Английский. Учебник МЭО 1 курс. Учебное пособие по английскому языку. Мировая экономика. Часть 1 Москва 2012 удк 81(075. 8)111 ббк 81 Англ. 7365. 5
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Part 2 TextA Readthetextbelow, answerthequestionsanddotheassignments.
Strengths and Weaknesses of a Student Being organized is an example of a student’s strength. A student is responsible for attending classes, taking detailed notes, reading the required materials and studying for tests and examinations. Since each student is different in terms of skills and motivation, the strengths and weaknesses of each student will differ. A student's strengths and weaknesses may also depend on the courses being taken. A student may thrive in one area of study but struggle in another. Nevertheless, there are some qualities that may be considered as uncontestable.
A powerful strength of a student is the ability to remain organized. A student has several courses and reading lists at a single time, so the student must have the ability to stay organized. This can include having a calendar on which the student writes the deadlines of projects, assignments and examinations so she or he does not miss an important deadline. If the student also needs to read chapters or books before attending a class, the student could write each chapter onto the calendar to ensure that all tasks are completed before entering a class or seminar.
Another strength that is beneficial for a student is the ability to work hard. Working hard can include staying at the library late at night, staying home while other students go out and party on the weekend and completing projects well in advance of their due dates. The ability to work hard is considered a strength for a student, as it can be hard to say no to a party with friends or to remain active at the library once it gets dark outside. Unfortunately, there are things that can hamper the process of studying, especially if the student gives in to them.
A lack of motivation can severely hurt a student when it comes to completing projects. The lack of motivation is considered a weakness for many students, particularly those who experience a lack of motivation in all school-related items. Although a project may be inspiring and interesting to a student, the lack of motivation can harm a student's productivity. Some students may copy or purchase completed essays or assignments online due to their lack of motivation.
One of the biggest weaknesses students often face is procrastination, which is finding other smaller things to do even though the student has one or two large tasks at hand. The weakness is giving in to the procrastination, which can include surfing the Internet about related topics, going out for lunch with friends or watching a movie. Text B Read the text below and answer the questions.
How to be motivated to start studying When dealing with difficult courses, you should be prepared to spend two or three hours studying after each class session. However, distractions and negative feelings can decrease motivation and lead you away from your academic goals. You’ll need to make adjustments to your mindset and daily schedule if you want to stay motivated during study sessions. Instructions:
Tips & warnings
Text C Read the text below and answer the questions and do the assignments.
How to be a good student Improve your study habits, motivation and organizational skills to improve the quality of your learning at school, regardless of whether you are just starting a new school year or need a fresh start in the middle of a semester. When you have a reason to care – such as a need for good grades, a desire to qualify for a good school or scholarship or a fascination with the subject material – you can use it to motivate yourself to develop the habits that will make you a good student. Things you’ll need: Class syllabi; Calendar Instructions:
Ex 1. Work in pairs. Make up dialogues discussing the issues of Text A, B, C. Ex 2. Hold on a discussion in group on strengths and weaknesses of students. Exchange opinion concerning the problems raised and the advice given in the above texts. Express your personal view on the issues being discussed. Share your own experience. Unit V Part 1 Money: History and Functions banknotes, coins, assets, “broad money”, commodity money, a medium of exchange, a store of value, a unit of account, barter economy Text A History of the word “money” Money plays a key role in today’s economies. It is certainly no exaggeration to say that “money makes the world go round” and that modern economies could not function without money. The English word “money” is of Roman origin. In ancient Rome, however, the word “Monetor“ or “Moneta” meant advisor, i.e. a person who warns or who makes people remember. According to some historians, the meaning of the word goes back to a key event in Roman history. A flock of geese in a sanctuary of the Goddess Juno on Capitoline Hill squawked an alarm to alert the Roman defenders during an invasion of the Gauls in 390 B. C. and thus saved them from defeat. In return, the Romans built a shrine to Moneta, the goddess who warns or who gives advice. In 289 B. C. the first Roman mint was built in or near this temple, initially producing bronze and later silver coins. Many of these coins were cast with the head of Juno Moneta on their face. Hence the words “money” and “mint” are derived from her name. Functions of money What is money? If we have to define money today, we first think of banknotes and coins. These assets are regarded as money since they are liquid. This means that they are accepted and are available to be used for payment purposes at any time. While it is uncontested that banknotes and coins fulfill this purpose, nowadays a number of other forms of assets exist which are very liquid and can be easily converted into cash or used to make a payment at very low cost. This applies, for instance, to overnight deposits and some other forms of deposits held with banks. Consequently, these instruments are included in those definitions of money often referred to as “broad money”. The various forms of money have changed substantially over time. Paper money and bank deposits did not always exist. It would therefore be useful to define money in more general terms. Money can be thought of as a very special good that fulfills some basic functions. In particular, it should serve as a medium of exchange, a store of value and a unit of account. Therefore, it is often stated that money is what money does. In order to better illustrate these functions, consider how people had to conduct their transactions before the existence of money. Without money, people were forced to exchange goods or services directly for other goods or services through bartering. Although such a “barter economy” allows for some division of labour, there are practical limitations and any exchange of goods implies substantial so-called “transaction costs”. The most apparent problem with a barter economy is that people have to find a counterpart who wants exactly the same good or service that they are offering and who is offering what they want in return. In other words: a successful barter transaction requires a mutual coincidence of wants to exist. A baker who, for instance, wanted a haircut in exchange for some loaves of bread would have to find a hairdresser willing to accept those loaves of bread in exchange for a haircut. However, if the hairdresser needed a pair of shoes instead, he would have to wait until a shoe-shop owner wanted to get a haircut in exchange. Such a barter economy would therefore imply substantial costs related to searching for the appropriate counterpart and waiting and stockpiling. Money as a medium of exchange To avoid the inconveniences associated with a barter economy, one of the goods can be used as a medium of exchange. This crude form of money used for exchange is then called commodity money. Bartering one good against money and then money against another good might at first glance further complicate transactions. At second glance, however, it becomes clear that the use of one good as a medium of exchange facilitates the whole process to a considerable extent, as the mutual coincidence of wants is no longer required for an exchange of goods and services to take place. It is obvious that one precondition for this particular good to fulfill the function of money is that it is accepted throughout the economy as a medium of exchange, because of tradition, informal convention or law. At the same time, it is obvious that goods serving as a medium of exchange should have some specific technical properties. In particular, goods serving as commodity money should be easy to carry, durable, divisible and their quality should be easy to verify. In a more economic sense, of course, money should be a rare good, as only rare goods have a positive value. Money as a store of value If the good used as money maintains its value over time, it can be held for longer periods. This is particularly useful because it allows the act of sale to be separated from the act of purchase. In this case, money fulfils the important function of a store of value. It is for these reasons that commodities that also serve as a store of value are preferable to commodities that only serve as a medium of exchange. Goods such as flowers or tomatoes, for instance, might in principle serve as a medium of exchange. However, they would not be useful as a store of value and would therefore probably not have been used as money. So if this function of money does not work properly (for instance if the good serving as money loses its value over time), people will make use of the value-storing function of other goods or assets or – in extreme cases – even go back to bartering. Money as a unit of account Of equal importance is the function of money as a unit of account. This can be illustrated by going back to our previous example. Even if the difficulty of the mutual coincidence of wants is overcome, people would still have to find the exact exchange ratio between bread and haircuts or between haircuts and shoes, for example. Such “exchange ratios” – the number of loaves of bread worth one haircut, for instance – are known as relative prices or terms of trade. In the market place, the relative price would have to be determined for each pair of goods and services and, of course, everybody involved in the exchange of goods would need all the information about the terms of trade between all goods. It is easy to show that, for two goods, there is only one relative price, while for three goods there are just three relative prices (namely bread against haircuts, haircuts against shoes and bread against shoes). The greater the number of goods being exchanged, the more difficult it becomes to gather information on all possible “exchange rates”. Consequently, collecting and remembering information on the terms of trade creates high costs for the participants in a barter economy, increasing disproportionately with the number of goods exchanged. These resources can be used more efficiently in other ways if one of the existing goods is used as a unit of account (a so-called “numeraire”). In this case, the value of all goods can be expressed in terms of this “numeraire” and the number of prices which consumers have to identify and remember can be reduced significantly. Therefore, if all prices were labeled in money terms, transactions would be much easier. More generally speaking, not only can the prices of goods be expressed in money terms, but so too can the price of any asset. All economic agents in a currency area would then calculate things such as costs, prices, wages, income, etc. in the same units of money. As in the above mentioned functions of money, the less stable and reliable the value of money, the more difficult it is for money to fulfill this important function. A commonly accepted reliable unit of account thus forms a sound basis for price and cost calculations, thereby improving transparency and reliability. Vocabulary list
Notes:
Ex 1. Suggest the Russian equivalents: “money makes the world go round”; these assets are regarded as money; to be used for payment purposes; uncontested; to make a payment at a very low cost; money is what money does; division of labour; to imply substantial “transaction costs”;crude form of money; facilitate the whole process to a considerable extent; money should be easy to carry, durable, divisible; to allow the act of sale to be separated from the act of purchase; to lose value over time; terms of trade; to be expressed in money terms. Ex 2. Fill in the gaps with the words and expressions from the text.
Ex 3. Find in the text the English equivalents for the following: играть ключевую роль, использовать в целях платежа, служить какой-либо цели, легко конвертироваться в наличные деньги, дать более общее определение понятия «деньги», обменивать товары и услуги путем бартера, транзакционные издержки, усложнить сделку, облегчить весь процесс, особые технические характеристики, сохранять ценность в течение времени, функция сохранения стоимости, относительная цена, заработная плата, доход, общепризнанное средство расчета. Ex 4. Match each term with the appropriate explanation. money, broad money, mint, barter, commodity money
Ex. 5. Answer the questions and do the assignments.
Ex. 6 Find in the text the words and phrases that refer to the following notions and comment on them:
Ex 7. Comment on the phrases:
Ex 8. Increase your vocabulary.
Other adjectives: forged, near, paper, end, real, world, due; Verbs: to borrow (at interest), to draw (from a bank), to lend (at, on interest), to spend, to put aside, to invest.
Writing Task I. Write a Summary and a Gist of the text. Task II. Write out advantages & disadvantages of barter. Task III. Fill in the table. Use the examples of your own.
Speaking Task I. Render the text in the form of a presentation. Use the appropriate structure and visual aids to make it more interesting. Task II. Act as an interpreter for parts A and B.
Task III. Barter relations still exist in our society. What forms do they take? Prepare short reports on the issue and present them in class. |