Useful terms and expressions

• capture – охватывать, отражать

• standard of living / living standard – уровень жизни

• to be well off – быть обеспеченным, состоятельным

• to be better off / worse off – быть богаче / беднее; быть в лучшем/худшем положении

• well-being – благосостояние

• wealth – богатство, благосостояние, материальные блага

• to take account of  учитывать

• to quantify – производить количественную оценку

• capital goods – товары производственного назначения, средства производства

• depreciation – амортизация, износ, снижение стоимости

• government services  государственные услуги

• a gap – расхождение, разрыв, несоответствие

• joblessness – безработица

syn. unemployment

• the unemployed –безработные (субстантивированное прилагательное)

• sustainable – 1) стабильный, сбалансированный 2) допустимый, приемлемый

• to make an assumption – допустить, предположить

• exhaustible resources – исчерпаемые природные ресурсы

• to mitigate – уменьшить, ослабить, умерить

• turmoil – неразбериха, хаос, кризис

Exercise № 7

Choose the correct answer.

1. The GDP per capita is designed to measure

• the quality of life

• the value of goods and services produced by the population of this country

• the total output of a country divided by the total number of people

• the amount of money that is being earned per person in a country

2. The author considers GDP per head to be an inaccurate measure of quality of life in a country because

• it takes no account of depreciation of capital goods

• it only captures material wealth but excludes some phenomena which have an increasing impact on the well-being of citizens

• it is based on market prices

• it is normally revised after a certain period of time

3. It can be inferred that had there been more awareness of the limitations of standard metrics, like GDP,

• the financial crises and recession could have been avoided

• bankers and borrowers would have felt worse-off

• there would have been less euphoria over economic performance in the years prior to the crisis

• the policymakers would have taken early measure to moderate the melt-down

4. The key message of the report is that the time is ripe

• to dismiss GDP and production measures

• to shift emphasis from measuring economic production to measuring people’s well-being in the context of sustainability

• to focus on material living standards that are more closely associated with measures of real household income and consumption

• to ensure that statisticians are independent of governments

Exercise №8

Suggest the Russian for the following word combinations.

to mitigate the recession; sustainable economic activity; to examine well-being of future generations; to cut joblessness; to make assumptions; real GDP per person; to gauge personal income; government services; to take account of depreciation of capital goods; consumer demand; on average; at market exchange rate.

Exercise № 9

Give English equivalents to the following word combinations.

доход домашних хозяйств; ВВП на душу населения; уровень безработицы; курс обмена валют; паритет покупательной способности валют; экономический спад; оценить уровень благосостояния; приобрести товары производственного назначения; стабильный рост благосостояния; повышать уровень жизни; скорректировать показатель с учетом инфляции; произвести количественную оценку уровня благосостояния; учитывать запросы потребителей.

READING AND SPEAKING III

Read the article and make a list of economic indicators suggested by The Economist readers.

Search the Internet for some other alternative indicators of economic health.