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WRITING. While reading the text put down key words and phrases from each paragraph and possible headlines that best express the main idea of each paragraph




Text 3

While reading the text put down key words and phrases from each paragraph and possible headlines that best express the main idea of each paragraph. Do the tasks that follow.

Does it Cost More to Laugh?

Are we paying bigger bucks for smaller yuks? Is there a bone to pick with the price of rubber chickens? Is the price of Groucho glasses raising eyebrows, the cost of Mad Magazine driving you mad, and, well, you get the idea.

Malcolm Kushner, an attorney-turned-humor-consultant based in Santa Cruz, California, developed an index based on a compilation of leading humor indicators to measure price changes in things that make us laugh. Kushner created the cost-of-laughing index to track how trends in laughter affect the bottom line. He is a humor consultant who advises corporate leaders on making humor work for business professionals. For example, humor can make executives better public speakers, and laughter reduces stress and can even cure illnesses. Kushner believes humor is America's greatest asset, and his consulting business gets a lot of publicity from publication of the index. His latest book, Successful Presentations for Dummies, provides the reader with 10 sites on the World Wide Web where speakers can find everything from quotations of famous people to an appropriate Murphy's Law, to general information material for your speeches. To combat rising humor costs, Kushner has established a Web site at http://www.kushnergroup.com. It organizes links to databases of funny quotes, anecdotes, one-liners, and other material for business speakers and writers. The exhibit with the Groucho face traces the annual percentage change in the cost of laughing that Kushner has reported to the media. On an annual basis, the cost of laughing index remained flat as a pancake at 4.4 percent between 1994 and 1995 and then did a belly flop to 3 percent in 1996, where it remained through 1999.

Closer examination of the laughing index over the years gives both happy and sad faces. The good news is that the price of an arrow through the head, singing telegrams, and ticket prices for several of the comedy clubs have remained unchanged since 1995. The bad news is that the prices of all the other items have increased. The major reason for more expensive humor is the price of writing a half-hour television situation comedy. Just like the CPI, Kushner's index has been criticized. Note that the fee for writing a TV sitcom dominates the index. Kushner responds to this issue by saying, "Well, I wanted the index to be truly national. The fact that this price dominates the index reflects that TV comedy shows dominate our national culture. If you can laugh for free at a sitcom, you don't need to buy a rubber chicken or go to a comedy club."

 
 

Ex. 1. Match the word with their definitions.

A B
1) asset a) an exclamation used to express strong distaste or disgust
2) sitcom b) property owned by a person or company
3) groucho c) a person who is often grumpy (gloomy)
4) attorney d) a situation comedy
5) to track e) a person appointed to act for another in legal matters
6) yuk f) to follow the trail or movements

Ex. 2. Find information in the text to answer the questions.

1. What sort of index did Malcolm Kushner develop?

2. In what way do humor and laughter influence the work of business professionals?

3. What does Kushner believe to be America’s greatest asset?

4. What actions did Kushner take to combat rising humor costs?

5. How did the cost of laughing change between 1994–1999?

6. What good news does the examination of the laughing index provide?

7. What is the bad news about the laughing index?

8. What is the major reason for more expensive humor according to Kushner?

 

 

Read the dialogue and write its short summary. Give a comparison of macroeconomic performance of the early 1960s in the USA with that of your country’s today. Use the verbs of reporting (believe, claim, argue, mention, emphasize, point out…).

Games Tobin has had a long and distinguishing career in macroeconomics, extending the model suggested by Keynes, paying special attention to the demand for money consumption and savings, fiscal and monetary policy, and economic growth. Games Tobin received the Nobel prize in economic science in 1981. Michael Parkin spoke with Professor Tobin about the challenges that face the economy.

M.P. G.T.   M.P. G.T.     M.P.   G.T.   M.P.   G.T.     M.P.   G.T.   M.P. G.T. Professor Tobin, you were a young boy during the Great Depression. Not of personal hardship, although my grandfather lost his job and his entire fortune when the bank of which he was a president went under. When did you first study economics? As a Harward sophomore in 1936. We met weekly with a tutor and discussed what we were reading and writing. My tutor had just come back from England where he had heard a lot about a new book by John Maynard Keynes. He suggested that we read it. I was too green to understand that it was absurd for a sophomore to tackle The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. So I plunged into it and got very excited about the book and about economics. People usually refer to you as a Keynesian macroeconomist. Do you agree with that term? I don't like labeling. I tried to contribute to economics, especially to macroeconomics. In 1950s and 1960s we hoped that the Keynesian-Neoclassical controversy would soon be behind us. Unfortunately, the old debates have been revived and magnified over the past two decades. Today, if I have to be labeled - and considering the alternatives – I'm proud to be a Keynesian. How would you characterize the controversy in macroeconomics? Has it stayed the same over the years, or is it different today? The original controversy in the 1930s and 1940s was whether a capitalist market economy possesses reliable automatic mechanisms of adjustment, which would restore equilibrium. Orthodox economists, Keynes called them classical – said yes. Keynes said no. Today's New Classical macroeconomists assert that the economy is always in full employment equilibrium. Keynesians believe the economy can fall out of equilibrium and that government interventions can speed up recoveries. Many economists regard the macroeconomic performance of the early 1960s in the USA as a very successful period of moderate inflation, low unemployment, and strong growth in real output. Was that the high point of macroeconomic management of that time? Yes. I suppose I have a vested interest in believing that to be true – I helped to inaugurate the policy in 1961. And it was a pleasant period, when economists and policymakers were not as divided and combative as they are now. What economic principles would you share with students? First, opportunity cost is a simple, fruitful concept. Students can learn it, most people innocent of economics, don't understand it. Second – fungibility – "money mingles", a friend of mine liked to say. You can give people money, for your own purpose, but the recipients will generally find a way to accommodate their own priorities. Third, economics students who understand the macro identities – for example, Y = C + I + G + NX1– know more than most politicians and journalists.

Note:

1. Y(GDP) = Consumption+Investment+Government Purchases+Net Exports.

 




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