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nod of reduced and slow business activity. Tax is a sum of money to be paid by citizens (according to income, for example) to the gov­ ernment for public purposes.

12. A trend is a change or movement of prices, profits, sales, etc. To describe a trend we can use the following expressions:

The government will raise taxes.

Taxes will rise (increase, go up) by 2 % (or to 28 %). There will be a sharp rise in inflation.

Taxes will fall (go down, decrease) slowly. There will be a slow fall (decrease) in taxes.

Prices are up by 5 %; profits are down by $2 million. Inflation will probably remain stable at around 3 %.

13. Expenditure is spending or using money, for example, gov­ ernment expenditure.

Упражнение 2. Замените выделенные слова и словосочетания близким по значению словом или словосочетанием.

1. Our company is doing well now. 2. Sales have increased dra­ matically. 3. This came after a dramatic fall last year. 4. Profits have risen considerably. 5. Our turnover has gone up this year. 6. The company is growing very quickly. 7. We expect sales to in­ crease for about two years. 8. Then they will fall slightly. 9. It is necessary to spend more money on R&D (Research and Develop­ ment).

Уш|1ажненше 3. Заполните пропуски, образуя составные слова или обще­ известные фразы.

Упражнение 4, Составьте возможные словосочетания глаголов из колон­ ки А и существительных из колонки В.

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Упражнение 6. A. Прочитайте текст и постарайтесь догадаться о значе­ нии следующих слов и словосочетаний: unit of account^ value, grains, print, consider, cease, cash, withdraw, bank account.

Money as a Unit of Accoimt

The most difficuh aspect of money to understand is its function as a unit of account. Money is difficult to define, because the value of anything changes with time and circumstances.

Sir Isaac Newton defined the pound steriing (£) in 1717 as 113 grains of pure gold. By the end of the nineteenth century the gold standard had spread around most of the trading worid, with the result that there was a single world money. It was called by different names in different countries, but all these supposedly different currencies were interconnected through their particular definition in terms of a quantity of gold.

The end of the gold standard began with the introduction of the agreement in 1946. Thisfixedthe value of all world currencies relative to the US dollar, which in turn was fixed to a specific value of gold (US $ 0.35/oz.) However, in 1971 the US government finally refused to exchange US dollar for gold, and other countries soon followed. Governments printed as much paper money or coinage as they wanted, and the more that was printed, the less each unit of currency was worth.

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The great advantage of the nineteenth-century gold standard was not just that it defined the unit of account, but that it operated throughout almost the entire world. A price in England was the same as a price in Australia or any other country.

Today we can determine price differences between countries by considering the exchange rate of the day.

The great advantage of having a single stable world money is that such money has very high information content. It tells people where to invest their time, energy and capital, all around the world, with much greater accuracy and predictability than would other­ wise be possible.

Nowadays many specialists believe that within the next decade money, as we know it will probably cease to exist in technologically advanced countries. The familiar coins and notes will soon be re­ placed entirely by plastic money — plastic cards of various kinds. And the shops of the future will be linked directly to the network of banking computers. The shop assistant will simply key in your bank account code number and the amount you have spent, and thank you politely.

Banks have invested huge amounts of money in new technol­ ogy. Credit cards are issued by credit card companies such as Visa and MasterCard. These companies work closely with all the major banks. A credit card enables you to pay for goods or services imme­ diately without cash or cheque. You are given free credit for an agreed period. At the end of this period you are charged high inter­ est. Every credit card holder is given a credit limit.

Most banks provide their customers with banker's cards. Using PIN (personal identification number) you can use this card to with­ draw cash from the ATMs (Automated Teller Machines).

Some banks have already introduced «first generation» smart cards. A smart card contains a computer «chip». It can do all the things other cards can do but it can also store and display each transaction. In the near future you may be using these cards for «home shopping», satellite TV, telephone charges, and as passports and identity cards.

B. Подберите к каждому слову и словосочетанию из колонки А соответ­ ствующее ему по значению из колонки В.

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Упражнение 7. Заполните пропуски терминами, переведите.

1. ... is money that may be used to start a business. 2. ... is the type of money used in a country.

3. ... is money in coin or notes.

4. ... are metal money, ... is system of coins in use. 5. ... are paper money.

6. ... money is different kinds of plastic cards. 7. ... is to be worth in terms of money.

8. ... is price asked for goods or services. 9. To ... means to ask smb. to pay.

10.To ... money means to keep some of one's money, e.g., for a new computer.

11.To ... money means to use it badly on things that one does not need.

12.The ... of living means how much people pay for things.

13.... of living is the level of money and comfort people have.

Упражнение 8. Заполните пропуски синонимами или антонимами.

Упражнение 9, A. Назовите 20-25 ключевых слов и словосочетаний на тему: «Business and finance».

В.Speak about:

1.The state of the economy at the moment. Is it strong or is it in recession?

2.The current rate of inflation in the country. Has the govern­ ment reduced company taxes or personal taxes lately? Has public expenditure risen or fallen recently?

3.New technology and money.

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Text 3

Какое значение имеют электронные средства связи в современной орга­ низации производства?

А. Прочитайте текст и постарайтесь догадаться о значении в данном контексте слов: vital, corporate^ compile, memo, pace, respond, intranet, empower.

Paperwork and the Digital Nervous System

Bill Gates states it did not take Microsoft Co. long to get rid of most of the company's paper forms. The move from paper to elec­ tronic forms is a vital step in the evolution of a modem organiza­ tion's nervous system. A corporate system defines how an organization deals with planned and unplanned events alike. It in­ cludes meetings, paperwork and electronic systems. It governs the way information about customers is stored, the way workers are or­ ganized, the way budgets are compiled and activities are coordi­ nated, and the way information is exchanged.

In the past, companies were virtually alike in terms of how they managed these activities. Meetings, memos and managers were re­ lied upon heavily. The pace was not usually too fast, and there was lots of paper.

But one of the lessons from Darwin is that the excellence of an organism's nervous system helps determine its ability to sense change and quickly respond, thereby surviving or even thriving.

Today, new «digital nervous systems» are based on electronic communications tools that help corporations maintain themselves, defend from dangers and take advantage of opportunities rapidly. The Internet and intranets are essential.

You can easily bring the people you need together electroni­ cally, even if they are all over the globe. The people in the company can gain a common understanding of what is going on. They can exchange ideas easily.

Perhaps the single most important element of a digital nervous system is a customer database. Having all your information about customers in one place gives you the tools to analyze and make de­ cisions. It empowers you to be highly responsive to customers needs.

Microsoft's system is far from perfect, but it improves as the company takes better advantage of technology. Its annual budget­ ing process used to take three months. Microsoft invented a new process around electronic forms on the company's intranet.

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The budget cycle is now a very tense three-week period. The company's digital system lets everybody see immediately what the other people in the company are planning. The managers see com­ parisons of sales and expense forecasts relative to market size in other divisions and regions. The product groups see the numbers organized by product. The subsidiaries see the numbers geographi­ cally. The finance people see them in on a profit-and-loss basis.

In other words, information can automatically be analyzed and compared and summarized and brought to the attention of the peo­ ple who need to know about it.

B. Подберите к каждому слову или словосочетанию в колонке А соответ­ ствующее по значению из колонки В.

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