles according to the utility provided, and have tastes satisfying a diminishing marginal rate of substitution are all we shall require. It is now convenient to show how tastes can be represented as indifference curves. [1] Уровень 2(Intermediate) полного курса английского языка для системы дистанционного образования. [2] Прослушайте слова на кассете и повторите их за диктором [3] После выполнения задания проверьте Ваши ответы: 1), 2), 4), 6). [4] Прослушайте слова на кассете и повторите их за диктором (во всех уроках). [5] Ответы по всем тестам записываются сочетанием номера и буквы. Например: 1) (номер предложения) –i (выбранное слово) = 1i. [6] После выполнения задания проверьте ваши ответы: 1), 2), 4), 6). х) Проверьте Ваши ответы: 1), 3), 5), 7). х) Проверьте Ваши ответы: 3), 4), 5), 7). 1 Прослушайте слова на кассете и повторите их за диктором. х) Проверьте Ваши ответы: 1), 2), 4), 6). |