Read the text Inflation and unemployment

Eunice Close Mad March wind

The poem to enjoy. Try to learn it by heart.

Read the article without a dictionary, try to retell it.

At leisure

Word origin PERFUME: formerly a disinfectant

In much older days when you perfumed a room, you could have been disinfect ing it. As a writer in 1560 says, «she died of the plague and they perfumed the house with the grains of juniper». This is not so surprising when we learn that the words perfume and fumi gate are both originally from the Latin source fumus, «smoke». The Rom ans combined per -, mean ing «through», and fumus, to create the word per fume, «perfume with smoke». So our word per fume really means some thing that floats through the air like smoke.

2. Read and translate the proverbs, think of Russian equivalents,
give a situation using them.

— Hell is paved with good intentions.

— It is enough to make a cat laugh.

Mad March wind went out to play.

“I`ll have such fun,” said he, “today.

I`ll toss the clothes put out to dry,

And chase the clouds across the sky.

And when the boys and girls come out,

I`ll blow their scarves and hats about,

I`ll tangle up their curly hair,

And fling their kites high in the air”.

The mad March wind rushed up and down,

And whirled through all the streets in town,

Until, at last, tired out with play,

He turned and softly blew away.

Unit 14

Pre-text exercises

1. Find the transcription of new words in a dictionary:

inflation, deflation, weight, average, velocity, equation, variable, cycle.

Try to read them fluently.

2. Word-building.
Compile and translate:
occasional a. + -ly →
short a. + -age →
to equate υ. + -ion →
to vary υ. + -able →

Inflation is an overall increase in prices over a certain period of time. It’s also a worry for anybody who’s trying to make ends meet, and a headache for many governments.

In most of Europe, for example, prices have risen year after year for at least the last 50 years. Deflation (overall decrease in prices) does happen occasionally, but the trend is mostly for the cost of living to increase.

There are lots of ways to measure inflation. One of the most popular ways is called a basket of goods. Some of the goods are weighed more heavily than others because they are more important. For example, food will be weighed more than the cost of a cinema ticket, because a 5% increase in food is more important than a 10% increase in the cost of seeing a film. Inflation is worked out from an average of all the price increases in the basket. Inflation can happen for a number of reasons, but economists say there are two main ones. These are demand-pull inflation and cost-push inflation. Demand-pull inflation can happen when the economy is growing fast. Aggregate demand begins to grow faster than suppliers can cope with. This causes a shortage, and prices rise. At first, customers may be able to pay the higher prices, and

demand grows again. This forces prices up even more, and the cycle continues.

One of the characteristics of demand-pull inflation is that there is often too much money going round the economy.

Cost-push inflation, on the other hand, occurs when prices rise without an increase in demand. This happens when suppliers` variable costs increase sharply. For example, workers may demand higher wages or raw materials may become more expensive. Producers then pass these increases on to consumers by raising prices. So, as usual, we are the ones who pay!

There will always be a certain amount of unemployment in the economy. When economists talk about employment they mean that everyone who can work and wants to work has got a job. Workers who are not working are simply not happy with the salaries that are offered or just can’t be bothered!

However, economies rarely reach full employment. There are a number of reasons for this, and a number of different types of unemployment. One of these is cyclical unemployment. This type of unemployment varies with the growth and recession cycle of the economy. As the economy grows, demand for labour grows and unemployment falls. As the economy contracts, unemployment grows.

A second kind of unemployment is structural unemployment. This occurs when changing public tastes or advances in technology cause a fall in demand for some types of work. For example, computer technology has revolutionized the printing industry, and many traditional printers` jobs have become obsolete. Sometimes whole regions of a country suffer from high structural unemployment. The north-east of England, for example, was famous for many years for its shipbuilding industry. Competition from abroad forced many shipyards to close. This caused huge unemployment in the region.

How long structural unemployment lasts will depend on two things. Firstly, how easily the workforce can retrain for new jobs. This may be difficult for older workers who find it hard to learn new skills. There is also the question of who pays for the training. The second issue is mobility. Workers who are able to relocate easily to another part of the country will find new jobs more quickly.

Words:

to cause — вызывать to weigh — весить demand-pull inflation — инфля­ция спроса cost-push inflation — инфляция издержек employment — занятость cyclical — циклический to vary — изменять obsolete – устаревший

overall — общий

certain — определенный

worry — беспокойство

to make ends meet — сводить

концы с концами

deflation — дефляция

cost of living — уровень жизни

basket of goods — корзина

товаров

advance — успех

Post-text exercises

Working on the text

I. Find answers in the text:

I. What is inflation? 2. Does the cost of living increase in many countries? 3. How to measure inflation? 4. What does it mean «basket of goods»? 5. What are reasons of inflation? 6. What is cost-push inflation? 7. What is full employment? 8. Is it possible to have full employment? 9. What is structural unemployment? 10. How long can unemployment last? 11. How to get rid of unemployment? 12. Who loses ones work at first?

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