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 Text A Student’s Success Read the passage below and make up the appropriate heading for each paragraph.
Definition of Student Success Defining student success is something educators, students, parents and even politicians have been trying to do since schools have existed. They have long argued over what success means and how best to measure it. With more and more focus being placed on student success as a measure for school and teacher success, it has become an increasingly important question to address. 1. …… Perhaps the most traditional method of measuring student success is grades. Grades measure how well the student completes work and if they show mastery of the material. If the teacher grades on a curve, then the question is also "how well did they do relative to their peers?" Grades would be a great indicator if every teacher was the same and every assignment was completely objective. 2. …… Another measure of success is the ability of a student to progress towards a goal, whatever that goal may be. Such is the measure of progress in subjects such as math, where a student progresses from simple addition and subtraction to complicated geometry and calculus. Students are successful if they build from the basic to the complex. 3. …… Many argue that another measure of student success is seeing the student do something that they couldn't previously do or perhaps do it faster or more completely than they could previously. This is a particularly popular model for success among special needs students who would not get good grades in regular classes or couldn't keep pace with their peers. 4. …… One of the most popular methods for determining student success is to subject students to a series of standardized tests designed to test benchmark knowledge levels. Students and their schools are then judged based on how they score when compared with state and nationwide averages. Often such importance is placed on these tests, that educators complain about having to teach the test rather than the material. 5. …… Since the educational system is essentially to prepare people for the working world, many make the case for the students' success in the world after school that defines their success in the educational system. Students may not do well within the confines and limitations of the standardized schooling system but excel in the job market largely because they managed to retain many non-quantifiable lessons. Ex 1. Give your comments on each method of measuring student success mentioned in the text. Do you find them effective enough? Which one do you consider the most (the least) effective? Bear out your statement. Text B Read the text below and match each paragraph with the appropriate heading.
The Effect of Part-Time Jobs on Students While academics are the main focus of college students, many will also spend their college years in part-time employment. In the report "Student Employment and Higher Education: Empiricism and Contradiction," members of the American Educational Research Association reported that more than 50 percent of students attending four-year colleges work part time. The reasons for working may vary--earning funds for tuition or spending money--but many benefits exist beyond the paycheck.
There is no standard definition of what constitutes part-time employment, but most employers consider part-time employees to be those who work less than 40 hours per week. Some companies restrict a part-time worker's hours to 30 per week. Nearly all part-time employees receive hourly pay. They work in shifts that range from a few hours to a full day's work, but may not work five days per week. Part-time employment often consists of evening and weekend hours to augment full-time workers who fill weekday shifts.
Classroom learning is important, but the culture of workplaces and offices are hard to impart within the classroom. Holding down a regular position outside the classroom will allow students to gain firsthand experience in office culture and politics, which will be helpful upon graduation and their first full-time job.
Balancing a part-time job while attending classes full-time will force a student to balance their schedule. A March 2009 study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics says students with part-time work reduce the time spent on homework, sleeping, socialization and life maintenance by 84 percent. A student employee will need to learn how to not let the decrease on time spent on studying show in her academic performance.
In today's weak economy, it is even more crucial for students to make as many valuable connections as possible. Working part time for a company or organization will allow students to network outside their social circles, giving them valuable recommendations and contacts for their full-time job search.
According to the report, "Values, skills, emotional maturity, personal identity and integrity are fostered through employment experiences." Student-employees will learn to be accountable for their actions in a non-classroom or home environment, and experience how responsibility is delegated and evaluated in an office.
Many part-time jobs will give students the opportunity to learn administrative skills, such as phone and email etiquette, office electronics troubleshooting, and meeting manners. Gaining such skills while in school will place a student-employee ahead of the curve when they enter the full-time workforce.
Part-time jobs help students contribute to their college expenses, which can help you and your family during the economic crisis. Although some of their money should go towards entertainment and recreation, you should still find that their contribution to their spending money is helpful to your budget. Your teens might learn to keep a budget of their own and save 10 to 20 percent of their income each month, which should end up being a significant contribution to their college tuition by the time they graduate high school.
Teens might learn the importance of earning money by having part-time jobs. They should understand that they do not automatically have disposable incomes and that money comes from hard work. Encouraging them to spend money on some of their necessities, including clothes and gasoline, can show them that their day-to-day choices have a financial impact. They might begin to shop sales and look for better deals on the items they want. Having a job should demonstrate to them that smart shopping can make their money last longer. Ex 1. Answer the questions and do the assignments.
Ex 2. Work in pairs. Make up dialogues discussing plusses and minuses of working part-time for students. Ex 3. Role play: You are a potential employer (choose the sphere yourself) and would be glad to hire a few students for part-time employments. Hold an interview with your potential employees trying to find out the following information:
These words and word-combinations may help you: an applicant, a would-be-boss, an application, a CV, to be highly motivated, to manage a tight schedule, a dire need for additional resources, to learn valuable lessons, to broaden one’s scope, to be hourly paid, punctuality, diligence, responsibility, accuracy, discipline, an ability to work under the strain. Unit VII Part 1 Inflation, Deflation and Price Stability inflation, deflation, purchasing power, overall price level, consumer price index, “market basket”, inflation rate, “individual basket”, individual rate of inflation, price stability, living standards, hyperinflation Text A Inflation and Deflation Inflation and deflation are important economic phenomena that have negative consequences for the economy. Basically, inflation is defined as a general, or broadly-based, increase in the prices of goods and services over an extended period which consequently leads to a decline in the value of money and thus its purchasing power. Deflation is often defined as the opposite of inflation, namely as a situation in which the overall price level falls over an extended period. When there is no inflation or deflation, we can say that there is price stability if, on average, prices neither increase nor decrease but stay stable over time. If, for instance, EUR 100 can buy the same basket of goods as it could, say one and two years ago, then this can be called a situation of absolute price stability. Movements in individual prices and in the general price level It is important to make a distinction between movements in prices of any individual good or service and movements in the general price level. Frequent changes in individual prices are quite normal in market-based economies, even if there is price stability overall. The changes in supply and / or demand conditions of individual goods or services inevitably lead to changes in their price. For example, in recent years we have seen substantial declines in the prices of computers and mobile phones, mainly resulting from rapid technological progress. However, from the beginning of 1999 to mid-2006, oil and other energy prices increased, partly as a result of concerns regarding the future supply of energy and partly as a result of increased demand for energy, in particular from fast-growing economies. On the whole, inflation in most industrialized countries remained low and stable – stability in the general price level can go hand-in-hand with substantial changes in individual prices as long as falling and rising prices offset each other so that the overall price level remains unchanged. Measurement issues How can inflation be measured? There are millions of individual prices in an economy. These prices are subject to continuous moves which basically reflect changes in the supply of and the demand for individual goods and services and thus give an indication of the “relative scarcity” of the respective goods and services. It is obvious that it is neither feasible nor desirable to take all of these prices into account, but neither is it appropriate to look at just a few of them, since they may not be representative of the general price level. Consumer Price Index Most countries have a simple common-sense approach to measuring inflation, using the so-called “Consumer Price Index” (CPI). For this purpose, the purchasing patterns of consumers are analyzed to determine the goods and services which consumers typically buy and which can therefore be considered as somehow representative of the average consumer in an economy. As such they do not only include those items which consumers buy on a day-to-day basis (e. g. bread and fruit), but also purchases of durable goods (e. g. cars, PCs, washing machines, etc.) and frequent transactions (e. g. rents). Putting together this “shopping list” of items and weighting them according to their importance in consumer budgets leads to the creation of what is referred to as a “market basket”.7 Each month, a host of “price surveyors” checks on the prices of these items in various outlets. Subsequently, the costs of this basket are then compared over time, determining a series for the price index. The annual rate of inflation can then be calculated by expressing the change in the costs of the market basket today as a percentage of the costs of the identical basket the previous year. However, the developments of the price level as identified by such a basket only reflect the situation of an “average” or representative consumer. If a person’s buying habits differ substantially from the average consumption pattern and thus from the market basket on which the index is based, that person may experience a change in the cost of living that is different to the one shown in the index. There will therefore always be some people who experience a higher “inflation rate” for their “individual basket” and some who face a lower “individual rate of inflation”. In other words, the inflation measured by the index is only an approximate measure of the average situation in the economy; it is not identical to the overall price changes faced by each individual consumer. Measurement problems For various reasons, there are some difficulties associated with any attempt to express the overall change in prices as one number. First, an existing basket usually becomes less and less representative over time, as consumers increasingly substitute more expensive goods for cheaper ones. For example, higher petrol prices might lead some people to drive less and buy a higher quantity of other goods instead. Therefore, if the weights are not adjusted, the change in the index may slightly overestimate the “true” price increases. Second, changes in quality are sometimes difficult to incorporate into the price index. If the quality of a product improves over time and the price also rises, some of the change in price is due to the improved quality. Price increases which are due to quality changes cannot be considered as giving rise to inflation, as they do not reduce the purchasing power of money. Changes in quality are commonplace over long periods of time. For example, today’s cars differ considerably from those manufactured in the 1970s, which in turn were very different from those of the 1950s. Statistical offices spend a lot of time making adjustments for quality changes, but by their very nature such adjustments are not easy to estimate. Apart from new varieties of existing goods (e. g. the introduction of new breakfast cereals), an important and difficult subject is the inclusion of new products. For example, after DVD players came on the market, there was an inevitable time lag until they could be captured in price statistics, since information on the market shares, the main distribution channels, the most popular makes, etc., was needed. But if it takes too long to incorporate new products into the price index, the price index fails to fully reflect the actual average price changes that consumers are facing. In the past, a number of economic studies have identified a small but positive bias in the measurement of national consumer price indices, suggesting that a measured inflation rate of, say, smaller than 1/2 percentage point might in fact be consistent with “true” price stability. For the euro area (i.e. all the EU countries that have adopted the euro as their currency), no precise estimates for such a measurement bias are available. However, one can expect the size of such a possible bias to be rather small for two reasons. First, the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) – this is a harmonized CPI for all euro area countries – is a relatively new concept. Second, Eurostat, the European Commission agency responsible for this area of statistics at the EU level, has attempted to avoid a measurement bias in the HICP by setting appropriate statistical standards. Nominal and real variables As is explained above, in the case of inflation, a given amount of money can buy increasingly fewer goods. This is the same as saying that there is a fall in the value of money or a decrease in its purchasing power. This observation brings us on to another important economic issue: the difference between nominal and real variables. A nominal variable is one that is measured in current prices. Such variables usually move with the price level and therefore with inflation. In other words, the effects of inflation have not been accounted for. Real variables, however, such as real income or real wages, are variables where the effects of inflation have been deducted or “taken out”. Let us assume that a worker’s earnings increase by 3 % in nominal (i.e. in money) terms per year, in other words, his monthly earnings increase from, say, EUR 2000 to EUR 2060. If we further assume that the general price level were to increase by 1.5 % over the same period, which is equivalent to saying that the rate of inflation is 1.5 % per annum, then the increase in the real wage is ((103/101.5) – 1) x 100 ≈ 1.48 % (or approximately 3 % – 1.5 % = 1.5 %). Therefore, the higher the rate of inflation for a given nominal wage increased the fewer goods the worker can buy. Another important distinction is between nominal and real interest rates (see also Box 3.2 below). By way of an example, let us suppose that you can buy a bond with a maturity of one year at face value which pays 4 % at the end of the year. If you were to pay EUR 100 at the beginning of the year, you would get EUR 104 at the end of the year. The bond therefore pays a nominal interest rate of 4 %. Note that the interest rate refers to the nominal interest rate, unless otherwise stated. Now let us suppose that the inflation rate is again 1.5 % for that year. This is equivalent to saying that today the basket of goods will cost EUR 100, and next year it will cost EUR 101.50. If you buy a bond with a 4 % nominal interest rate for EUR 100, sell it after a year and get EUR 104, then buy a basket of goods for EUR 101.50, you will have EUR 2.50 left over. So, after factoring in inflation, your EUR 100 bond will earn you about EUR 2.50 in “real” income, which is equivalent to saying that the real interest rate is about 2.5 %. It is obvious that if inflation is positive then the real interest rate is lower than the nominal interest rate. Vocabulary list
syn. standard of living Notes
Ex 1.Suggest the Russian equivalents: economic phenomena; broadly-based increase in the prices of goods; overall price level falls over an extended period; market-based economies; stability can go hand-in-hand with substantial changes; relative scarcity of the respective goods and services; it is neither feasible nor desirable; the purchasing patterns of consumers; the creation of what is referred to as a “market basket”; a change in the cost of living; 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: привести к падению стоимости денег; ситуация абсолютной ценовой стабильности; неизбежно; цены подвержены постоянным колебаниям; принимать во внимание; годовой уровень инфляции; измеряемая индексом информация; умножить количество товаров на соответствующие цены; высчитывать индекс цен; дать общую картину. Ex 4. Match each term with the appropriate explanation. price-level, Consumer Price Index, inflation, deflation, consumer durables
Ex 5. Answer the questions.
Ex 6. Find in the text the words and expressions that characterize or name:
Ex 7. Comment on the following:
Text B The information given in the previous text explains why inflation and deflation are generally undesirable phenomena. Indeed, there are substantial disadvantages and costs related to inflation and deflation. Price stability prevents these costs from arising and brings about important benefits for all citizens. There are several ways in which price stability helps to achieve high levels of economic welfare, e. g. in the form of high employment. Price stability supports higher living standards by helping to reduce uncertainty about general price developments and thereby improve the transparency of relative prices. First, price stability makes it easier for people to identify changes in the prices of goods expressed in terms of other goods (i.e. “relative prices”), since such changes are not concealed by fluctuations in the overall price level. For example, let us suppose that the price of a certain product increases by 3 %. If the general price level is stable, consumers know that the relative price of this product has increased and may therefore decide to buy less of it. If there is high and unstable inflation, however, it is more difficult to find out the relative price, which may have even declined. In such a situation it may be better for the consumer to buy relatively more of the product of which the price has increased by “only” 3 %. In the case of general deflation, consumers may not be aware of the fact that a fall in the price level of a single product merely reflects general price developments and not a fall in the relative price level of this good. As a result, they may mistakenly buy too much of this product. Consequently, if prices are stable, firms and consumers do not run the risk of misinterpreting changes in the general price level as relative price changes and can make better informed consumption and investment decisions. Uncertainty about the rate of inflation may also lead firms to make wrong employment decisions. To illustrate this, let us suppose that in an environment of high inflation, a firm misinterprets the increase in the market price of its goods by, say, 5 %, as a relative price decrease as it is not aware that the inflation rate has recently fallen from, say, 6% to 4%. The firm might then decide to invest less and lay off workers in order to reduce its production capacities, as it would otherwise expect to make a loss given the perceived decrease in the relative price of its goods. However, this decision would ultimately turn out to be wrong, as the nominal wages of employees due to lower inflation may increase by less than that assumed by the firm. Economists would describe this as a “misallocation” of resources. In essence, it implies that resources have been wasted, as some employees would have been made redundant because of instabilities in price developments. Price stability reduces inflation uncertainty and therefore helps to prevent the misallocation of resources described above. By helping the market guide resources to where they can be used most productively, lasting price stability increases the efficiency of the economy and, therefore, the welfare of households. Hyperinflation A situation in which the rate of inflation is very high and/or rises constantly and eventually becomes out of control is called “hyperinflation”. Socially, hyperinflation is a very destructive phenomenon which has far-reaching consequences for individuals and society as a whole. Although there is no generally accepted definition of hyperinflation, most economists would agree that a situation where the monthly inflation rate exceeds 50% can be described as hyperinflation. Hyperinflation and periods of very high inflation occurred several times during the 20th century. Below are some examples of countries that experienced such high annual rates of inflation and the respective figures for the years indicated: 1922 Germany 5,000 % 1946 Hungary 41,900,000,000,000,000% 1985 Bolivia more than 10,000 % 1989 Argentina 3,100 % 1990 Peru 7,500 % 1993 Brazil 2,100 % 1993 Ukraine 5,000 % The post-WWII hyperinflation of Hungary holds the record for the most rapid monthly inflation increase ever. It means prices doubled every 13,5 hours. Let us briefly illustrate the consequences of such a phenomenon. An inflation rate of 50 % per month implies an increase of more than 100-fold in the price level over a year and an increase of more than two million-fold over three years. There is no doubt that such rates of inflation place a heavy burden on society. In fact, in Germany, the hyperinflation that followed World War I and peaked in 1923 had devastating economic, social and – as is widely agreed – political consequences. As many people lost their savings, this led to a substantial loss in wealth for broad segments of the population. The realization that price levels were constantly rising sparked a vicious circle. People naturally asked for higher wages, anticipating higher price levels in the future. These expectations became a reality, since higher wages translated into higher costs of production, which again meant higher prices. In the same vein, people started to pass on their money – which lost its value – by spending faster and faster. The Government reacted to the decline in the value of money by adding more and more zeros to the paper currency, but over time it became impossible to keep up with the exploding price level. Eventually these hyperinflation costs became intolerable. Over time money completely lost its role as a store of value, unit of account and medium of exchange. Barter became more common and unofficial monies, such as cigarettes, which did not lose their value due to inflation, started to replace official paper money. The first country to hyperinflate in the 21st century is Zimbabwe. In 2008, a loaf of bread cost 1.6 trillion Zimbabwe dollars. Officials in Zimbabwe blamed it on rising global food prices and international sanctions. The Zimbabwean dollar bank note holds the record for the greatest number of zeros shown (100,000,000,000,000). Hungary holds the record for the largest banknote ever issued, but its bank note did not depict all the zeros – the amount was spelled out. Vocabulary list
Ex 1. Suggest the Russian equivalents: substantial disadvantages and costs related to inflation and deflation; to identify changes in the prices of goods expressed in terms of other goods; fluctuations in the overall price level; to make better informed consumption and investment decisions; to misinterpret the increase in the market price; to turn out to be wrong; ultimately; to have devastating economic, social and political consequences; a substantial loss in wealth; broad segments of the population; to keep up with the exploding price level. 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: высокий уровень занятости; увеличиться на 3%; осознавать что-либо; идти на риск; сократить производственные мощности; из-за более низкой инфляции; неустойчивость; тяжелое бремя; высокие заработки привели к увеличению производственных издержек; стать невыносимым; неофициальные деньги. Ex 4.Match each term with the appropriate explanation. hyperinflation, misallocation of resources, redundancy, relative prices, living standard, price stability
Ex 5. Answer the questions and do the assignments.
Ex 6. Increase your vocabulary.
Other adjectives: cut, current, discount, inflated, high (heavy), low (keen), just, stable (steady), fluctuating, retail, wholesale. Verbs: to bargain over, to cut, to increase/decrease, to raise, to reduce, to buy/sell at a price, to pay/meet the price, to go down/up in price.
Writing Task I. Write a Summary and a Gist of Texts A, B and C. Task II. Write down a numerical example of the calculation of the total cost of the basket and the computation of the price index, similar to that given below. Make all the necessary calculations and comment on them. Let us illustrate the considerations above by means of a simple numerical example. Suppose that a representative market basket of the yearly expenditure of teenagers is 100 sandwiches, 50 soft drinks, ten energy drinks and one mountain bike.
The total cost of the basket can then be calculated by multiplying the quantities by the respective prices and adding everything up. It is easy to see that between the first and second year, the cost of this basket of goods has risen from EUR 300 to EUR 330, or by 10 %. From the first to the third year, the cost has risen from EUR 300 to EUR 360, or by the equivalent of 20 %. Another way to express this is by means of a price index. In order to compute the price index, the cost of the market basket in any period is divided by the cost of the market basket in the base period, and the result is multiplied by 100. In the table above, year 1 is the base period. The price index for year 3 is therefore: Price Index = (P3/P1) × 100 = (360/300) × 100 = 120.00 The price index tries to give a general picture of what is happening to a great many prices. As the example shows, the price index may rise despite some prices actually declining. Speaking Task I. Present the information on Inflation, Deflation and Price Stability in the form of a report. Use examples of your own to illustrate it. Task II. Find some examples of hyperinflations occurring in different countries, What effects did it have on the economy of these countries? Prepare reports on the issue and present them in class. Task III. Act as an interpreter for Parts A and B.
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