Exercise 21. Translate the words in brackets into English.

1. The most important economic questions (затронуты) in the Financial Times and the Economist.

2. Adam Smith (по праву считается) the founder of political economics.

3. A lot of questions (задают и отвечают) at the lectures on economics.

4. The United Kingdom is considered one of the world’s (мировой лидер производства товаров).

5. About two per cent of the population of the UK (вовлечены/заняты) in agriculture.

6. Today gold is mostly (добывается) by mining.

7. Every country is interested in (экспорте) its manufactured goods.

8. What questions (обсуждаются) during business talks?

9. The Leipzig Fair, which is (проводится) twice a year, is very popular with businessmen of different countries.

10. Foreign firms are interested in (внедрение) their goods to new markets.

Exercise 22. Discuss.

1. The significance of economics nowadays.

2. The reasons why some people are rich while some are poor.

3. The main types of economic systems.

4. Future of Russian economics.

 

UNIT 2

Finance

Lead-in

Fill in the spidergram with the words associated with Financing and Banking

Discuss the following questions:

 

1. What do you know about banks?

2. What kinds do banks do you know?

3. Have you ever been a bank customer?

4. Do you agree that banks play a very important role nowadays? Why?

Terms and Vocabulary

a deal	дело, сделка, соглашение
to do a deal with	заключать сделку с
a dealer	дилер, агент
financial institutions	финансовые организации
to meet	встречать, встречаться; удовлетворять потребности
to save	спасать, сберегать
savings	сберегательный; сбережения
to loan	ссужать, давать взаймы
a loan	ссуда
mutual	совместный, общий
to invest	вкладывать деньги, капитал
investor	вкладчик
investment	вклад, капиталовложение
private	частный
profit	прибыль
to profit (by)	получать прибыль (с чего-либо)
to serve	служить
service	услуга
to offer	предлагать
to check	проверять
checking account	расчетный счет
broker	брокер
innovation	нововведение
to compete	состязаться, соревноваться
competition	состязание: конкуренция
in the face	перед лицом
deregulation	ослабление ограничений, дерегуляция
to install	устанавливать (техническое устройство)
teller	кассир
key	ключ
debit	дебет
retailer	розничный торговец
point	точка
to allow	позволять
merchant	купец, продавец
to accept	принимать, привлекать
network	сеть
to stimulate	стимулировать
to diversify	здесь: разнообразить услуги
diversification	здесь: разнообразие услуг
all over	по всей (территории)
to handle	проводить, вести, иметь дело (с)
transaction	дело, сделка
to result from	проистекать, происходить (из)
to urge	вынуждать, поощрять (к действию)
to assign	назначать, определять, ассигновать

Exercise 1. Read and remember the pronunciation

[i:] deal

[ə o:] loan

[ə u] innovation

[ə:] service, merchant, urge

[ju:] institutions, mutual

[ai] financial, private, diversify

[æ] handle,

[au] allow

Exercise 2. Pay attention to the stress in the following words.

 

fi′nancial ′debit

′merchant diversifi′cation

ac′cept′mutual

com′pete tran′saction

deregu′lation a′ssign

stimu′late ′savings

 

Exercise 3. Read the text, do the exercises

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

 

Businesses that distribute or deal in money are called finan­cial institutions. New institutions that meet new financial needs are appearing almost every day. The most familiar institutions are commercial banks, savings banks, savings and loan associations, mutual savings banks, credit unions, in­vestment banks and so on.

 

A commercial bank is a privately owned profit-making corporation. It serves both individuals and businesses by offer­ing checking and savings accounts, loans, and credit cards. It also deals in some brokerage, insurance, and financial ad­vice.

 

The commercial bank is the most important source of short term loans for businesses. Sometimes the borrowers pledge collateral to back up the loan. Such loan is a secured loan. Companies with a good financial position are given the prime rate of interest which is the lowest commercial interest rate.

 

The commercial bank offers its customers accounts of two types: demand deposits and time deposits. A demand deposit makes the money in it available to depositors immediately, while a time deposit requires depositors to leave their money with the bank for a stated period of time.

 

Most banks offer their customers various savings certifi­cates, called certificates of deposit. Savers may put their money into thirty day, six month, or two and a half year certificates. The highest interest is paid to the customers who deposit their money for a longer period.

 

Banking services are not free and banks charge fees for them. Many banks assess a service fee if an account balance falls beneath a particular minimum, such as $200.

 

Technological innovations and increased competition in the face of deregulation are changing the face of banking nowadays. Banks and other financial institutions are using com­puter technology now. One of the innovations is the electronic funds transfer which transfers money from individuals to the bank, from bank to bank, and from city to city through an electronic system.

 

Large banks are installing automatic teller machines out­side their buildings. A customer can get cash, make loan pay­ments, or transfer money from one account to another at any time of the day or night. The key to the automatic teller machine is a debit card which helps to make transfers directly to and from a customer's checking account.

 

Some large retailers are installing point-of-sale terminals which allow a retail customer to transfer funds from his bank account to the merchant's account.

Electronic funds transfer is making it easy for commercial banks to accept deposits outside their home states. Groups of banks are setting up automatic teller machine networks for the customers to use their debit cards to withdraw cash, transfer funds and check balances in other states.

 

Nowadays the banking industry is becoming less regulated. This process is stimulating the diversification of banks, and service and price competition. Financial supermarkets are ap­pearing all over the United States. These new financial institu­tions are handling all types of financial transactions. They are selling life insurance to their customers, buying and selling their homes and are lending them money in addition to the traditional services of stock and bond transactions.

 

The competition that results from deregulation is urging the banks to offer more and better services to their customers.

V. Milovidov «English for Financial

Management Experts»