Grammar

Task 1. Open the brackets and put the verb to be into the correct form.

1. The question "How is it best to arrange an economy to provide the most favourable society?" (was, were) examined in the book "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith.

2. Today the industrial revolution which Smith (was, were) watching is part of our history.

3. Many years ago countries (was, were) smaller and technologies (was, were) less advanced.

4. Each society had to decide for itself which of these possible goals (was, were) the most important, because it (was, were) not possible to achieve all at the same time.

5. Even in early years economics (was, were) useful in everyday life.

Task 2. Choose the correct word in brackets.

1. The philosophers were not ready to answer (some, any) economic question.

2. Do you know (some, any) famous economists?

3. Macroeconomics includes (some, any) important goals: economic growth, full employment, economic efficiency, price stability, etc.

4. We examine individual consumers and combine their actions to de­termine market demand for (some, any) good or service.

5. Certainly there are (some, any) products which satisfy our needs and wants.

Task 3. Fill in few, a few, little, a little.

1. That's a pity that there are only ... books left.

2. I think we'll survive. We have ... food.

3. I have ..., but trustworthy friends.

4. I am in deep depression. There are only ... hours left.

5. There was no hope left. We had only an apple and ... water in our bag.

6. I was so tired. Fortunately there were ... test works left.

7. I think there will be ... food there on this party. Let's stay at home.

8. What's wrong? Why do you have only ... lists with you?

9. I'd like to buy ... books here.

10. You have ... salt with you. So we are not able to cook dinner.

Task 4. Put in a lot of, many or much.

A: There are ... athletes taking part in these Student's Olympic, aren't there?

And there's been ... interest.

B: Our runners haven't won ... medals, have they?

A: Well, not as ... medals as last time. But there are still ... events to come.

B: Unfortunately I haven't got... time for watching sport at the moment. I'm rather busy.

A: Well, I'm hoping to get a ticket for the weekend. But there aren't... seats left.

B: I heard the cheapest ticket is 25$. That's too ... in my opinion.

Lesson III types of businesses

Business organizations are established to provide for material wants (i.e. goods and services) and commercial wants (i.e. banking, insurance) in socie­ty. The basic forms of private business organizations are sole proprietor­ships, partnerships and corporations.

Sole proprietorship is a business owned and controlled by one person. A single person who owns and runs a business is known as a sole proprietor. Sole proprietorship is the oldest, simplest, and most common of all types of businesses. Because the financial resources available to one person are often limited, sole proprietorships are enterprises that require small amounts of capital to start and operate. Many doctors, dentists, lawyers, and bakers or­ganize as sole proprietors to provide professional services.

Partnership is a business that is owned and controlled by two or more people. As in the case of sole proprietorships, partnership is a business that requires relatively small amounts of money to start and operate. A partner­ship begins when two or more people agree to operate a business together. Partnership can be general or limited. In order to avoid later conflicts, the partners usually formulate a written agreement called a partnership contract. A partnership contract distributes all profits and losses. It also details the specific responsibilities of each partner.

Corporation is a business organization that is owned by shareholders (i.e. the individuals who invest in it by buying shares or stocks). Often hun­dreds and even thousands of small investors own the shares in a single cor­poration. That is why the owners elect a board of directors. The board of directors hires individuals to manage the corporation. These individuals in­clude the president and other administrators of the company.

A corporation can do everything that a sole proprietorship or a partner­ship can do. It can, for example, buy property and resources, hire workers, make contracts and produce and sell products. A corporation may be either publicly owned or closed. In a publicly owned corporation shares can be purchased by anyone who chooses to invest in the business. A closed corpo­ration is owned by a limited number of shareholders. People outside of this limited group may not buy shares in the corporation.

Profitability is the main aim of private organizations but it is important to realize that a business will have other aims. These include:

1. Survival: most of the time firms will not be worried about this. How­ever, in times of economic difficulty - such as recession - surviving will become an important short-term aim of the firm. In order to survive, the firm may have to discharge workers and close some of its factories.

2. Growth: not all firms want to grow continually but growth is closely connected with survival. Very often, particularly for firms in highly compet­itive situations, e.g. computing and electronics, growth and development are the only way to survive.

3. Image: how the public at large views a company can be particularly important, and to this end a number of companies have public relations de­partments that have specific responsibility to improve the image of the com­pany.