Прочтите и переведите текст А.

2. Заполните пропуски, используя следующие,слова:

inhabitants, precise, prospect, vast, standard, percentage, means, human

1. Economics is a... subject and... definitions are very
complex.

2. Starvation is a very real... for millions of... beings.

3. The Indian peasants have an extremely low... of living.

4. A large.:. of the human race still lives in small self-
sufficient peasant communities.

5. The... of cities are totally incapable of providing for
themselves the... of their survival.

3, Найдите синонимы среди следующих слов:

study, precise, complex, subject, essentially, use, exact, matter, basically, mainly, apply, developed, examine, advanced, completely help, community, totally, assis­tance, society, build, gift, construct, present.

 

4. Найдите антонимы среди следующих слов:
begin, difficult, high, poor, inside, wealth, finish, easy,
low, prosperous, outside, poverty, capable, dependence,
incapable, directly, large, independence, indirectly,
small.

5. Переведите следующие сочетания слов с русского
языка на английский:

точное определение, простой ответ, основной во­прос, изучение материальных сторон жизни, раз­витые страны, борьба за существование, уровень жизни, относительная беспомощность, без посто­ронней помощи, испытывать крайнюю бедность, степень экономической независимости, наблю­дать противоположную ситуацию, жители городов, члены сложной экономической организации

6. Образуйте 3 формы от следующих глаголов:

to be, to have, to give, to apply, to satisfy, to live, to study, to examine, to solve, to leave, to survive, to expe­rience, to provide, to turn, to observe, to feed, to build, to depend, to guarantee

7. Составьте предложения, используя следующие
слова:

1. limits, of, economics, to, study, the, of, aspects, the,
material, itself, life.

2. problem, an, is, underlying, economics, in, that, sur­
vival, of.

3. seem, may, a problem, very, this, remote, very.

 

4. very, starvation, a, prospect, millions, for, real,
human, beings, is, of.

5. peasants, an, Indian, have, living, of, the, low,
extremely, standard.

6. people, great, experience, poverty, these.

7. degree, they, a, have, economic, of, independence.

8. Заполните пропуски предлогами:

 

1. Most textbooks... Economics begin... posing the
question, 'What is Economics...?'

2. Economics is essentially a study... the ways... which
people apply their knowledge... the gifts... nature...
order to satisfy their needs.

3.... the more advanced countries few people are con­
scious... a life or death struggle... existence.

4. Even... the economically advanced countries there is
. an aspect... survival.

5. Such people have the abilities to sustain life... outside
assistance.

6. If we now turn... the inhabitants of New York we
must observe the opposite situation — a high stan­
dard... living together... an extreme economic
dependence.

7. The inhabitants... cities are totally incapable... pro­
viding... themselves the means... their survival.

8. Such people depend... the efforts... many thousands
... specialist workers.

9.... industrialized societies a high standard... living is
possible only if the organized cooperation... large
numbers... people can be guaranteed.

10.... the economically developed countries we are
rich, not as individuals, but only as members... a
complex economic organisation.

9. Поставьте вопросы к выделенным словам:

1. Precise definitions are usually very complex.

2. Economics limits itself to the study of the material life.

3. The Indian peasants have an extremely low standard
of living.

 

4. A large percentage of the human race still lives in very
small peasant communities.

5. These people experience great poverty.

6. The inhabitants of big cities depend on the efforts of
specialized workers.

10. Заполните пропуски, используя глаголы, данные в
скобках:

1. Although Economics... a vast subject and precise defi­
nitions... usually very complex, it... not a difficult mat­
ter to give a simple answer to the basic question (to be).

2. Economics... itself to the study of the material
aspects of life (to limit).

3. We must examine how people have solved or... to
solve this problem (to try).

4. It... little attention from those of us fortunate enough
to live in these areas (to attract).

5. A large percentage of human race still... in small self-
sufficient communities (to live).

11. Ответьте на следующие вопросы:

1. What do most introductory books on Economics
begin by?

2. What does Economics study?

3. What does it limit itself to?

4. What is an underlying problem of Economics?

5. What categories of people can survive without out­
side assistance?

6. Why do they have a very low standard of living?

7. Why aren't the inhabitants of big cities economically
independent?

8. Why is a high standard of living impossible without a
cooperation of large numbers of people?

12. Перескажите текст 'The Individual and Society'.

17

 

13. Прочтите текст В и сформулируйте основную мысль каждого абзаца.

Scarcity and Choice

Economics, then, is about the satisfaction of material wants. It is necessary to be quite clear about this; it is peo­ple's wants rather than their needs which provide the motive for economic activity. We go to work in order to obtain income which will buy us the things we want rather the things we need. It is not possible to define 'need' in terms of any particular quantity of a commodity, because this would imply that a certain level of consumption is 'right' for an individual. Economists tend to avoid this kind of value judgement which tries to specify how much people ought to consume. It is assumed that individuals wish to enjoy as much well-being as possible, and if their consumption of food, clothing, entertainment, and other goods and services is less than the amount required to give them complete satis­faction they will want to have more of them.

If the resources available to people are insufficient to satisfy all their wants, we say that such resources are scarce. Scarcity is a relative concept; it relates the extent of people's wants to their ability to satisfy those wants. Neither people's wants nor their ability to produce goods and services are constant. Their productive potential is increasing all the time, but so is their appetite for material things. Whether this increase in the demands for more and better material satisfaction is in the nature of humankind or whether it is artificially stimulated by modem advertising is a subject much disputed at the present time.

Whatever the reason the fact is that we find ourselves in a situation of scarcity. We can not have all the things we

want. The resources available to satisfy our wants, are, at any time, limited in supply. Our wants, however, appear to be unlimited. Thus, we all are in a position of having to make choices; we can only have more of X by having less of Y. Our incomes are insufficient for us to buy all the things we would like to have. The individual with a limited income and unlimited wants is forced to exercise choice when he or she spends that income. Society as a whole faces a similar problem.

There is a limit to a country's productive capacity because the available supply of land, factories, machines, labour and other economic resources is limited. These eco­nomic resources have alternative uses; they can be used to produce many different kinds of goods and services. If some of these resources are committed to the production of one thing society mast forego the outputs of the other things which it might have produced. For example, if we commit resources to the building of houses then the real cost of these houses is the potential output of schools, shops, office blocks or theatres which has been sacrified in order to pro­duce houses.

14, Прочтите текст С и раскройте содержание каж­дой из трех рассматриваемых в нем проблем.

Three Basic Problems

People have limited means to satisfy unlimited wants so they are forced to choose. The problems of choice are essen­tially problems of allocation. People must decide how to allocate resources to different uses and then how to allocate the goods and services produced to the individual members of society. There are three fundamental choices to be made.

1. Which goods shall be produced and in
what quantities? This problem concerns the composi­
tion of total output. The community must decide which
goods it is going to produce and hence which goods it is not
going to produce. Having decided the range of goods to be
produced, the community must then decide how much of
each good should be produced. In reality the choices before
a community are rarely of 'all or nothing' variety. They usu­
ally take the form: more of one thing and less of another. The
first and major function of any economic system is to deter­
mine in some way the actual quantities and varieties of goods
and services which will best meet the wants of its citizens.

2. How should the various goods and ser­
vices be produced? Most goods can be produced by a
variety of methods. Wheat can be grown by making use of
much labour and little capital, or by using vast amounts of
capital and very little labour. Electrical appliances can be
made by using large and complex machines operated by rel­
atively few semi- or unskilled workers. Alternatively they
might be produced in hosts of small workshops by highly
skilled technicians using relatively little machinery. Different
methods of production can be distinguished from one anoth­
er by the differences in the quantities of resources used in
producing them. Economists use the term capital- intensive
to describe the alternative methods just outlined. The total
output of the community depends not only on the total sup­
ply of resources available but on the ways in which these
resources are combined together. A community must make
decisions on the methods of production to be adopted.

3. How should the goods and services be
distributed? This is the third function which an eco­
nomic system has to perform. The total output has to be
shared out among the members of the community. The eco­
nomic system has to determine the relative sizes of the
shares going to each household. Should everyone be given

an equal share? Should the output be shared out in accor­dance with people's ability to pay the price, or should the shares be decided according to tradition and custom?

These basic problems are common to all societies no matter what level of economic development they have reached. The methods of solving them will be different from one society to another but the problems are common in all societies.