Grammar

Task 1. Put the following nouns into two columns: a) countable, b) uncountable.

Organization, capital, service, money, partner, agreement, loss, investor, profitability, share, weather, wage, work, conflict, education, growth, prod­uct, aim, factory, development.

Task 2. Make the sentences negative.

1. Corporations require small amounts of capital to start and operate.

2. Most of the time firms will be worried about survival.

3. The director hires individuals to manage the corporation.

4. A sole proprietorship begins when two or more people agree to oper­ate a business together.

5. People outside of the limited group of shareholders may buy shares in a closed corporation.

6. How the public at large views a company can be of little importance.

Task 3. a) put up 4 questions of 4 types (general, special, disjunctive, alternative) to any paragraph you like;

b) work in groups and answer your questions.

Lesson IV market structure

A market can be defined as a mechanism, an institution that brings to­gether the buyers and the sellers of a particular good or service. The market may be local, regional, national or international. Markets always have two sides: the demand side and the supply side.

The supply side is represented by sellers and the goods and services they wish to sell. Now we can see that buyers, means of payment, sellers, goods and services are the four main elements of the market.

The demand side of the market is composed of buyers wishing to ac­quire goods and services. Consumers use different means of payment, e.g. cash (paper money and coins), checks, credit cards, etc. The demand for a product is not only influenced by price. All individuals may be influenced by their personal tastes, the size of income, advertising, the cost and availa­bility of credit.

In the discussion of the market mechanism, we will use perfectly com­petitive markets. Perfectly competitive means that there are so many buyers that no one buyer can influence the market in any way. Perfectly competi­tive also means that there are so many sellers that no one seller can influ­ence the market in any way. This is an important issue. For example, if one more airline company begins service into Nalchik then the market for air transportation in Nalchik would be significantly influenced. But if one more customer who wants a few potatoes enters the bazar in Nalchik, then the local market for potatoes would not be significantly affected.

Satisfying the wants and needs of consumers is very important in any business. Some things, such as food, are essential. Food is an example of a single-use consumer product. Most people, having satisfied their needs, wish to satisfy their wants by the purchase of items such as cars, TVs, mi­crowave ovens and compact disc players. They are sometimes called con­sumer durable goods. They also may purchase services such as dry-cleaning, haircuts, trips to the cinema and meals out.

Today, a successful company is one, which tries to discover what the consumer wants and then makes that product and sells it at a profit. Such firms are market-oriented. They are in complete contrast to a product-oriented firm, which first produces a product and then tries to sell it.