the following sentences into Russian.
1. Our products are aimed at working mothers.
2. Let’s arrange for a meeting now. How about Friday, nine o’clock, your office?
3. OK, so we have arranged for finance and now we can go ahead with marketing.
4. The game plan for this morning’s meeting is to finish ordinary business in the first half hour, then take time out for coffee, so that, in the second half, we can zero in on the all-important question of new product development.
5. We use special offers in order to attract bigger orders – in other words, as a means to an end.
6. We have to reduce our overhead expenses. This will lead to job losses in some departments – an unpleasant fact, I’m afraid, but the end justifies the means.
7. Although everyone has to be at the meeting on time, the chairman will be a few minutes late, as usual, He does this on purpose, just to let everyone know who’s who in charge.
8. The company was set up ten years ago.
9. The government is doing all it can do to tackle the problems of housing and unemployment.
10. We need to take firm action, now, on the reduction in our market share – before matters get worse.
11. In the course of the next day or so, we shall be taking steps to put our plans into action.
12. For this job, we’re looking for someone with a go-ahead attitude, a self-starter, someone who’s prepared to take and maintain the initiative.
13.
Ex. 10. Look at the following Latin words. They may be helpful in your work with the texts on Economics and Business.
e.g. exempli gratia for example
i.e. id est that is
etc. et cetera and so on
viz. vide licet namely
c circa about, around (time)
v vide see
et al et ali and others
per se in itself
qua as
vice versa the reverse
ad hoc for this particular purpose
vs versus opposed
via 1.through
2.with the help of
per capita per head
ceteris paribus other things equal
ad valorem according to value
Ex. 11. What do the following words have in common and what do they differ in?
Matter, problem, dilemma, trouble, alternative, predicament, difficulty.
Ex. 12. Translate into Russian in written form.
In 1776, the Scottish professor of philosophy, Adam Smith, published The Wealth of Nations. In this book, the first systematic study of capitalism, Smith described his principle of the “invisible hand”. This principle states that each person, pursuing his or her self-interest without interference by government, will be led, as if by an invisible hand, to achievethe best good for society.
Self-interest drives people to action, but alone it is not enough. People must understand the effects of their decision and their economic well-being. They must think rationally if they are to make the right decisions.
Because of this, economists long ago introduced the concept of economic man. This notion holds that each person is motivated by economic forces. In other words, each person will always attempt to obtain the greatest amount of satisfaction for the least amount of sacrifice or cost. This satisfaction may take the form of greater profits for a businessperson, higher wages or more leisure time for a worker, and greater pleasure from goods purchased for a consumer.
Of course, these assumptions are not entirely realistic. People may be motivated by forces other than self-interest. Nevertheless, the idea of economic man does deserve as a reasonable approximation of the prevailing pattern of economic behaviour in a capitalistic society. And in economics, as in other social sciences, reasonable approximations are often the best that can be made.
LET’S READ AND TALK
1. What is meant by the word «system»? How do you understand it?
2. What systems do you know? Give your examples.
3. To what systems do you belong?
TEXT 1
WHAT IS SYSTEM?
Everybody is familiar with the word system and uses it in everyday language. We speak of heating systems, communication systems, economic systems, and transportation systems. We talk of cultural and social systems. The word system is used because it conveys the idea that these things are made up of parts and that the parts somehow interact with each other for some purpose or reason. A system is an organized or complex whole – an assemblage or combination of thingsor parts performing asa complex or unitary whole.
This definition implies several ideas. First is the concept ofinterdependency. If a change occurs in one part or set of parts, it affects all other parts of the system. This affect on each part may be direct or indirect.
A second implication of the definition of a system is the concept of wholism. This means that the system should be considered as a functioning whole. Changes in parts of the system and in the functioning of elements of the system should be considered from the standpoint of the system’s overall performance.
A third concept implied by the definition is synergism. This refers to the interactive effect of the parts of the system working together. The actual interaction of the parts creates an effect which is greater than the effect of the parts acting separately.
We’ve started our work with this small text about a system because we want you to bear in mind and apply the systematic approach to everything you see, hear, read or discuss, for everything in this world belongs to this or that system. While reading the texts pay attention to the economic and business terms. They’ll become the basis of your professional vocabulary.
TEXT 2
HISTORY OF ECONOMICS
In the 1500s there were few universities. Those that existed taught religion, Latin, Greek, philosophy, history, and mathematics. No economics. Then came the Enlightenment (about 1700) in which reasoning replaced God as the explanation of why things were the way they were. Pre-Enlightenment thinkers would answer the question, “Why am I poor?” with, “Because God wills it.” Enlightenment scholars looked for a different explanation. “Because of the nature of land ownership” is one answer they found.
Such reasoned explanations
