- •Unit 1. What is economics?
- •Lead-in
- •Words with the stress on the first syllable:
- •Words with the stress on the second syllable:
- •Polysyllabic words with the main and secondary stress:
- •Text a: What is Economics? Active Vocabulary
- •Vocabulary focus
- •Language skills
- •Writing
- •Discussion points
- •Text b: what economics isn't
- •Text c: Micro, Macro and Fantasy Economics
- •Business communication
- •Introductions How to Say Hello
- •If you're determined not to be caught cardless again, here are some tips to help you remember:
- •Grammar present tenses
- •The present simple tense
- •Make up questions the interviewer may ask her. Here are some prompts to help you.
- •Now formulate questions Alice is likely to ask the interviewer.
- •The present continuous tense
- •The present simple versus the present continuous
- •Unit 2. Factors of production
- •Lead-in
- •Reading drills
- •Words with the stress on the first syllable:
- •Words with the stress on the second syllable:
- •Polysyllabic words with the main and secondary stress:
- •Word-formation
- •Text a: factors of production Active Vocabulary
- •Natural resources – land and mineral deposits
- •Human resources – labour
- •Information as a factor of production
- •Vocabulary focus
- •Language skills
- •Writing
- •Text b: entrepreneurship
- •Text c: Factors of Production for an Innovation Economy
- •Business communication
- •In the office
- •Grammar the present perfect tense
- •The present perfect continuous tense
- •The present continuous versus the present perfect continuous
- •The present perfect versus the present perfect contnuous
- •Present tenses review
- •Unit 3.Types of economic systems
- •Lead-in
- •Words with the stress on the first syllable:
- •Words with the stress on the second syllable:
- •Polysyllabic words with the main and secondary stress:
- •Text a: types of economic systems Active Vocabulary
- •Vocabulary focus
- •Language skills
- •Writing
- •Discussion points
- •Text b:command economy
- •T ext c: the good (and bad) model guide
- •Business communication
- •Grammar exercises past tenses
- •The past simple tense
- •The past continuous
- •The past simple versus the past continuous
- •The past simple versus the present perfect
- •Unit 4. Demand and supply
- •Lead-in
- •Text a: demand and supply
- •Vocabulary focus
- •Language skills
- •Writing
- •Discussion points
- •Text b. The role of prices
- •T ext c: two factors that affect labour supply and demand
- •Business communication making an appointment
- •Grammar past perfect
- •Past perfect continuous
- •Past Continuous or Past Perfect Continuous?
- •Past Simple, Past Perfect or Past Perfect Continuous?
- •Past tenses review
- •Unit 5. Free-enterprise system
- •Lead-in
- •Text a: what is free enterprise?
- •Vocabulary focus
- •Language skills
- •Writing
- •Discussion points
- •Text b: role of government in a free-enterprise economy
- •Text c: invisible hand
- •Business communication at the airport Look at the picture. What do you think the phrase Live out of a suitcase mean?
- •Going through Customs.
- •Do the drills.
- •2) Role-play the situations in the airport using the vocabulary of the lesson. Grammar future tenses
- •The future simple tense
- •The future simple versus the present simple
- •The future simple versus be going to
- •Be going to versus the present continuous
- •The future continuous tense
- •The future continuous versus the future simple
- •The future perfect versus the future perfect continuous
- •Future tenses review
- •The imperative mood
- •Unit 6. Forms of business organisation
- •Lead-in
- •Reading drills
- •Words with the stress on the first syllable:
- •Words with the stress on the second syllable:
- •Polysyllabic words with the main and secondary stress:
- •Word formation
- •Text a: forms of business organisation Active Vocabulary
- •Vocabulary focus
- •Language skills
- •Writing
- •Discussion points
- •Text b: nonprofit organisations
- •Text c: franchising
- •Business communication at the hotel
- •In pairs read the following situations.
- •2). Choose the correct options to the questions.
- •Grammar nouns
- •ArticleS
- •IntoEnglish.
- •Unit 7. Money
- •Lead-in
- •Text a: money and its role in the economy Active Vocabulary
- •Money is a medium of exchange
- •Money is a measure of value or a unit of account
- •Money is a store of value
- •Money is a means of liquidity
- •Vocabulary focus
- •Language skills
- •Discussion points
- •Text b: a glimpse of the american, british and euro
- •Text c: a barter way of doing business
- •Business communication On the phone
- •Inquiring about the telephone number
- •Useful Language Box
- •Grammar determiners
- •Numerals
- •Unit 8. Taxes
- •Lead-in
- •Reading drills
- •Text a: taxes Active Vocabulary
- •Vocabulary focus
- •Language skills
- •Writing
- •Discussion points
- •Text b: taxation in the uk
- •Text c: taxes are good
- •Business communication
- •In company
- •Grammar pronouns
- •Adjective and adverb
- •Very, too, far, much, a lot, rather, a bit, a little, any, by far, quite, nearly, almost
- •Test yourself Test 1
- •Test 11
- •Test 12
- •Test 13
- •Test 14
- •Test 15
- •Граматичний довідник дієслово the verb
- •Дієслова to be і to have.
- •Часи дієслова
- •Група теперішніх часів Утворення стверджувальних, заперечних та питальних форм
- •Правила написання дієслівних форм
- •Типи питальних речень
- •Загальна таблиця випадків використання
- •Не мають форми тривалого часу дієслова, що виражають
- •Інші дієслова, які не можуть виражати дію або стан як процес:
- •Група минулих часів Утворення стверджувальних, заперечних та питальних форм
- •Типи питальних речень
- •Випадки вживання минулих часів
- •Група майбутніх часів Утворення стверджувальних, заперечних та питальних форм
- •Типи питальних речень
- •Випадки вживання майбутніх часів
- •Інші способи вираження майбутнього часу
- •Наказовий спосіб
- •Іменник the noun
- •Число іменників
- •Деякі іменники мають особливі форми у множині:
- •Утворення множини іменників
- •Класифікація іменників за ознакою обчислювані/необчислювані
- •Випадки переходу необчислюваних іменників у обчислювані
- •Іменники, які узгоджуються із дієсловом в однині
- •Іменники, які узгоджуються із дієсловом у множині
- •Рід іменників
- •Рід іменників в англійській мові
- •Відмінки іменників
- •Відмінок іменника. Форми та особливості вживання присвійного відмінку
- •Форми присвійного відмінку
- •Особливості вживання присвійного відмінку
- •Вживання іменників - назв неістот у присвійному відмінку
- •Іменники у функції означення
- •Артикль
- •Вживання неозначеного артикля.
- •Вживання неозначеного артикля a/an (тільки із обчислюваними іменниками в однині)
- •A/anабо one
- •Артиклі з деякими необчислюваними іменниками
- •Вживання означеного артикля
- •Вживання означеного артикля the
- •Вживання нульового артикля (відсутність артикля)
- •Детермінанти
- •Присвійні прикметники і займенники
- •Присвійні прикметники
- •Присвійні займенники
- •Вказівні слова
- •Кількісні слова
- •Some/any/no
- •Many/much/a lot (lots) of/ (a) few/ (a) little
- •All (of)/most (of)
- •Every/each
- •Another/the other/other
- •Both, neither, either, none
- •Числівники
- •Займенник
- •Особові займенники
- •It або there?
- •Неозначено-особові займенники
- •Indefinite Personal Pronouns
- •Зворотні займенники
- •Прикметник
- •Прислівник
- •Ступені порівняння прикметників
- •Особливі випадки утворення ступенів порівняння прикметників і прислівників
- •Appendices
- •Словотворення Word formation
- •Enjoy your reading
- •I, Pencil My Family Tree as told to Leonard e. Read
- •Innumerable Antecedents
- •Money The History of Money
- •Extract 1
- •Extract 2
- •Extract 3
- •Success story
- •The Financier, by Theodore Dreiser Chapter III
- •The Iron Heel, by JackLondon Chapter 2 Challenges
- •Glossary
- •Internet Resources
- •Contents
Text c: invisible hand
Before reading
What do you think Adam Smith meant by the “invisible hand” of the market? What does the “invisible hand” do?
Reading
Read the text and do the tasks following the text.
( 1) By following their own self-interest in open and competitive markets, consumers, producers and workers are led to use their economic resources in ways that have the greatest value to the national economy – at least in terms of satisfying more of people’s wants. The first person to point out this fact in a systematic way was the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith, who published his most famous book, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, in 1776. Smith was the first great classical economist, and among the first described how an economy based on a system of markets could promote economic efficiency and individual freedom, regardless of whether people were particularly industrious or lazy.
(2) Smith argued that if people are naturally good and kind, a market economy offers them a great deal of freedom to carry out their good deeds, backed up by an efficient system of production, which generates more material goods and services for them to use in doing those good works. But what if people are selfish, greedy, or lazy?
(3) Anyone who wants to enjoy more of the material goods and services produced in a market economy faces strong economic incentives to work hard, spend carefully, and save and invest. And most successful businesses have to produce good products, sell them at market prices, pay their employees market wages, and treat their customers courteously – even if that isn’t their natural way of doing things.
(4) The basic reason for that kind of change in some people’s behaviour is competition. As Adam Smith pointed out, when there are several butcher shops in a community, any butcher who is rude or tries to sell inferior meat at unreasonable prices soon loses business and income to other butcher shops. If your neighbourhood butcher is naturally friendly and benevolent, so much the better.
(5) But even customers who do not know a butcher personally don’t have to depend on such altruistic characteristics to get good service and products. The more a greedy, selfish, or lazy person wants to enjoy a higher standard of living, the more he or she will try to meet the competition and build up a large base of satisfied customers. Or as Smith described this feature of market economies, people are led “as if by an invisible hand” to work and behave in ways that use resources efficiently, in terms of producing things that other people want and are willing to pay for, even though that may have been “no part of their original intentions”.
(6) Another factor must be at work for Smith’s invisible hand to function properly: the butcher must own or rent the shop, so that he or she has the rights to its profits. Without this right to private property, and to the profits it brings, the invisible hand of competition will not motivate businesses to offer the best and most varied products at reasonable prices. Butchers who are employees of the state will view their jobs very differently than those who are in business for themselves. This fact holds true throughout the economy, whether one considers a butcher, a carpenter, a restaurant chain, or a multinational insurance company.
Task 1. Discuss how the example of a butcher’s character and behaviour illustrates the functioning of a free market. (paras.4 and 5)
Task 2. According to Adam Smith, what factor determines the difference between
“butchers who are employees of the state” and “butchers who are in business for themselves”? (para.6.)
Task 3. If somebody treats you courteously, is their attitude showing
a) politeness and respect;
b) caution and fear;
c) courage and bravery? (para.3)
Task 4. Having read the above text, how can you define the “invisible hand” with one or two words?