Exercise 6. Find words in the text synonymous in meaning to the following. Read the sentences containing them.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 439.

TEXT

We have already known that economics deals with the problems of scarcity and choice that face all the societies and nations throughout history. But it must be admitted* that the development (progress) of modern economics began in the 17^th century. Since that time economists have developed methods for studying and explaining how individuals, businesses and nations use their available economic resources.

So, what is economics? There are many various opinions concerning economics, but, in general, economics is the systematic study of choosing which goods and services will be produced and consumed to satisfy society's wants. Since economics involves interactions among members of society it is a social science that studies the behaviour of people in producing, distributing, exchanging, and consuming goods and services. Understanding economic behaviour and the ways in which economic activity is organized and coordinated are at the heart of economics.

The discipline of economics is divided into two interrelated branches: macroeconomics and microeconomics.

Microeconomics is the study of individual consumers and business firms who make choices on such matters as what to buy and what to sell, how much to work and how much to pay, how much to borrow and how much to save. Microeconomics focuses on how individuals and firms behave, how they interact in the market, and how these interactions establish a price and allocate scarce resources. Microeconomics is not used to determine how a specific individual will act, since it examines how an “average” individual will probably behave under a specific set of conditions. It tracks cause-and-effect relationships that influence choices of individuals, businesses and society and is concerned with issues such as scarcity, choice and opportunity costs, and with production and consumption. Principal emphasis is give by microeconomists to the study of prices and their relationship to any economic units.

Macroeconomics is the study of the economy as a whole. Macroeconomics seeks solutions to macroeconomic problems such as how fasttheeconomy is developing, how employment can be increased, what can be done to increase the overall output of goods and services, how much total income is, how inflation will effect economic growth and how different governmental policies can be used to stabilize the level of business activity in the economy. Macroeconomics looks into the total effect of individual choices on the overall productive efficiencyof the economy reflected by such economic indicators as the nation's price level, total output, and level of employment. Macroeconomics concentrates on determining the overall effect of decisions made in the system.

Just as the whole consists of the sum of its parts, the economy is ultimately driven by individual choices. Thus, an investigation of the big picture – of economic aggregates* such as unemployment and inflation – must begin with an understanding of the individual choices behind those aggregates.

Everyone should realize that economists deal with two worlds: the “world that is”, and the “world that ought to be”. Economists have developed and generally agree on basic economic principles and economicmodels that try to explain or describe the “world that is”. In many cases, however, economic issues cannot be solved with theories and models alone. Solutions to these problems include opinion, politics, and personal values.

Economists make a distinction between positive economics and normative economics. To the economists the positive-normative distinction is useful because it helps people with very different views about what is desirable to communicate with each other.

For example, economists can use basic principles like the laws of supply and demand and simple economic models to predict that the price of coffee in Ukraine will go up after a freeze destroys much of the coffee crop abroad. This assertion is called positive economic statement. The assertion like “something ought to be done about the high rate of unemployment” is a normative economic statement.

Positive economics looks at/on the facts and the economy as they actually are, avoiding value judgements* and attempting to seek scientific bases about economic activities. It is an approach that deals with “what is” rather than* with “what ought to be” and includes no indication of approval or disapproval. What are the causes of poverty in the country? What will be the effect of higher cigarette taxes on the number of smokers? These questions can be solved only by reference to facts. Notice that a positive statement can be wrong. “The moon is made of green cheese” is incorrect, but it is a positive statement because it is a statement about what exists. Thus, positive economics is used to analyze what is, what was, and what will happen when one activity is performed instead of another activity.

Normative economics, on the other hand, is concerned about what ought to be. It comprises ethical precepts and value judgments* about whether economic policies are good or bad. Normative economics is used to take decisions as for issues of equity, equality, and fairness, since these concepts include judgments about what ought to be. Normative economics attempts to show that one activity is better than another activity. “The world would be a better place if the moon were made of green cheese” is a normative statement because it expresses a judgment about what ought to be. Notice that there is no way of disproving this statement.

Should the government give money to poor people? Should the budget deficit be reduced by higher taxes or by lower spending? There are no right or wrong answers to these questions as they involve ethics and values rather than facts. Thus, these issues can be debated, but they can never be decided by using facts. These questions are solved by political decisions, not by economic science.

Since most assertions are not easily classified as purely positive or purely normative statements, they must be combined to make a good policy statement. One must decide what goals are desirable (the normative part), and choose a way of attaining those goals (the positive part).

COMMENTS:

it must be admitted – необхідно зазначити;

value judgement– суб'єктивна оцінка;

rather than– а не;

value judgment – ціннісне судження;

economic aggregates – сукупні економічні показники.

Exercise 1. Read, translate into Ukrainian in written form and memorize the definitions of the following key economic terms and concepts:

1. Business firm:organization that produces goods and services.	___________________________________ ___________________________________
2. Economist:an expert in economics.	____________________________________
3. Economic model:any simplified statement, diagram or formula used to understand economic events	_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Economics:the study of a man in his attempts to make a living by using his scarce resources.	_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. Macroeconomics:the branch of economics that studies behaviour and overall productive efficiency of the economy as a whole.	______________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________
6. Microeconomics:the study of the individual parts of the economy, with special attention to the market price and how it works.	___________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________

Exercise 2. Give the Ukrainian equivalents for the following.

1. to develop methods for studying and explaining	_____________________________________ _____________________________________
2. in producing, distributing, exchanging, and consuming	_____________________________________ _____________________________________
3. two interrelated branches
4. a specific individual
5. principal emphasis is given by microeconomists	_____________________________________ _____________________________________
6. to seek solutions to
7. total output
8. behind those aggregates
9. to agree on basic economic principles	_____________________________________ _____________________________________
10. the high rate of unemployment
11. to contain no indication
12. to include ethical precepts
13. to involve ethics and values rather than facts	__________________________________________________________________________
14. most affirmations are not easily classified	_____________________________________ _____________________________________

Exercise 3. Find the English equivalents for the following.

1. залучати взаємодії
2. лежати в основі економіки
3. за певного ряду умов
4. досліджувати загальний вплив ви-борів, зроблених окремими особами	__________________________________ __________________________________
5. рівень цін країни
6. сукупні наслідки рішень
7. вирішення цих проблем
8. розрізняти між/поміж
9. шукати наукові пояснення щодо напрямків економічної діяльності	__________________________________ __________________________________
10. посилаючись на факти
11. напрямки економічної політики
12. неможливо спростувати
13. ці проблеми можуть розглядатися

Exercise 4. Match the verbs/verbal phrases, prepositions/adverbs and nouns/noun phrases as they occur together in the text. Translate the expressions they make into Ukrainian.

1.	to agree		theories and models
2.	to allocate	about	the level of business activity
3.	to be		political decisions
4.	to be concerned	on	scarce resources
5.	to be divided		ethics and values
6.	to be solved	by	the facts and the economy
7.	to be solved		basic economic principles
8.	to begin	at	cause-and-effect relationships
9.	to face		the total effect
10.	to look	into	the heart of economics
11.	to look		what ought to be
12.	to involve	with	all the societies and nations
13.	to stabilize		an understanding
14.	to trace		two interrelated branches

Exercise 5. Copy out from the texts the sentences containing the following words and word-combinations and translate these sentences into Ukrainian.

1. to satisfy society's wants _____________________________________________

2. the study of individual consumers ______________________________________

3. cause-and-effect relationships _________________________________________

4. the output of goods and services ______________________________________

5. deal with two worlds _______________________________________________

6. what is desirable ____________________________________________________

7. instead of another activity ____________________________________________

8. attempts to show ___________________________________________________

9. to make a good policy statement _______________________________________

word	synonym	word	synonym
progress		many
really		in place of
fundamental		necessary
to separate		an ingredient
to look for		to guide
special		in the end
commonly		helpful
to foreseen		to explain

Exercise 7. Find in the box the English equivalents to the words listed below. More than one is possible.

1. вивчення (2)

2. визначати ціну (2)

3. виробляти (3)

4. включати (3)

5. досліджувати (3)

6. з іншого боку (3)

7. зазвичай (3)

8. закон (2)

9. збільшувати(ся) (3)

10. зосереджуватися (2)

11. показник (2)

12. рівень цін (2)

13. розв'язувати (3)

14. розподіляти (2)

15. сукупний (3)

16. твердження (3)

17. точка зору (2)

to concentrate on	to contain	a view	in general	an indicator	a study
on the contrary	to decide	to make	to examine	a statement	overall
to rise	total	a measure	to allocate	to distribute	to go up
to produce	usually	an assertion	to look into	an opinion	generally
a level of prices	to solve	to include	in contrast	to increase	a price level
an investigation	a law	to focus on	a principle	to involve
on the other hand	to determine a price	to manufacture	to establish a price

Exercise 8. Replace the words or word combinations in bold type with their synonyms.

1. The principles of economics help solve problems in a wide variety of areas.

2. Economics helps us examine trade-offs between various goals.

3. Almost all issues of governmental policies involve economics.

4. Studying economics helps people realize the difference between statements of fact and expressions of opinion.

5. Microeconomics focuses on determining why individuals purchase one product instead of another.

6. Macroeconomics, on the other hand, looks into behaviour and the overall production efficiency of the economy as a whole.

7. Macroeconomics usually includes such issues as the effects of total employment on the economy, total output and general price levels.

8. Economics is the systematic study of how the decisions made by individuals, business firms and the government affect the way in which resources are distributed in society.

9. Good economic indicators show a nation's high living standards.

Exercise 9. What economic terms given in the text do the following definitions refer to?

	a. The branch of economics that deals with large-scale economic phenomena, particularly inflation, unemployment and economic growth.
	b. Economic analysis that is concerned with “what ought to be” rather that with “what is”.
	c. The study of the behavior of individual units such as consumers, firms and resource owners.
	d. The area of economics that deals with facts and relationships among them.
	e. The representation of the essential features of a theory expressed in the form of words, diagrams, graphs used to understand economic events.
	f. The organization that brings together and coordinates factors of production for the purpose of producing goods and services.
	g. The study of how people choose to use scarce productive recourses, to produce various goods and services, and to distribute them among consumers.

Exercise 10. Pair the halves of the sentences. Write your own list of the completed sentences and translate them into Ukrainian.

1.Economic laws are used to solve a number of different issues	a.that enables an individual to be a better producer, consumer and citizen.
2.The macro approach and the micro approach are two ways of looking at	b.a value judgment about whether a situation is desirable or undesirable.
3.Microeconomics looks at the behaviour of individual economic units and.	c.often used to look into cause-and-effect relationships carefully.
4.Macroeconomics concentrates on the nation's total output of goods and services,	d.economics and the economy that economists have. normative economics is the study of "what ought to be" in economic matters.
5.A normative statement expresses	e.overall price level, level of employment, and economic growth.
6.Positive economics is the study of "what is" in economic matters, while	f.that, generally, seem unrelated to economics.
7.An economic model is a representation of a theory or a part of a theory,	g.macroeconomics, on the other hand, concentrates on the behaviour of entire economies.
8.Cultural, ethical and political values are at the heart of economics	h.examines how prices are determined in a specific market
9.Microeconomics focuses on the decisions of individual consumers and producers,	i.economics and the economy that economists have.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Exercise 11. Translate the words in brackets into Ukrainian.

Economics is (суспільна наука) that analyzes and describes (виробництво), (розподіл), and (споживання) of wealth.

(дисципліна економічної теорії) has two broad branches: (мікроекономіку) and (макроекономіка).

Microeconomics (досліджує економічну поведінку) of specific factors such as businesses and individuals with a view* to realize (процес прийняття рішень) in the face of (нестачі) and (економічні наслідки) of (цих рішень) on other participants. One of the goals of microeconomics is to analyze market mechanisms that (встановлюють ціни) for goods and services and (розміщують обмежені ресурси) among many alternative uses.

Macroeconomics (зосереджується на господарстві) as a whole with a view of understanding (взаємодії) between (сукупними економічними показниками) such as national income, (рівень зайнятості), (загальний обсяг виробництва) and (інфляція). Macroeconomics can be used to analyze how best (впливати на цілі) of different governmental policies such as (економічне зростання), price stability, (повна зайнятість) and others.

*with a view of/to – з метою/з наміром; для того, щоб.

Exercise 12. Translate the texts into Ukrainian.

To some economists, economics as a social science may be divided into positive and normative ones.	____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Positive economics looks at facts and avoids value judgements.	________________________________________________________________________
Positive economics attempts to set forth* scientific statements about economic behavior	____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Normative economics, in contrast, involves ethical precepts and value judgments about what the economy should be like or what particular policy should be recommended based on a given economic generalization* or relationship.	____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Positive economics looks into what the economy is actually like; normative economics examines whether certain conditions or aspects of the economy are desirable or not.	________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

*to set forth -формулювати

*generalization -узагальнення

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