Maria Rees English for Economics

Ca fo s ca r ina

Maria Rees, English for Economics

2000 Libreria Editrice Cafoscarina ISBN 66-85613-92-6

Cover illustration: William Hogarth, Industry and Idleness.

Libreria Editrice Cafoscarina Pscrl Calle Foscari, 3259, 30123 Venezia www.cafoscarina.it e-mail:editrice@cafoscarina.it Prima edizione Ottobre 2000 Stampato in Italia presso LCM SELECTA Group Milano

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 9 UNIT 1 OLD AND NEW ECONOMIES ........................................... 11 An Old Economy Towards the New Simple Present Noun plurals Collective nouns UNIT 2 THE NEW GENERATIONS ................................................ 21 The Family and Society The Youth Factor Present continuous State and dynamic verbs -ING forms UNIT 3 AGEING ................................................................................. 31 Ageing Call for Global Pension Reform Future 1 Conditional 1 Countable and uncountable nouns Cause and effect connectives UNIT 4 WOMEN ................................................................................. 41 Microenterprise (A Case Study) Womens Rights Simple past Adverbs of manner, frequency and degree UNIT 5 FAIR TRADE ......................................................................... 51 Banana Factfile Fair Trade Passive voice Comparatives I Structures with get UNIT 6 TRADE .................................................................................... 61 The Engine of Economic Growth Trade Present perfect simple and continuous News headlines UNIT 7 IMMIGRATION .................................................................... 71 People on the Move Why People Migrate Adjectives of nationality Adjectives used as nouns Comparatives II

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UNIT 8 THE ENVIRONMENT ......................................................... 81 Climate Change Sustainable Development Compound adjectives Definite and indefinite articles UNIT 9 THE FUTURE OF FOOD ..................................................... 91 Long-term Prospects for the Agro-Food Sector Electronic Markets in the Agro-Food Sector Future II Structures with there (to) be News Headlines UNIT 10 GLOBALISATION .............................................................. 101 Globalisation Transnational Corporations Modification of adjectives and adverbs Relative Pronouns Relative clauses UNIT 11 DEBT ..................................................................................... 111 The Lenders The Consequences of Debt Past perfect Modal auxiliaries UNIT 12 CONSUMPTION ................................................................. 121 Consumerism A Whole World of Difference Brand Marketing Compound nouns Conditionals 1, 2 and 3 Quantifiers UNIT 13 ANTI-TRUST HISTORY .................................................... 131 Microsoft Broken Up Trustbusters and Muckrakers Reporting verbs Reporting orders, requests, advice and intentions Purpose clauses Subjunctive Time expressions UNIT 14 HEALTH .............................................................................. 143 The Health Gap Britain and Europe The New NHS: Fit for the Future? Modifying connectives: contrast Acronyms Infinitive or -ING form? UNIT 15 TRANSITION ECONOMIES ............................................. 153 Industrial Restructuring Women in the Countries in Transition Modifying connectives: additional statements Passive review Passive: complex structures

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FOR FURTHER READING At Work, How Old is Old? ......................................................................... Ethical Consumers ..................................................................................... Facts about National Origin Discrimination ............................................. The World Trade Organisation .................................................................. Genetic Engineering .................................................................................. The World Bank and the IMF .................................................................... Market Pull ................................................................................................ The Sherman Anti-Trust Act ...................................................................... Health Care goes Online ........................................................................... Vietnam: A New Asian Tiger? ................................................................... APPENDICES APPENDIX I Describing Trends ........................................................... 189 APPENDIX II Numbers ........................................................................ 191 APPENDIX III Irregular Verbs ............................................................ 194 APPENDIX IV False Friends ............................................................... 197 KEY TO EXERCISES ............................................................................ 203 163 166 168 171 173 175 177 179 182 184

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Daniele Fortis provided valuable assistance in the compilation of the glossaries and the preparation of the key to the exercises. Grateful thanks to Geraldine Ludbrook and Suzanna Miles for their advice and encouragement. The extracts from Living on Thin Air: The New Economy by Charles Leadbeater (Viking 1999) Charles Leadbeater are reproduced by permission of Penguin Books Ltd. The following extracts have been reprinted by courtesy of BBC News Online at www.bbc.co.uk/news: Call for Global Pension Reform, The Engine of Economic Growth, Microsoft Broken Up, Trustbusters and Muckrakers, The Health Gap Britain and Europe, The New NHS: Fit for the Future?, At Work, How Old is Old?, Healthcare Goes Online, Vietnam: A New Asian Tiger? We would also like to thank Kaz for permission to reprint material from his website. Every effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright material used in this book. We should be pleased to hear from any copyright holder whom we have been unable to contact.

INTRODUCTION
The reform currently underway in the Italian secondary and tertiary education system will have inevitable repercussions on the organisation and content of language courses offered to university students at undergraduate level. The trend is likely to be towards the acquisition of specific language skills in the area of study chosen by the student. As the length of language courses will also be affected by the reform, students will have to consolidate these skills as rapidly and efficiently as possible. English for Economics has been designed with these particular needs in mind. English for Economics is intended to be used by university students whose knowledge of the language has not yet progressed beyond the requirements of a general English course, but who will need to read a wide range of specific material during their course of study. The book aims to increase students confidence in dealing with the kind of language that does not usually appear in the communicative course-books normally used in schools. The aim of English for Economics is to provide students of pre-intermediate/intermediate levels with authentic texts dealing with the kinds of issues likely to affect almost every aspect of an economy as well as present and future economic policy-making. The arguments covered include demography, ageing populations, immigration, healthcare, the environment, marketing, microfinance, and the part played by small and medium-sized enterprises in countries moving towards a free market economy. The issues dealt with in the book are general enough to allow even first-year students with little experience of economic theory to express their own opinions orally and in writing. Part I of English for Economics has 15 units, each containing two reading passages on related themes. A glossary at the end of each passage deals with the lexical items most likely to present problems for Italian speakers. All the irregular verbs in the glossaries are given with their Simple Past and past participle forms, and a list of the most common irregular verbs can be found in Appendix IV. The so-called false friends are asterisked in the glossary, and a comprehensive list of these notoriously troublesome words is given in Appendix III. Explanatory notes are provided wherever more difficult idiomatic expressions occur. Appendix I examines the language used in describing trends; Appendix II looks at expressions relating to numbers.

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Each unit contains Grammar Review sections linked to the reading passages as well as a series of exercises based on the grammar points connected with the texts. In these sections, students are invited to focus on the grammatical points they are likely to encounter when reading texts of this kind. For example, particular emphasis is given to the Passive, as this type of construction is typically found in formal or academic scientific English. Compound nouns and adjectives are also dealt with extensively for the same reason. As students will also want, or have to read general and special interest newspaper or magazine articles, mention has also been made of the often rather obscure structures and lexis conventionally used in newspaper headlines. The aim of the Word Study sections is to focus the students attention on the use of prefixes and suffixes in forming new words. These sections, together with the Vocabulary exercises, are intended to encourage students not only to expand their own range of lexis, but also help them towards understanding words that at first sight may seem incomprehensible. Part II of English for Economics contains ten passages for further reading. A list of suggestions is provided as to how teachers and students may best make use of this material. The questions after each passage may be used as a starting point for various activities, such as oral presentations and/or extended writing. Students working on their own might like to take key words from the passages in question and use a search engine to locate related reading material on the internet. Although English for Economics is primarily intended for classroom use, it may also be used by those studying without the help of a teacher. A Key containing answers to all the grammar, vocabulary and translation exercises is provided at the back of the book. Once students acquire the confidence necessary to deal with the kinds of text they have to read, their motivation to extend the range and scope of what they want to read is likely to increase. The aim of English for Economics is to guide students across the obstacles that so often discourage them from exploring unfamilar linguistic terrain. Maria Rees

UNIT 6

TRADE
THE ENGINE OF ECONOMIC GROWTH

Trade has been the driving force of world economic growth in the last 50 years. Since the end of the Second World War, trade flows have increased much faster than world population, and even faster than overall world economic growth. Initially, trade expansion fuelled the post-war economic miracles in Germany and Japan. More recently, it has become the engine of development across many Asian developing countries, transforming the economies of countries like South Korea and Singapore into near Western standards of living. The role of trade in economic growth may be lessening. As more and more companies invest in other countries, trade may yet be eclipsed by foreign direct and indirect investment. [] Although the worlds biggest exporters are also some of the worlds biggest economies, some countries punch above their weight. The United States, which makes up one-third of the world economy, is the biggest exporter. But surprisingly, perhaps, it is Germany, not Japan, that is in second place, despite the fact that Japans economy is twice as big as Germanys. Japan has a very modern and competitive export sector, led by consumer electronic and auto companies, but it also has a rather inefficient domestic economy in service sector areas like retailing and financial services. Other rich industrial countries, including Britain, France and Italy, dominate the list of top exporters. But China and its special administrative area of Hong Kong have moved rapidly up the list of the worlds biggest exporters. Taking China, Taiwan and Hong Kong together, they are now the worlds third largest export bloc. And other Asian countries, like South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand have also increased their exports dramatically, even though they were held back by the recent Asian financial crisis. [] In recent years, exports of services have been growing faster than exports of manufactured goods.

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Services cover a diverse area, from royalties on songs to accountancy, consultancy and financial services. The UK, France and the US are among the worlds most important exporters of services. However, the fast growth of these so-called newly-industrialised countries has come at the expense of increasing trade imbalances with the rest of the world. Their export-led growth has not led to the rapid opening of domestic markets. Instead, they have proved effective in exporting goods like cars, electronics and textiles, especially the United States. The combination of higher than average growth in the USA in the last few years and its relative openness to imports, has created a huge trade imbalance. The US trade deficit now stands at a record $300 billion a year. In trade theory, such imbalances become corrected because the US dollar then falls, causing imported goods to become more expensive. But so far the booming US stock market has sucked in funds from abroad, preventing that fall. [] BBC News GLOSSARY
engine = motore driving force = forza trainante overall = complessivo to fuel = alimentare to punch above ones weight = realizzare pi di quanto le proprie dimensioni ecc. farebbero supporre retailing = vendita al dettaglio royalties = diritti dautore accountancy = contabilit to suck in = risucchiare

WORD STUDY There is a large group of two-syllable words that exist both as a verb and as a noun (or adjective). The stress falls on the first syllable of the noun / adjective and on the second syllable of the verb. to conflict to perfect export transport increase discount record a conflict a perfect day import produce decrease permit survey transfer contrast progress protest content

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Exercise 1 Read the sentences and mark where the stress falls. 1) Our company, which produces security devices and exports them to Eastern Europe, has had record profits this year. 2) Our customers are always satisfied when we offer them discounts; indeed, they have been known to protest if we dont. 3) A lot of progress has been made in resolving transport problems. 4) Special permits have to be obtained if we want to transfer large sums of money. 5) Extracts from our latest Customer Satisfaction Survey can be found on our homepage. 6) There has been a substantial increase in the number of companies enquiring about our products. GRAMMAR REVIEW THE PRESENT PERFECT TENSE The Present Perfect (Simple) is formed by have / has + the past participle of the main verb. The two main functions of this tense are: (a) to indicate an action that happened at an indefinite time in the past: China has moved rapidly up the list of the worlds biggest exporters. (b) to indicate an action that began in the past and continues (or its effects continue) into the present: Since the end of the Second World War, trade flows have increased much faster than world population. The negative and interrogative forms follow the usual rules: Their export-led growth has not led to the opening of domestic markets. Why has foreign investment boomed in the past decade? Italian speakers should note the following: (a) The auxiliary verb used in forming the Present Perfect is always have, even with intransitive verbs: She has remained single.

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(b) The Present Perfect is not used to talk about past actions where there is a specific time reference. (See Unit 4 for the Simple Past). Exercise 2 Past Simple or Present Perfect? Use the correct tense of the verbs in brackets. Economic liberalisation in China in the early 1980s _____________ (reduce) central planning and _____________ (broaden) the role of the market. Since then, foreign direct investment ______________ (enable) the construction of a significant industrial base and transport infrastructure. In the coastal regions, the economy ___________ (become) a free market in all but name. Shanghai ___________ (emerge) as a financial centre. Excessive investment in capital construction ______________ (require) austerity measures in 1993-95 in an attempt to control inflation. These measures _____________ (cause) widespread unemployment. By 1994, 50-60 per cent of industrial output ____________ (passive produce) by private or collective firms. PRESENT PERFECT: SIMPLE OR CONTINUOUS? The Present Perfect Simple expresses the idea of completion or achievement but does not indicate when something happened. Ive read his report = Ive finished reading it The Present Perfect Continuous focuses on the continuing situation: Ive been reading his report; Im really enjoying it. Because of the idea of completion, the Present Perfect Simple is also used to say how often something has happened (without giving details of when): He has written three reports this week, and its only Wednesday. The Present Perfect Simple and Continuous are used to talk about actions continuing up to the present moment, especially when the focus is on how long they have been going on for.

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Since and for are specific indicators of duration: since is used to refer to the starting point of an action; for is used to say how long the action has lasted. Less specific time expressions may also be used: in recent years / in the last six months etc. The Present Perfect Simple is more frequently used in structures that describe permanent or long-term situations. Compare: I have lived / I have been living in Oxford since I was born. My sister has been staying with me for the last six weeks. Unlike Italian, English does not use present tenses to say how long something has lasted: The company has been trading since 1990. (NOT The company is trading since 1990).

Exercise 3 Present Perfect Simple or Continuous? Write the most suitable form of the verbs in brackets. 1) JBC Ltd _________________ electrical components for over 60 years. (produce) 2) They ______________ record profits for the third year running. (have) 3) The company ___________ to S.E. Asia since 1996. (export) 4) They _____________ over 2 billion worth of goods in the last two years. (sell) 5) JBC Ltd _____________ two awards this year from the CBI. (receive) 6) The Chairman of JBC ______________ twice this month by the BBC. (passive interview) 7) I _______________ a proper holiday for at least five years, he told the journalists. (not have) 8) Mark Lyons ____________ Chairman since 1990 but he says that he intends to retire in 2002. (be)

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Exercise 4 Complete the expressions. Since the same time yesterday = for 24 hours For 250 years = since 1750 1) since 1981 = __________________________________ 2) since 6 oclock this morning = ____________________ 3) for 15 years = _________________________________ 4) for the last two hours = __________________________ 5) since Friday = _________________________________ 6) since last May = _______________________________ 7) for three days = ________________________________ 8) since I enrolled at university = ____________________

NEWS HEADLINES a) The Present Perfect is used by newsreaders to give a summary of the main events of the day. The government has announced record trade figures. / Germany has decided to dismantle its nuclear plants etc. In this type of headline, the focus is on the event itself, rather than on specific details. b) For reasons of space, the headlines in newspapers and magazines use the Simple Present to refer to events that have already taken place: HOUSE PRICES RISE AGAIN = House prices have risen again

Exercise 5 Use the Present Perfect to expand the following news headlines. 1) CHINA EXPELS 10 US DIPLOMATS _________________________________________________ 2) FRANCE BANS IMPORTS OF BRITISH BEEF _________________________________________________

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3) JBC MERGES WITH FRANKLIN BROS. _________________________________________________ 4) UNION OFFICIALS REJECT BLAIRS PROJECT _________________________________________________ 5) BANK OF ENGLAND CUTS INTEREST RATES _________________________________________________ 6) RUSSIAN BISHOPS WRITE TO POPE _________________________________________________ 7) ROTTWEILER ATTACKS CHILDREN _________________________________________________ 8) FILM STAR KILLED IN CAR CRASH _________________________________________________ FURTHER READING TRADE Forget debt. Forget aid. Far and away the most important issue in global relations is international trade. Worth around $2.5 trillion each year, trade dominates the foreign policy agendas of individual countries and international institutions alike. And while neo-liberal orthodoxy assures us that trade is the lifeblood of the world economy, there are some larger questions that often go unanswered. We are constantly told of the global village in which we are all interdependent on each other. What could be more natural than for different members of that village to produce different goods and then trade them one with another, each making use of their particular skills? Yet the global village is a myth: even at the beginning of the 21st century the world remains a large and complex planet, home to billions of people with completely different needs. And while it may be logical to have lots of trading units at the local level, trade on the global scale may be doing more harm than good. One fundamental cost of international trade is its effect on the environment. Even transporting goods locally takes its toll; doing so backwards and forwards across continents often in special deep-freeze planes is many

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times more damaging again. Similarly, international trade has a hidden human cost. Under pressure from institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank, farmers in developing countries have been encouraged to produce cash crops for consumers in the industrialised world rather than growing food for their own communities. While this ensures rich Westerners cheap, year-round access to most exotic fruits, the farmers themselves end up earning less and less from a market in which they are powerless. In trade terms, raw commodities exported from the developing world are not even worth half what they were 15 years ago. Moreover, the current trend is for international trade to expand dramatically in the coming years. The Uruguay Round of GATT, which ended in 1993, removed many of the barriers regulating trade and opened up entirely new areas to global competition. Yet this expansion of free trade can pose an added threat to small producers in developing countries, who now find themselves unprotected from the competition of the giant transnational corporations (TNCs) eager to take over new markets. Even the most fervent supporters of free trade acknowledge that the expansion of trade will create losers as well as winners, and that the losers will be the poor. Some groups have tried to offset the threat of free trade by starting fair trade initiatives, where producers in the developing world are guaranteed a stable, fair price for their goods. Others such as the food miles campaigns encourage consumers to buy local produce over goods which have travelled hundred of miles before being sold. There is a growing international movement devoted to exploding the myth of the benign global village, and a growing call to ensure that human and environmental needs are not forgotten in the trade debate. ONEWORLD. Available (online) at http://www.oneworld.org GLOSSARY
far and away = di gran lunga issue = questione agenda = programma lifeblood = linfa vitale skill = abilit *myth = leggenda harm = danno to take (took, taken) its toll = arrecare danno to hide (hid, hidden) = nascondere cash crop = raccolto destinato alla vendita year-round = tutto lanno threat = minaccia eager = ansioso, desideroso fervent = acceso, fervente to offset = compensare, controbilanciare

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NOTES The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was a trade treaty in operation from 1948 until the end of the Uruguay Round, when the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was set up. VOCABULARY Exercise 6 Match the expressions with their definitions. trade-off the name manufacturers give to a product trade union trade secret trade name trade mark trade fair trading estate trader a name or symbol a company uses on its products a situation of compromise a buyer and seller of stocks and shares information a company is not willing to divulge an area specially planned for a lot of factories an event where manufacturers exhibit their products an organisation protecting the interests of workers

TRANSLATION Exercise 7 1) Andrew disoccupato da quasi cinque anni. _________________________________________________________ 2) Gestiscono un piccolo ristorante dal 1995. _________________________________________________________ 3) Perch gli investimenti sono diminuiti? _________________________________________________________ 4) I profitti di quellazienda non crescono da almeno tre anni. _________________________________________________________

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5) Hai parlato con il mio assistente? Si, ci siamo incontrati ieri pomeriggio. _________________________________________________________ 6) Lespansione commerciale ha trasformato leconomia del sud-est asiatico. _________________________________________________________ 7) I miei colleghi sono rimasti fino alla fine della riunione. _________________________________________________________ 8) I sindacati hanno discusso il progetto per 36 ore, ma non hanno ancora raggiunto un accordo. _________________________________________________________