What Does Economics Study?

What do you think of when you hear the word economics? Money, certainly, and perhaps more complicated things like business, inflation and unemployment. The science of economics studies all of these, but many more things as well. Perhaps you think that economics is all about the decisions that governments and business managers take. In fact, economists study the decisions we take every day.

Very simply, economists study the way people deal with a fact of life: resources are limited but our demand for them is not. Resources may be material things such as food, housing and heating. There are some resources, though, that we cannot touch. Time, space and convenience, for example, are also resources. Think of a day. There are only 24 hours in one, and we have to choose the best way to spend them. Our everyday lives are full of the decisions like these. Every decision we make is a trade-off. If you spend more time working, you make more money. However, you will have less time to relax. Economists study the trade-offs people make. They study the reasons for their decisions. They look at the effects those decisions have on our lives and our society.

8. Соедините слова из левой колонки с их определениями в правой:

1. budget	A. the people who control a country and make laws
2. business	B. information
3. convenience	C. company that sells goods and services
4. data	D. easiness
5. demand	E. the amount of money you have for something
6. government	F. how much people want something
7. inflation	G. the number of people without work
8. resources	H. something such as money, workers or minerals belonging to an organization, country, etc. which can be used to function properly
9. trade-off	I. rising prices
10. unemployment	J. giving away something in exchange for something

LESSON 2. AREAS OF ECONOMICS

Притяжательный падеж существительных. Личные и притяжательные местоимения. Конструкция it is + прилагательное + to + глагол. Инфинитив цели. Порядковые числительные.

Word list

behavior	поведение
approach	подход
develop	развитие
unit	(здесь): единица, составляющая
income	доход
supplier	поставщик
labor	труд
to affect	влиять
employment	занятость
policy	политика (фирмы, компании)
proper	подобающий, соответствующий
abundance	изобилие
precious	драгоценный
scarcity	недостаток, нехватка
satisfaction	удовлетворение

1. a) Измените словосочетания, используя притяжательный падеж существительных: work of manager – manager's work

goods of the seller; goods of sellers; behavior of the buyer; behavior of the buyer; behavior of the woman; behavior of the women; work of the economist; work of economists; services of the seller; services of sellers; people of the town; people of the towns

б) Замените существительные в притяжательном падеже в пункте а) на соответствующие притяжательные местоимения manager's work – his work

Местоимения

Личные местоимения в именительном падеже	Личные местоимения в косвенном (объектном) падеже	Притяжательные местоимения
I you he she it we you they	me you him her it us you them	my your his her its our your their

2. Замените подчёркнутые словосочетания соответствующими личными местоимениями:

We are interested in prices for services – We are interested in prices for them.

1. The woman is an economist. 2. The prices are high. 3. People produce goods and services. 4. Prices of resources affect prices of goods. 5. Economics is interesting. 6. He is interested in economics. 7. Prices in the markets are important for all people. 8. Prices for everyday goods are important for this woman. 9. The study of agricultural markets is not interesting for the man. The man is a doctor. 10. A model usually includes essential elements of a particular economic situation. 11. The development of markets is important for an economist.

3. Составьте предложения из частей А, В, С

A	B	C
It is (not)	difficult possible important necessary essential interesting nice	to study economics to listen to pop music to know economics to develop agriculture to grow flowers to know what affects prices of goods to predict the behavior of sellers to have many trees in cities

4. Измените предложения двумя способами так, чтобы использовать инфинитив цели:

Managers study the situation in the market as they want to know how many goods to produce. – Managers study the situation in the market to know how many goods to produce. – Manager study the situation in the market in order to know how many goods to produce.

1. We study economics as we want to work as managers. 2. Farmers grow animals as they want to produce milk and meat. 3. Factories and plants use fuel and energy as they are necessary to process resources. 4. Companies produce goods as they want to sell them. 5. Mining gets minerals from the earth as it must provide resources for manufacturing. 6. Factories process resources as they want to sell them as goods. 7. Economists make models because they want to use them in economic analyses.

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