ECONOMY of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA

I AM A STUDENT OF NUSTSU.

I am____. So, I am a student now. I completed four courses of the university. I have the educational qualification levels of Bachelor. I’ve entered State Tax Service University of Ukraine after finishing a secondary school. You know, that was my dream to enter this University.

There are six departments at our University at present: Law Department, Accounting Department, Finance and Banking Department, Tax Militia Department, Economics and Taxation Department, Military Department, Extra-mural department.

The purpose of the University is to educate students to serve in the branches of economy. The graduates from the University will work at various branches of industry, agriculture, finance and banking system accounting and statistics computing information, State Tax Authorities. Our graduates are specialists of new formation. They keep up with progress and are able to run in the ocean of commodity and market relations.

I’m fond of everything at my University. I like its great beautiful building, sport complex, it’s lecture halls, laboratories, studies.

Our country needs specialists in all fields of science and all branches of industry and agriculture. Institutes exist not only in big cities like Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, but in many towns of Ukraine like Irpin.

2.HIGHER EDUCATION IN UKRAINE

Higher educational establishments of our country fall into three main types and have four levels of accreditation. The first type includes the universities and institutes where there are only full-time students, which receive state grants. Students who do not live at home get accommodation in the hostels.

The second and third types of higher schools provide educational facilities for factory and office workers who combine work with studies. The second type of higher education in establishments includes evening faculties and evening higher schools for those who study in their spare time.

The third type covers extra-mural higher schools where students take correspondence courses.

The diplomas by the evening faculties and extra-mural higher schools have the same value as the diplomas of all other institutes and universities.

The period of study at higher schools is from 4 to 6 years.

HIGHER EDUCATION IN GREAT BRITAIN

When higher education of Great Britain is being spoken about the University education is generally meant. But in fact there is a considerable amount of past-school education, including part-time as well as full-time studies carried on in technical colleges teacher training colleges, art colleges, institutes of adult education and so on.

There are some 90 universities, which enjoy academic freedom. Every University is autonomous and responsible to its governing body.

University degree courses are generally being taken for three, four or even five years. University teaching combines lectures practical classes and small group teaching in either seminars or tutorials. The last is a traditional feature of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

First degree courses are mainly full time and usually last three years, with longer courses in subjects such as medicine. Universities offer courses in a broad range of academic and vocational subjects, including traditional arts subjects, the humanities, and science and technology.

Over 95 percent of students on first degree and comparable higher education courses receive government grants covering tuition and accommodation and other maintenance expenses. Parents also contribute, the amount depending on their income. In addition, students can take out loans to help pay their maintenance costs.

Higher Education in the USA

Many students, upon finishing high school, choose to continue their education. The system of higher education includes 4 categories of institutions.

The community college, which is financed by the local community in different professions.

The university, which may contain:

· several colleges for students who want to receive a bachelor's degree after four years of study;

· one or more graduate schools for those who want to continue their studies after college for about two years to receive a master's degree and then a doctor's degree.

There are 156 universities in the USA.

Any of these institutions of higher education may be either public or private. The public institutions are financed by state. Most of the students, about 80 per cent, study at public institutions of higher education, because tuition fees here are much lower.

Some of the best-known private universities are Harvard. Yale and Princeton.

It is not easy to enter a college at a leading university in the United States.

The academic year is usually nine months, divided into two terms. Studies usually begin in September and end in July. Each college or university has its own curriculum.

During one term a student must study 4 or 5 different courses. There are courses that every student has to take in order to receive a degree. These courses or subjects are called major subjects or "majors".

Students who study at a university or four-year college are known as undergraduates. Those who have received a degree after 4 years of studies are known as graduates. They may take graduate program for another 2 years in order to get a master's degree. Further studies are postgraduate which result in a doctor's degree.

ECONOMY OF UKRAINE

Ukraine is an agro-industrial country.

Ukraine is rich in natural resources. The main minerals are iron ore, coal, rock salt cement, gypsum uranium, different metals and other natural resources.

The country fully satisfies its needs in minerals but it still has to import some of them. So, oil and gas are imported from Russia and Turkmenistan as the oil and gas deposits of Ukraine cannot satisfy country’s needs in these energy resources.

In the current structure of Ukraine’s industry a great proposition is occupied by heavy industry, especially, the iron, and steel, machine-building and coal industries.

A considerable part is played by the food, light and chemical industries.

 However, today’s industries are unable to satisfy the consumers’ wants because they are not integrated into the world process of economic, technological and scientific progress. The national industries have low standard in processing raw material and outdated and worn-out production equipment.

Ukraine has currently achieved macroeconomic stability. Ukraine’s foreign policy is aimed at wide and long-term co-operation.

ECONOMY of GREAT BRITAIN

Great Britain is a highly-developed naval and industrial power. Its economy was primarily based on private enterprises. However, some industries were nationalized after World War II. Now it has a mixed private- and public-enterprise economy¹. The government controls the coal-mining and electric power industries, ferrous metallurgy and shipbuilding. Part of public transport, civil aviation and national bank are also managed by the state.

The main sectors of British economy are manufacturing, services and agriculture. The share of industry in GNP² is 11 times more than that of agriculture. Manufacturing plays a vital role in British economy. It accounts for 1/5 of the GNP and employs less than 1/3 of the workforce³. Small companies predominate, though companies with 500 or more employees employ a larger percentage of the workforce.

The rise of Great Britain as an industrial nation⁴ was partly due to⁵  the presence of considerable mineral resources, the most important of them being coal and iron. Next to coal and iron the chief minerals found on the British Isles are the building stone, marble, granite, slate, lead, tin, copper, zink, salt and china clay. But in the course of the last hundred years many of Britain’s most valuable and accessible deposits have been worked out.

Coal-mining, metallurgy, textile, shipbuilding are the older branches of industry. The new industries are the chemical, electrotechnical, automobile, aeromissile and electronics. The new industries have developed hand in hand⁶ with science and technology and are equipped to meet present technical demands.

Big cities and towns such as London, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield and Birmingham have enterprises of nearly all branches of industry. The main centres of cotton and woolen industry are Leeds, Bradford and Manchester.

COMMENTS

1.mixed private- and public-enterprise economy — змiшана економiка,

що ґрунтується на приватному та державному пiдприємництвi

2.GNP — ВНП (валовий нацiональний продукт)

3.workforce — робоча сила

4.industrial nation — промислова держава

5.due to — зумовленo

6.hand in hand — плiч-о-плiч

ECONOMY of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA

The United States of America is one of the largest countries in the world. It has a developed free enterprise economy¹. It means that people are able to own² capital and property and to run their own businesses³ for making profit⁴. Most economic decisions in the country are made in the marketplace. Nearly 90 per cent of the goods and services⁵ produced in the country each year come from privately owned companies and firms.

Despite⁶ the fact that the United States has a free enterprise system, government’s role in the economy is so important that economists describe it as a mixed economy⁷. It is an economic system that combines elements of public ownership⁸ of the means of production⁹ withprivate ownership¹⁰, and elements of free enterprise with government participation and control.

The USA is a country with a highly developed economy. With only 5 per cent of the world’s population and about 6 per cent of its land area the USA produces 25 per cent of the world’s industrial products, agricultural goods, and services. It leads the capitalist world in industrial and agricultural production, leaving the other capitalist countries far behind.

The United Statesowes¹¹ its high level of economic development to its great wealth of minerals and fertilefarm soil¹², together with a moderate climate¹³. The territory is extremely rich in such minerals as coal, oil, natural gas, iron ore¹⁴ and non-ferrous metals¹⁵. They provide a solid base for modern industry.

The country has very powerful industries, advanced technologies, and science. The structural composition of the US industry shows a marked predominance¹⁶ of heavy industry, namely mining, chemical, metallurgy, machine-building, nuclear power and aeromissile industries. Electronic and electric engineering, transport, communication and machine-tool industries can be found almost in all large cities of the USA.

COMMENTS

1.free enterprise economy — економiка, що ґрунтується на вiльному пiдприємництвi

2.to own— мати, володiти

3.to run a business — вести діло, управляти пiдприємством

 4.... for making profit — для отримання прибутку

5.goods and services — товари та послуги

 6. despite— незважаючи на

7. mixed economy — змiшана економiка

8.public ownership — державна власнiсть

9.means of production — засоби виробництва

10. private ownership — приватна власнiсть

11. to owe smth to — бути зобов’язаним чимось комусь; завдячувати 

12. fertile soil — родючий ґрунт

13. moderate climate — помiрний клiмат

WHAT IS ECONOMICS?

Studying economics for the first time, it is necessary to know what economics is all about¹. Unfortunately, it is not possible to define the subject by a single word. Economics was defined as the study of mankind in the everyday business life. This means that economics deals with production, distribution, exchange and consumption. It answers such questions as: How do we produce all the things we need? How are prices determined? Economics is alsoconcerned with² unemployment, inflation, international trade, the interaction of business and labour, and the effects of government spending³ and taxes.

   Economics does not stop with the description of economic activity because description alone leaves unanswered many important why and how questions.

   Economics is a social science like history, geography, politics, psychology and sociology. It is the study of human efforts to satisfy what seems like unlimited and competing wants⁴ through the careful use of relatively scarce resources. Economists study what is or tends to be and how it came to be. They do not in any way pretend to tell what ought to be. People mustmake up their own minds⁵ about that.

   Economics is therefore concerned with activities relating to wealth, i.e. production, consumption, exchange and distribution.

   For our own purpose, we shall define economics as the study of man in his attempts to gain a living⁶ by utilizing his limited resources.

COMMENTS

1. ... what economics is all about— що складає економiку

2.to be concerned with — мати справу із; займатися

3.the effects of government spending — ефективнiсть урядових витрат

4.... unlimited and competing wants — необмеженi потреби, що пос­тійно зростають

5.to make up one’s own mind — вирiшувати самому

6.to gain a living — заробляти на життя

FACTORS OF PRODUCTION

The reason people cannot satisfy all their wants and needs is the scarcity of productive resources. These resources or factors of production are called land, labour, capital, and organization or entrepreneurship.

As an economic term land means the gifts of nature or natural resources not created by human efforts. They are the things provided by nature that go into the creation of goods and services. Land has a broad meaning. It is not only land itself, but also what lies under the land (like coal and gold), what grows naturally on top of the land (like forests and wild animals), what is around the land in the seas and oceans and under the seas and oceans.

The second factor of production is labour — people with all their efforts and abilities. Unlike land, labour is a resource that may vary in size over time. Labour is the human input into the production process.

The third factor of production is capital — the tools, equipment and factories used in production of goods and services. It is a produced factor of production, a durable input which is itself an output of the economy.

Entrepreneurship, the managerial or organizational skills needed by most firms to produce goods and services, is the fourth factor of production.

1.wants and needs — бажання та потреби

2.factors of production —фактори виробництва

3.entrepreneurship — підприємництво

4.gifts of nature — дари природи

5.dramatic impact — вирiшальний вплив

6.wages — заробітна плата

7.income — дохід, прибуток

8.primary factor of production — первинний фактор виробництва

ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

     There are 3 major kinds of economic systems: traditional, command and market.

In economic with traditional economy nearly all economic activity is the result of ritual and custom. The main advantage – is that everyone has a role in it. This helps keep economic life stable.

A command economy – one where a central authority makes most of the What, How and for Whom decisions. Economic decisions are made at the top and people are expected to go along with choices made by their leaders. It means that major economic choices are made by the government.

In a market economy the questions of What, How, and for Whom to produce are made by individuals and firms is an arrangement that allows buyers and sellers to come together to conduct transaction. A market economy has several major advantages. First, a market economy is flexible and can adjust to change over time. The 2- is the freedom that exists for everyone involved: 3 – incredible variety of goods and services available to consumers.