Money (texts for reading)

 

1. Read and translate the text:

Money

 

 What is money? Money can be anything that is generally accepted in payment for goods and services.

 Although anything can serve as money, as a practical matter the material should possess the following qualities:

 Stability. The value of money should be more or less the same today as tomorrow. In society where value of money fluctuates (goes up and down) people will hoard it in the hope that its value will increase, or spend it immediately thinking it will be worth less tomorrow. Either action could be harmful to the economy.

 Portability. Modern money has to be small enough and light enough for people to carry. Bowling balls would not be a practical form of money.

 Durability. The material chosen has to have a reasonable life expectancy. For that reason most countries use a very high quality paper for their money.

 Uniformity. Equal denomination of money should have the same value. It's easy to see that if some quarters or dollar bills were worth more than others, things could be pretty confusing.

 Divisibility. One of the principal advantages of money over barter is its ability to be divided into parts. In other words, while making change for a dollar is easy, making change for a chicken is more difficult.

 Recognizability. Money should be easily recognized for what it is and hard to copy. The quality of paper and the engraving make paper money extremely difficult to counterfeit.

 A Medium of Exchange. The principle difference between a barter economy and a money economy is that in a barter economy you must find someone who has what you want and wants what you have. In a money economy people can sell what they have to anyone and use the money to buy what they want. Money, therefore, is the medium that enables exchanges to be made easily.

 A Measure of Value. Money enables us to state the price of something in terms that everyone can understand. We can say the eggs we have for sale are worth 85 cents a dozen. That is far simpler than having to figure out how much milk or meat or clothing we would expect in payment for a dozen eggs.

 A Store of Value. Money enables us to use the value of something that we sell today to make a purchase sometime in the future. Foe example, our egg seller could put the money from the day's sale toward a college education sometime in the future. You can imagine the difficulties if that person tried to save one or two year's worth of egg toward a college education.

 Currency. The money you are most familiar with, currency, consists of the paper money and coins that you almost use daily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read and memorize the following words, word-combinations and word-groups:

 

fluctuation       коливання;

e.g. In societies where value of money fluctuates people spend it immediately thinking it will be worth less tomorrow.

 

to hoard        запасати;

e.g. In societies where value of money fluctuates people hoard it in the hope that its value will increase.

 

portability        портативність;

durability        міцність;

uniformity однаковість; однорідність;

e.g. Money should possess such features as portability, durability, uniformity.

 

dollar bill        доларова банкнота;

e.g. If dollar bills had no equal denominations of money that had the same value, things could be pretty confusing.

 

medium of exchange      спосіб обміну;

e.g. Money serves us as medium of exchange.

 

measure of value       міра цінності;

e.g. Money serves us measure of value.

 

to enable давати право або можливість (що-небудь робити);

e.g. Money enables us to state the price of something in terms that everyone can understand.

 

Translate into English:

 

1. Більшість країн використовує високоякісний папір для виготовлення грошей;
2. Одна з головних переваг грошей над бартером - це те, що гроші можна ділити на частини;
3. Головна різниця між бартерною та грошовою економікою полягає в тому, що при бартерній економіці вам слід шукати когось, хто би мав те, що ви хочете, і хотів би те, що ви маєте;
4. Гроші дають вам змогу встановлювати ціну товару;
5. Гроші - це засіб, що дає нам можливість робити обмін;
6. Гроші дають змогу нам робити покупки коли-небудь у майбутньому, використовуючи вартість чогось, що ми продаємо сьогодні;
7. Валюта - це паперові гроші та монети, якими ми користуємося майже щодня.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answer the following questions:

 

1. What is money?
2. What qualities should the material for money possess?
3. What is the principal difference between a barter economy and a money economy?
4. What functions does money play in the society?
5. What is currency?

Define the terms:

 

stability       durability

divisibility       portability

uniformity       recognizability

 

Read and dramatize the following dialogue:

 

A:  In what currency will payment be made?

B:  We'll provide for payments in local currency in our contract.

A:  Is currency conversion allowed under your local legislation?

B:  Yes, it is.

A:  How will currency fluctuations be taken into account?

B: To avoid currency losses we shall provide for a currency clause in our contract.

A:  How will the currency be exchanged?

B:  At the rate of the day.

A: To avoid currency losses we suggest including into the contract a currency clause pegging the currency of payments to SDRs in US dollars.

B:  No objections. And in what cases will payments be adjusted?

A:  Payments will be adjusted if the cost of one SDR changes.

 

Give English equivalents of the following:

 

бути небезпечним для економіки;   бартерна економіка;

головна перевага грошей;    встановлювати ціну;

накопичення цінностей;    робити покупку;

високоякісний папір;     засіб обміну;

вартість грошей;      валюта

мірило цінності;

 

Fill in the blanks with appropriate words:

 

1. Money can be anything, that is generally accepted in _________ for goods and services;
2. Equal ________ of money should have the same value;
3. One of the principal _________ of money over barter is its ability to be divided into parts;
4. The principal difference between a _________ and a ________ is that in a barter economy you must find someone who has what you want and wants what you have;
5. Money therefore, is the ________ that enables exchanges to be made easily;
6. The money you are most familiar with, currency, consists of the ______ and coins that you use almost daily.

 

(denomination, payment, paper money, medium, advantages, barter economy, money economy).

 

 

Make up your own dialogue using the following expressions:

 

local currency       currency fluctuations

to exchange currency      to make payments

to provide for payments      to take into account

to adjust payments      to avoid curency losses

 

Put the infinitives in brackets in the Past Continuous Tense:

 

Model: The company (to raise) prices for the merchandise the whole year.

 The company was raising prices for the merchandise the whole year.

1. The management (to consider) the outflow and inflow of capital, where they produced the new types of devices.
2. The company (to buy) currency from the foreign exchange department, when they dealt with the foreign firm.
3. Our partner (to provide) for payments in local currency, when currency conversion was allowed under the local legislation.
4. Our bank (to make) loans to corporations when they were in need.
5. The bank (to accept) money from depositors at that time.

 

Paraphrase the following sentences as in the model:

 

Model: He intended to convert American dollars to Swiss francs in foreign exchange departments.

 He was going to convert American dollars to Swiss francs in foreign exchange departments.

1. We intened to buy merchandise from another country using the currency of that country.
2. Our bank intended to accept money from depositors.
3. This bank intended to make loans to corporations.
4. We intened to provide for a currency clause in our contract.
5. I intened to invest money into this corporation.

 

Translate into English using the Past Continuos Tense (the Active Voice):

 

1. Цей банк надавав позики нашій компанії з 1995 по 1999 роки;
2. Я мав намір обміняти валюту в пункті обміну;
3. У цей час вони намагались уникнути грошових втрат;
4. Коли вона зателефонувала, ми розмовляли про фонди підприємства;
5. Ми мали намір виплатити борги до початку фінансового року.

 

Communicative situations:

 

1. Money is the root of all evil.
2. Money is the guarantee of security.
3. "Time is money" (B.Franklin).
4. Money put in a bank is as safe as anything in the world can be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Money (additional text for reading)

 

 Money is anything that is generally accepted by people in exchange for the things they sell or the work they do. Gold and silver were once the most common forms of money. But today, money consists mainly of paper bills coins made of various metals, and checking account deposits.

Each country has its own basic unit of money. In the United States, for example, the basic unit is the U.S. dollar. Canada uses the Canadian dollar, France the franc, Great Britain - the pound, Japan - the yen, Mexico - the new peso, Russia - the ruble. The money in use in a country is called its currency.

 Money has three main uses. First, and most important, it is a medium of exchange - that is, something people will accept for their goods or services. Without a medium of exchange, people would have to trade their goods or services directly for other goods or services. If you wanted a bicycle, you would have to find a bicycle owner willing to trade. Suppose the bicycle owner wanted skis in exchange for the bike and you did not own skis. You would then have to find a ski owner or ski maker and so on. Such trading, called barter, can take much time.

 A modern, industrialized country could not function without a medium of exchange.

The second use of money is that it serves as a unit of account. People state the price of goods and services in terms of money. In the United States, people use dollars to specify price, just as they use hours to express time and miles or kilometers to measure distance.

 The third use of money is a store of wealth. People can save money and then use it to make purchases in the future. Other stores of wealth include gold, jewels, paintings, real estate, and stocks and bonds.

 To be convenient, however, money should have several qualities. It should come in pieces of standard value so that it does not have to be weighted or measured every time it is used. It should be easy to carry so that people can carry enough money to buy what they need. In the past people used brads, cocoa beans, salt, shells, stones, tobacco, and other things as money. But above all, they used such metals as copper, gold and silver. These metals made convenient, durable money.

 Today most money is made of paper. The paper itself is of little value, but it is accepted in exchange. People accept pieces of metal or paper in exchange for work or goods for only one reason. They know that others will take the same metal or paper in exchange for the things the want. They value of money therefore results from the fact everyone will accept it as payment.