Unit 8 Trends in Economics

Unit 8 Trends in Economics

Part I

A.

1.$25,000,000,000

2.$161,000,000

3.$37,000,000,000/ 28,000,000,000 dollars / $ 24,000,000,000

4.30,000,000

5.$1,000,000,000

6. 5.5%/

7.5%

7.550/ 7%

8.0.25% , 4.75%, 4.5%

B.

1. increasing their protests against rising fuel prices

2. a meeting of African nations

3. the Czech Republic/ by early 2003/ a conference of EU members

4. Central Bank governors/ Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United States

5. reduce the amount of oil/ harming their economies

6. cutting taxes on oil products

7. increase trade/ bring peace and security to the area/ in Manila

8. support policies that keep inflation flow

9. open Japanese ports to foreign companies

10. his country’s economy/ a leading manufacturing and financial center

C.

1. 93,000,000

2. 97,000,000/ 133,000,000

3. 1.5 %, 16%

4. 100,000,000

5. 210, 000,000,000/ 5.1%

6. 17,500,000

7. 1.3%8. 9.5%, 0.1%, 10,500,000

9. 27,000,000,00010. 0.6%

Part IIA

https://www.wendangku.net/doc/3d17835939.html,rge forces/ national or international level

2.unemployment and inflation/ job creation

3.too high/ demands in the present/ growth and investment in the future

B

1.letting inflation increase/ higher inflation

2. a very high savings rate

Tape script:

Edmund Phelps has been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize f or Economics. Mr. Phelps is a professor of economics at Columbia University in New York City. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored Mr. Phelps for his work in macroeconomics. That is the study of large forces that affect economies at the national or international level.

Mr. Phelps correctly identified the relationship between unemployment and inflation. Since

the 1930s, policymakers in many nations dealt with unemployment in the same way. They would let inflation increase to create jobs.

For example, they would make credit easier to get. As a result, people would buy more goods. Business would hire workers to meet growing demand, forcing prices up. For many years, policymakers accepted that reducing unemployment required higher inflation.

Mr. Phelps found that inflation did temporarily increase employment. But he discovered that, over the long term, inflation hurt job creation. His ideas were proved by economic conditions in America in the 1970s. That period was known for “stagflation having high unemployment and high inflation at the same time.”

Edmund Phelps also found that if employers expect low inflation in the future, they are more likely to hire workers.

Today, economic policy experts believe the best way to create job is to fight inflation.

Mr. Phelps also studied national savings over long periods of time. Common sense suggests that a very high savings rate is best. But, Mr. Phelps showed that national savings rates can be too high. He argued that saving too much limited demand in the present, which could slow growth.

The best savings rate is not so high that it limits demand in the present. And it is not so low that it limits growth and investment in the future. Still, he argued that governments should take action to raise national savings.

Edmund Phelps did much of his research in macroeconomics during the late 1960s and early 1970s. His work continues to influence economists. And it has helped change policy at central banks, which now consider fighting inflation a main goal.

Part IIIA.

1. noisy place/ bell/ lighted messages/ computers/ talk on the telephone/ shout/ run around

2. experts/ salespeople/ buy & sell shares of companies

3. shares

4. a list of stocks sold on the New York Stock Exchange

5. prices/ go down

6. prices/ go up

7. a company that does not earn enough profit

8. a sharp increase in the value of a stock/ something wonderful that happens unexpectedly

B.

1. in 1837 in a newspaper in Illinois

2. old story/ sold the skin of a bear/ before caught it

3. a long connection/ bulls and bears/ in sports/ popular years ago/ England

4. fish/ turn over on their backs/ die

5. England/ centuries ago/ poor people/ banned/ cutting trees/ the wind blew down the tree/ take for fuel

Tape script:

Today we tell about some American expressions that are commonly used in business.

Bell sound, lighted messages appear, men and women work at computers, they talk on the telephone, at times they shout and run around. This noisy place is a stock exchange. Here experts,

salespeople called brokers, buy and sell shares of companies. The shares are known as stocks. People who own stock in a company own part of that company. People pay brokers to buy and sell stocks for them. If a company earns money, its stock increases in value. If the company does not earn money, the stock decreases in value. Brokers and investors carefully watch for any changes on the big board. That is the name given to a list of stocks sold on the New York Stock Exchanges. The first written use of the word with that meaning was in a newspaper in Illinois in 1837. It said, “The sales on the board were $ 1,700 in American gold.” Investors and brokers watch the big board to see if the stock market is a bull market or a bear market. In a bear market, prices go down. In a bull market, prices go up. Investors in a bear market promise to sell a stock in the future at a set price, but the investor does not own the stock yet. He or she waits to buy it when the price ducks. The meaning of a bear market is thought to come from an old story about a man who sold the skin of a bear before he caught the bear. An English dictionary of the 1660s said, “To sell a bear is to sell what one has not.” Word experts dispute the beginning of the word “bull” in the stock market. But some say it came from a long connection of the two animals bulls and bears in sports that were popular years ago in England. Investors are always concerned about the possibility of a company failing. In the modern world, a company that does not earn enough profit is said to go belly up. A company that goes belly up dies like a fish. Fish turn over on their backs when they die. So they’re stomach or belly up. Stock market investors do not want that to happen to a company. They want a company whose stock they own to earn more profit that expected. This would sharply increase the value of the stock. Investors are hoping for a windfall. The word “windfall” comes from England of centuries ago. There poor people were banned from cutting trees in forests owned by rich landowners. But if the wind blew down a tree, the poor person could take the tree for fuel. So a windfall is something wonderful that happens unexpectedly.

Part IV

communicative activity extended

continuously / specific readiness constantly setting up/ constantly testing

what he has heard in realityout of his expectation/ get the message familiarityknowledgethe settingalreadytake in

pre-listening preparationgive some thought to

related materialsvocabulary work/ fully oriented

Active thinkingAhead ofLogical and intelligent

Know generallyexactlynext utterance