K p. a. – one thousand per annum.

Кафедра английского языка гуманитарных факультетов

ENGLISH

For Economists

Минск

2004

Авторы-составители:

Тихомирова Л. Б., Князева Н. И., Рунцова Э. В., Кутыркина Т. П., Амелина Ю. М.,

Журавлева Л. П., Кудис С. П., Хведченя Л. В., Толстоухова В. Ф.

Под общей редакцией кандидата филологических наук Н. И. Князевой

и кандидата экономических наук Е.Э.Васильевой

ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ

Пособие «English for Economists» является стержневым компонентом учебно-методического комплекса по английскому языку, обеспечивающим курс профессионально ориентированного обучения студентов экономических специальностей (экономика, менеджмент, финансы и кредит, экономическая теория). Оно составлено в соответствии с требованиями «Программы обучения профессионально ориентированному общению на иностранных языках (классические университеты)» и рассчитано на 180 часов аудиторной работы при полном объеме курса в 350 часов.

Необходимость издания пособия обусловлена тем, что профессиональное иноязычное общение является функционально значимым блоком в системе подготовки современного экономиста. Особую актуальность оно приобретает на современном этапе социально-экономического развития. Открытость границ, процессы интеграции материальной и духовной культуры многих сторон жизни европейского и мирового сообщества, развитие информационных технологий привели к расширению международных связей, созданию совместных предприятий, проектов и других форм сотрудничества. Знание языков международного общения стало важной частью квалификационной характеристики экономиста, позволяющей ему качественно выполнять свои функциональные обязанности, открывающей доступ к базе современных научных данных и обеспечивающей конкурентоспособность отечественного специалиста на мировом рынке труда.

Содержание курса согласовано с профилирующими кафедрами. Оно коррелирует с содержанием специальных дисциплин, что обеспечивает эффективную адаптацию будущего специалиста к многогранной профессиональной деятельности в условиях межкультурного общения. Широкий охват профессиональной тематики позволяет наиболее полно выделить учебный терминологический словарь, а также составить представление о социокультурных особенностях функционирования экономических систем в соизучаемых странах.

По своей структуре пособие представляет собой серию разделов (18), организованных по тематическому принципу. Несколько разделов образуют более крупный тематический блок. Например, в блок Microeconomy входят темы Supply and Demand, Market Structure. В блок Business Administration включает в себя темы Company Structure, Management, Accounting, Marketing, Advertising etc. и т.д. Каждый раздел – самостоятельный лингвометодический комплекс, систематизирующий материал по основным видам речевой деятельности. Он имеет унифицированную структуру и состоит из следующих частей:

– аутентичных текстов и заданий по развитию навыков различных видов чтения (изучающего, просмотрового, ознакомительного, поискового);

– заданий по обучению письму (эссе, аннотирование, реферирование), сфокусированных на индивидуальных потребностях обучаемых, наиболее вероятных в их дальнейшей профессиональной деятельности;

– комплекса заданий и упражнений по развитию навыков аудирования и перевода;

– заданий для углубления коммуникативной компетенции обучаемых в рамках заданной проблематики, а также ролевых игр, максимально приближенных к реальным профессиональными ситуациям;

– анализа проблем экономического характера на основе конкретных примеров деятельности корпораций и частных предпринимателей (сase study);

– глоссария и тематического словаря, подлежащего активному усвоению.

Предполагается, что комплексное обучение всем видам речевой деятельности на тематической основе (content based approach) будет способствовать более глубокому и всестороннему усвоению материала и тем самым достижению главной цели обучения: коммуникативного и социокультурного развития личности, способной использовать иностранный язык как средство профессионального общения в диалоге культур: родной и иностранной.

PROFESSION OF AN ECONOMIST

DISCOVERING CONNECTIONS

Why have you chosen the profession of an economist?

2. Would you like to work for a company, teach economic disciplines at university or operate your own economic business?

3. Do you think you have entrepreneurial flair or talent? What traits is a succesful businessman supposed to possess?

READING

Text 1

As you read the text, focus on different types of economists and their activities.

Careers: Economist

Economists study the ways in which individuals and society choose to use limited resources, such as natural resources, labor, factories, and machines, in an effort to satisfy unlimited wants. They are concerned with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services and are interested in helping society get as much satisfaction as possible from its limited resources. Economists collect, process, and analyze data to determine the costs and benefits of using resources in various ways.

Economists are employed in a number of different job settings. About half of them are academic economists, who engage in teaching, writing and doing research in colleges, and Universities. They also write textbooks and journal articles, develop and test new theoretical models, provide consulting services to governments and businesses, and engage in variety of other professional activities.

The other half of all economists work for government or business.

Government economists collect and analyze information about economic conditions in the nation and possible changes in government economic policies. Much of this information is published in government bulletins and reports. Often the government economist wears a second hat¹ as a policy analyst. Economists forecast tax revenues and interest rates, analyze, who gains and who loses from particular changes, monitor prices, compute total output and perform other useful tasks in the public sector.

Business economists work for banks, insurance companies, investment companies, manufacturing firms, economic research firms, and management consulting firms.

Some economists operate their own economic businesses. They are called entrepreneurs. This is a French word that has been accepted into the English language. Entrepreneurs are a mystery to some people, especially those who are only comfortable with a nine-to-five existence and assured weekly paychecks and fringe benefits. The entrepreneur is a business person who prefers to take calculated risks in order to be his or her own boss. An individual hoping to start up a new company needs to have entrepreneurial flair or talent, as well as good technical skills and financial skills, because they make a profit through risk-taking or initiative. They are self-employed, and often work long hours for less pay than they would if they were an employee of another company.

While the percentage of growth for men entering into business independence could be measured in the teens, women’s increase in a single decade was 69 percent. There is no mystery here. Women go into business for the same reason men do – to make money and to be their own bosses.

Entrepreneurship is regarded to be the first track to success. Rather than to take a low-wage, big-industry job, people opt² to use their wits and energy to climb the ladder of independence. People who are successful in business and so have become rich and powerful are called tycoons.

Speaking about entrepreneurship, Professor K. Vesper of the University of Washington says that “A driving force in entrepreneurship is addictiveness³. Once people have a taste of freedom in a business of their own, they like it. They don’t want to go back to working for someone else.”

Notes:

1. Wear a second hat – занимать вторую должность.

2. Opt – выбирать, предпочитать (for; between).

3. Addictiveness – вызывающий привычку, привыкание.

Vocabulary Focus

Ex. 1.Study the meaning of the following words, then use them to fill in the gaps: monitor, check andcontrol.

– We check something to see if it is correct.

– The word control refers to power and domination. It is both a noun and a verb.

– If you monitor something you regularly check its progress.

1. I’ve … the documentation and everything is in order.

2. Inflation has not gone away but it is under … .

3. We constantly … the situation and if anything goes wrong we take action immediately.

4. We apologize for the delay which is due to reasons beyond our … .

5. Economists … prices, compute totaloutput and perform other useful tasks.

Salary, wages and fringe benefits (also known as perks).

– A salary is paid monthly and usually by bank transfer. We use the word salary for monthly payments to professional employees.

– Wages are paid weekly to manual or unskilled workers.

– Fringe benefits (also known asperks) are extra payments (a company car, free accommodation etc.). In many job advertisements the combination of salary plus perks is called a remuneration package.

Complete this extract from a job advertisement.

We are offering an attractive … …, including basic … of 60 K p.a¹., plus numerous … such as subsidized accommodation, free medical insurance etc.

Note:

K p. a. – one thousand per annum.

Ex. 2.Match the following word combinations in column A with their Russian equivalents in column B:

Ex. 3. Express in one word.

Comprehension

Ex. 1.Expand the sentences.

1. Economists study the ways in which individuals and society choose to use … .

2. They are concerned with … .

3. About half of them are academic economists who … .

4. The other half of the profession work for … .

5. Government economists forecast … .

6. Business economists work for … .

7. Rather than to take low-wage, big-industry job, people opt to … .

8. An individual hoping to start up a new company needs to have … .

9. Entrepreneurship is regarded to be … .

Ex. 2.Answer the questions.

1. What do economists study?

2. What job settings are economists employed in?

3. What are the spheres of activities of:

a) academic economists?

b) government economists?

c) business economists?

4. How do entrepreneurs differ from above mentioned economists?

5. What is a driving force in entrepreneurship?

6. What is the percentage of growth for men and women entering into business independence?

Ex. 3.Re-order the sentences to make a paragraph with a logical sequence.

1. The entrepreneur has no guarantee that this new business venture will be successful, and often invests his or her own savings in the business, meaning that the entrepreneur needs to be a risk taker.

2. The entrepreneur’s flair or talent ensures that the business becomes successful.

3. An entrepreneur begins with an idea and the forms of a new business.

4. The new organization begins producing goods or services.

Text 2

While reading the passage pay attention to the description of degrees in economics.

Degrees in Economics

The amount of training required to become an economist in most countries abroad depends on the type of employment that a potential economist is seeking for.

Most students studying at the university for the first time take a degree, called a first degree. They are undergraduate students. This degree is called Bachelor of Art (B.A.) or Bachelor of Science (B.S.) The B.A. in Economics requires different courses.

Below you can see a choice of subjects offered by the University of South Florida.

Basic Courses

Supporting Courses

A bachelor’s degree (four years of college) with a major in economics is sufficient for many entry-level management positions.

However, most job openings for economists require advanced training. Those college graduates who wish to seek higher level jobs usually enrol in graduate school and obtain either a master's degree or a doctorate in economics. A master's degree requires approximately one year of advanced training, and a doctorate usually requires at least four. Economists must have a thorough understanding of economic theory, mathematical methods of economic analysis, and basic statistical procedures. In addition, training in computer science is becoming increasingly important. The M.A. studies in economics prepare students for careers as professional economists in business and government. It is also excellent preparation for continued graduate study in economics.

Requirements: strong motivation, aptitude and basic intellectual ability are needed for success in graduate study in economics.

Program requirements: all students are required to take courses in advanced economic theory and economics. Students preparing for professional carriers choose additional applied courses in industrial organization, international economics, natural and human resources, and urban and public economics.

Students preparing for doctoral studies select from these and additional courses in economic theory, mathematics, and quantitative methods.

Students must satisfy all University requirements for the M.A. degree. Courses should be selected with the approval of graduate advisor.

Required courses:

– microeconomics: microeconomic behavior of consumers, producers, and resource suppliers; price determination in output and factor markets; general market equilibrium.

– aggregate economics: advanced microeconomics analysis of income; employment; prices; interest rates and economic growth rates.

– econometrics 1

– econometrics 2.

The Master of Business Administration Degree (M.B.A.)is a professional degree designed to prepare graduates for managerial rolesin business and non-profit organizations. Graduates will develop the necessary skills and problem-solving techniques that will permit them to make an early contribution to management and eventually to move into broad, general management responsibilities at the executive level. You can get this degree abroad and in Belarus as well: at the International Graduate School of Business and Management of Technology (BSU). It offers a programfor managers with business background. The aim of this program is to provide theoretical and practical knowledge in general management and prepare high-level managers. The period of education is two years. Classes are conducted at very convenient evening time. The language of classes is English or Russian.

Required Courses

Year 1

Year 2

The faculty uses various delivery systems in the classroom: the traditional lecture/discussion, case method, simulation, model building, and laboratory techniques. These methods emphasize an analytical, conceptual, and theoretical balance throughout the program, which helps sharpen students’ resourcefulness in solving complex problems and selecting optimal courses of action. Students are given many opportunities to demonstrate their writing and verbal competency and to improve interpersonal communication. At the end of the second year students defend Master’s Theses.

Questions

1. What degree do undergraduate students study for?

2. What a second, more specialized degree do students study for?

3. What are similarities and differences of an economic course curriculum in American universities and the BSU? Write a list of courses you are taking in the first year. Consult a dictionary if it is necessary.

4. What kind of degree is MBA? What is the aim of this program? What courses does the program of International Graduate School of Business and Management of Technology (BSU) offer?

5. What field of activity would you choose:economics or business administration? Give your arguments¹.

Note:

1. One of the techniques to create an argument is as follows:

a)state the claim;

b) explain the claim;

c)prove the claim. Provide evidence and reasoning;

d) make a conclusion.

Example of an argument:

a) Good manager plays an important role in the company.

b) He fullfills the vital functions: planning, organizung, forecasting.

c) By applying his managerial skills the manager can bring profit to the company.

d) That is why the manager’s role in the company can not be overestimated.

Text 3

Outstanding Economists

Work in groups of three. Look at the outline on the next page. Each person should scan one of the articles and take notes in the appropriate section of the outline. Then share information so that you and your partner have the same data and can fill in the outline completely.

A.

The Founder of Economics

Adam Smith was born in Kirkcaldy located to the north of Edinburgh in the year 1723. Adam Smith was to become the first political economist the world had ever known. He was to take his place at the head of the first school of economics, one that continues and is known as the "classical school." In 1740, at the age of seventeen, Smith was sent off to Oxford on scholarship.

In 1751, at age twenty-eight, Adam Smith became a professor of Logic at Glasgow. It was his first academic appointment. Smith was a curious human being. He treasured his library, and was continually absorbed in abstractions; he was notoriously absent-minded. Smith led a quiet and sheltered life; he lived with his mother (she lived to be ninety) and remained a bachelor all his life. Though silent and awkward in social situations, Adam Smith possessed, in considerable perfection, the peculiarly Scotch gift of abstract oratory. Even in common conversation, when once moved, he expounded his favourite ideas very admirably. As a teacher in public he did even better; he wrote almost nothing, and though at the beginning of a lecture he often hesitated, we are told, and seemed 'not to be sufficiently possessed of the subject,' yet in a minute or two he became fluent, and poured out an interesting series of animated arguments. Adam Smith acquired a great reputation as a lecturer.

Some time later he became a tutor to a wealthy Scottish duke. Then he received a grant of 300 pounds a year. It was a very big sum, 10 times the average income at that time. With the financial security of his grant, Smith devoted 10 years to writing his work which founded economic science. Its full name was ‘An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations’ It was published with great success in 1776.

The Wealth of Nationsopens with a description of the specialization of labour in the manufacture of pins; the book covers a variety of subjects: from the professorships at Oxford to the statistics on the herring catch since 1771; from stamp duties to the coined money used by the Romans. The book is full of detail. What Adam Smith did in his book was to explain how self-interest was the engine of the economy and competition its governor. He set forth the great lesson that all economists come to sooner or later. Robert Heilbroner wrote: “First, he [Adam Smith] has explained how prices are kept from ranging arbitrarily away from the actual cost of producing a good. Second, he has explained how society can induce its producers of commodities to provide it with what it wants. Third, he has pointed out why high prices are a self-curing disease, for they cause production in those lines to increase. And finally, he has accounted for a basic similarity of incomes at each level of the great producing strata of the nation. In a word, he has found in the mechanism of the market a self-regulating system which provides for society's orderly provision.”

On July 17th, 1790, Adam Smith died at Edinburgh; he was buried in the Canongate churchyard.

B.

David Ricardo (1772–1823)

David Ricardo was born on 19 April 1772 in London. He was the third son (out of seventeen!) of a Dutch Jew who had made a fortune on the London Stock Exchange. At the age of fourteen, after a brief schooling in Holland, Ricardo's father employed him full-time at the London Stock Exchange, where he quickly acquired a knack for the trade. At 21, Ricardo broke with his family and his orthodox Jewish faith when he decided to marry a Quaker called Priscilla Anne Wilkinson; Ricardo then converted to Christianity. His family disinherited him for marrying outside his Jewish faith.

Ricardo had to establish his own business. He continued as a member of the stock exchange, where his ability won him the support of an eminent banking house. He did so well that in a few years he acquired a fortune. This enabled him to pursue his interests in literature and science, particularly in mathematics, chemistry, and geology.

He became rich in a very short time. When he died, his estate was worth over $100 million in today's dollars.

In 1799 he read Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and got excited about economics. So for the next ten years he studied economics. Bright and talkative, Ricardo discussed his own economic ideas with his friends, notably James Mill. But it was only after the persistent urging of the eager Mill that Ricardo actually decided to write them down. In 1809 he wrote that England's inflation was the result of the Bank of England's propensity to issue excess bank notes. In short, Ricardo was an early believer in the quantity theory of money, or what is known today as monetarism.

In 1814, at the age of 42, Ricardo retired from business and took up residence at Gatcombe Park in Gloucestershire, where he had extensive landholdings. In 1819 he became MP for Portarlington. He did not speak often but his free-trade views were received with respect, although they opposed the economic thinking of the day. Parliament was made up of landowners who wished to maintain the Corn Laws to protect their profits. In 1815 Ricardo responded to the Corn Laws by publishing his Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock, in which he argued that raising the duties on imported grain had the effect of increasing the price of corn and hence increasing the incomes of landowners and the aristocracy at the expense of the working classes and the rising industrial class. He said that the abolition of the Corn Laws would help to distribute the national income towards the more productive groups in society.

In 1817, Ricardo published Principles of Political Economy and Taxation in which he analyzed the distribution of money among the landlords.

David Ricardo formalized the Classical system more clearly and consistently than anyone before had done. For his efforts, he acquired a substantial following in Great Britain and elsewhere – what became known as the "Classical" or "Ricardian" School. His system, however, was improved very little by his disciples. Perhaps only John Stuart Mill (1848) and Karl Marx (1867–94) added insights of any great weight.

He died on 11 September at Gatcombe Park (which is now the home of the Princess Royal and her family). He was 51.

C.

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)

The English economist John Maynard Keynes is regarded as the originator of modern macroeconomics.

In 1935 George Bernard Shaw received a letter from John Maynard Keynes in which Keynes asserted, “I believe myself to be writing a book on economic theory, which will largely revolutionize… the way the world thinks about economic problem”. And, in fact, Keynes’s The general theory of employment, interest and money (1936) did revolutionize economic analysis and established Keynes as one of the most influential economists of all time.

The son of an eminent English economist, Keynes was educated at Eton and Cambridge. While his early interests were in mathematics and probably theory, Keynes ultimately turned to economics.

Keynes was far more than an economist. He was an active, many-sided man who also played such diverse roles as principal representative of the Treasury at the World War I Paris Peace Conference, a director of the Bank of England, trustee of the National Gallery, editor of the Economic Journal. He also ran an investment company, organized the Camargo Ballet (his wife, Lydia Lopokova, was a renowned star of the Russian Imperial Ballet), and built the Art Theatre at Cambridge.

In addition Keynes found time to amass a $2 million personal fortune by speculating in stocks, international currencies, and commodities. He was also a leading figure in the “Bloomsbury Group”, an avantgarde of intellectual luminaries who greatly influenced the artistic and literally standard of England.

Most importantly, Keynes was a prolific scholar. His book encompassed such widely ranging topics as probably theory, monetary economics, and the economic consequences of the World War I peace treaty. His magnum opus, however, was the General Theory, which was described as “a work of profound obscurity, badly written and prematurely published”. Yet the General Theory attacked the classical economists’ contention that recession will automatically cure itself. Keynes’ analysis suggested that recession could easily spiral downward into a depression. Keynes claimed that modern capitalism contained no automatic mechanism which would propel the economy back towards full employment. The economy might languish for many years in depression, and the depression of the 1930s seemed to provide sufficient evidence that Keynes was right. His basic policy recommendation – a starting one in view of the balanced-budget sentiment at the time – was for government in these circumstances to increase its spending to include more production and put unemployed back to world.

WRITING

Не нашли, что искали? Воспользуйтесь поиском по сайту: