Английский язык : экономика

ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОЕ АГЕНТСТВО ПО ОБРАЗОВАНИЮ

№ 1058

Кафедра русского и иностранного языков и литературы

С.Е. Зайцева

Английский язык

Экономика

Учебно-методическое пособие 
по научно-техническому переводу, 
аннотированию и реферированию

Рекомендовано редакционно-издательским
советом университета

Москва     Издательский Дом МИСиС     2010

УДК 811.111:33
 
З-17

Р е ц е н з е н т
д-р пед. наук, проф. Е.Г. Силяева (РГCУ)

Зайцева С.Е.
З-17  
Английский язык: Экономика: Учеб.-метод. пособие по 
науч.-техн. переводу, аннотированию и реферированию. – М.: 
Изд. Дом МИСиС, 2010. – 85 с.
ISBN 978-5-87623-262-5

Учебно-методическое пособие по научно-техническому переводу, аннотированию и реферированию представляет собой сборник аутентичных текстов 
на английском языке, отражающих различные проблемы, связанные с актуальными вопросами образования рыночной структуры экономики; возникновения и развития монополий и конкуренции на рынке труда, налогообложения; 
создания банковской системы и многими другими, стоящими перед современной экономической наукой. Цель пособия – развитие навыков чтения профессионально-ориентированных текстов, совершенствование коммуникативных 
навыков устной и письменной речи на основе специальных текстов.
Предназначено для студентов, обучающихся по направлению 080502 «Экономика и управление на предприятии».

УДК 811.111:33

ISBN  978-5-87623-262-5
© С.Е. Зайцева, 2010

CONTENTS

Prefaсe ........................................................................................................ 4
Unit 1 ..........................................................................................................5
Part 1. Text. Spotlight on Economies and Economics ............................... 5
Part 2. An insight into how economics applies to the real world ............ 10
Unit 2 ........................................................................................................12
Part 1. Text. Pure Monopoly .................................................................... 12
Part 2. An insight into how economics applies to the real world ............ 18
Unit 3 ........................................................................................................20
Part 1. Text. Imperfect Competition and Market Structure ..................... 20
Part 2. An insight into how economics applies to the real world ............ 26
Unit 4 ........................................................................................................27
Part 1. Text. The Labour Market .............................................................. 27
Part 2. An insight into how economics applies to the real world ............ 32
Unit 5 ........................................................................................................34
Part 1. Text. Governing the Market ......................................................... 34
Part 2. An insight into how economics applies to the real world ............ 42
Unit 6 ........................................................................................................43
Part 1. Text. Taxation................................................................................ 43
Part 2. An insight into how economics applies to the real world ............ 50
Unit 7 ........................................................................................................51
Part 1. Text. Macroeconomic Data .......................................................... 51
Part 2. An insight into how economics applies to the real world ............ 59
Unit 8 ........................................................................................................61
Part 1. Text. Money and Banking ............................................................ 61
Part 2. An insight into how economics applies to the real world ............ 68
Appendix. Supplementary Reading ..........................................................70
Text 1. International Trade ....................................................................... 70
Text 2. Gains from Trade ......................................................................... 72
Text 3. Winners and Losers ...................................................................... 75
Text 4. The Economics of Tariffs ............................................................. 76
Text 5. The World Trade Organisation ..................................................... 81
List of Reference Books ............................................................................... 84

Prefaсe

Предлагаемое пособие составлено на основе учебной программы 
курса английского языка для бакалавров экономических факультетов 
и рассчитано на 34 аудиторных часа.
Цель пособия – развитие навыков чтения профессиональноориентированных текстов, совершенствование коммуникативных 
навыков устной и письменной речи на основе текстов по экономике.
В пособии есть разделы и задания, которые могут успешно 
применяться при обучении слушателей с Intermediate уровнем знаний 
иностранного языка.
Учебное пособие состоит из 8 разделов (Units). При отборе 
текстов для каждого раздела учитывались их познавательность и 
информативность. 
Первая часть каждого раздела включает в себя текст, который имеет 
экономическую направленность. Он предназначен для изучающего 
чтения в аудитории и дома. Текст снабжен словарем и упражнениями. 
Кроме того, в приложении есть дополнительные тексты, которые 
могут служить вспомогательным материалом.
Вторая часть каждого раздела – это материал, иллюстрирующий 
идеи и теории, представленные в разделе, и отражающий 
применение экономики в реальном мире. Он направлен на развитие 
навыков ознакомительного чтения и снабжен послетекстовыми 
коммуникативными заданиями.
Весь материал пособия основан на оригинальных источниках, 
частично адаптированных.

UNIT 1

Part 1. Text. Spotlight on Economies and Economics

Economics is much too interesting to be left to professional economists. 
It affects almost everything we do, not merely at work or in the shops but 
in the home and the voting booth. It infl uences how well we look after our 
planet, the future we leave for our children, the extent to which we can 
care for the disadvantaged, and the resources we have for enjoying ourselves. The formal study of economics is exciting because it introduces a 
toolkit that allows a better understanding of the problems we face.
Every group of people must solve three basic problems: what goods 
and services to make, how to make them and who gets them.
Economics is the study of how society decides what, how and for 
whom to produce.
Society has to resolve the confl ict between people’s limitless desires 
for goods and services, and the scarcity of resources (labour, machinery, 
raw materials) with which goods and services are made. Economics is the 
analysis of these decisions and markets play a key role.

The role of the market
A market uses prices to reconcile decisions about consumption and 
production. 
Markets and prices are one way society can decide what, how and for 
whom to produce. During the British beef crisis, caused by fears about 
mad cow disease, pork prices rose 30 per cent while beef prices fell. This 
provided the incentive to expand pig farming, and stopped too many shoppers switching to pork until the new piglets were ready for market.
How might resources be allocated if markets did not exist?
In a command economy government planners decide what, how and 
for whom goods and services are made. Households, fi rms and workers are 
then told what to do.
Central planning is complicated. No country has ever made all decisions 
by central command. However, in China, Cuba and the former Soviet bloc, 
there used to be a lot of central direction and planning. The state owned 
land and factories, and made key decisions about what people should consume, how goods should be made and how much people should work.
Imagine that you had to run the city where you live. Think of the food, 
clothing and housing allocation decisions you would have to make. How 

would you decide how things were made, and who got what? These decisions are being made every day in your own city, but chiefl y through the 
mechanism of markets and prices.
The opposite extreme from central planning is a reliance on markets in 
which prices can freely adjust. In 1776, Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations argued that people pursuing their self-interest would be led ‘as by an 
invisible hand’ to do things in the interest of society as a whole.
In a free market economy, prices adjust to reconcile desires and scarcity.
Hoping to become a millionaire, you invent the DVD. Although motivated by self-interest, you make society better off by creating new jobs and 
using existing resources more productively. In a free market, people pursue 
their self-interest without government restrictions. A command economy 
allows little individual economic freedom, since decisions are taken by the 
state. Between these extremes is the mixed economy.
In a mixed economy, the government and private sector interact in 
solving economic problems.

Fig. 1. Market orientation 

The government affects economic activity by taxation, subsidies and 
the provision of services such as defence and the police force. It also regulates the extent to which individuals may pursue their own self-interest. All 
countries are mixed economies. Some are close to command economies, 
others are much nearer the free market economy, as Fig. 1 shows.

Positive and normative
Positive economics deals with scientifi c explanation of how the economy works. Normative economics offers recommendations based on personal value judgements. 
Positive economics aims to explain how the economy works, and thus 
how it will respond to changes. It formulates and tests propositions of the 

form: if this is changed then that will happen. In this sense, positive economics is like natural sciences such as physics, geology or astronomy.
When a good is taxed, its price will rise. Many propositions in positive 
economics command general agreement among professional economists. 
As in any science, there are some unresolved questions where disagreement remains. Research in progress will resolve some of these issues, but 
new issues will arise, providing scope for further research.
Normative economics is based on subjective value judgements, not 
on the search for any objective truth. Should resources be switched from 
health to education? The answer is a subjective value judgement, based on 
the feelings of the person making the statement. Economics cannot show 
that health is more or less desirable than education. However, it may be 
able to answer the positive question of what quantity of extra health could 
be achieved by giving up a particular quantity of education.

Micro and macro
Economics has many branches. Labour economics deals with employment and wages, urban economics with housing and transport, monetary 
economics with interest rates and exchange rates. However, a different 
classifi cation cuts across these branches.
Microeconomics makes a detailed study of individual decisions about 
particular commodities.
For example, we can study why individual households prefer cars to 
bicycles and how fi rms decide whether to make cars or bicycles. Comparing the markets for cars and for bicycles, we can study the relative price of 
cars and bicycles, and the relative output of these two goods.
However, in studying the whole economy, such detailed analysis gets 
too complicated to keep track of the behaviour in which we were interested. We need to simplify to keep the analysis manageable, but not distort 
reality too much. Microeconomics offers a detailed treatment of one aspect 
of economic behaviour but ignores interactions with the rest of the economy in order to keep the analysis manageable. However, if the indirect effects are too important to be swept under the carpet, another simplifi cation 
must be found.
Macroeconomics analyses interactions in the economy as a whole.
It deliberately simplifi es the individual building blocks of the analysis 
in order to retain a manageable analysis of the whole economic system. 
Macroeconomists do not divide consumer goods into cars, bicycles, televisions, and calculators. Rather, they study a single bundle called ‘consumer 

goods’ in order to focus on the interaction between household shopping 
sprees and fi rms’ decisions about building new factories.

Vocabulary
to adjust 
– приводить в порядок, регулировать, устанавливать;
to allocate 
– размещать, распределять, ассигновать;
bundle 
– связка, пакет;
to consume – потреблять, расходовать;
to distort 
– искажать, искривлять, извращать (факты и т.п.);
incentive 
– побуждение, стимул, побудительный;
manageable – поддающийся управлению, выполнимый;
proposition – предположение, план, проект, утверждение;
to pursue 
– преследовать, следовать по намеченному пути,  
 
 
   выполнять;
to reconcile – примирять, улаживать, согласовывать;
reliance 
– доверие, уверенность, опора;
scarcity 
– недостаток, нехватка, дефицит

Exercises
Exercise 1. Suggest the Russian equivalents for the words and 
word-combinations given below.
Pork / beef prices, housing allocation decisions, government restrictions, individual economic freedom, taxation, provision of services, personal value judgements, unresolved questions, employment, wages, interest rates, exchange rates, manageable analysis, consumer goods.
Exercise 2. Match the words with their defi nitions.
1) to allocate
a) to change slightly, esp. in order to make 
right or make suitable for a particular 
purpose or situation
2) to consume
b) lack
3) to adjust
c) easy or possible to control or deal with
4) to distort
d) to set apart for a particular purpose
5) proposition
e) something which encourages one to 
greater activity
6) manageable
f) to twist out of the true meaning
7) incentive
g) to use up (time, money, goods, etc.)
8) scarcity
h) a suggested (business) offer, arrangement, 
or settlement

Exercise 3. Choose one of the words from Exercise 2 to make the 
sentences complete.
1. 
You can ... the colour on the TV by turning this knob.
2. 
The present ... of labour is harmful for production.
3. 
The government ... over 100 million pounds to the job creation 
programme.
4. 
The promise of a bonus acted as an ... to greater effort.
5. 
The newspapers gave a ... account of what had happened.
6. 
We made him a ... : he would join us, and we would support his 
company.
7. 
The rate of infl ation has been brought down to a more ... level.
8. 
Furnaces ... fuel.
Exercise 4. The table shows how words are formed around the 
word manage.

manag(e)

able
ment
er
ess
rial
ing

Use these words in the suitable blanks in the sentences below.
1. 
The company’s failure was mainly due to bad ... .
2. 
That was a terrible meal; I’m going to complain to the ... .
3. 
She is the ... director of this fi rm.
4. 
His ... responsibilities were too complicated.
5. 
He ... the company while his father was away ill.
6. 
My hair is much more ... since I had it cut short.
7. 
She’s a restaurant ... .

Exercise 5. Describe Fig. 1.

Exercise 6. Do the written translation of the passage.
“Positive economics deals ... could be achieved by giving up a particular quantity of education”.

Exercise 7. Review questions.
1. 
An economy has 5 workers. Each worker can make 4 cakes or 
3 shirts. 
a) How many cakes can society get if it does whithout shirts?
b) How many shirts can it get if it does without cakes? 
c) What is the opportunity cost of making a shirt?