- •Unit 1. What is economics?
- •Lead-in
- •Words with the stress on the first syllable:
- •Words with the stress on the second syllable:
- •Polysyllabic words with the main and secondary stress:
- •Text a: What is Economics? Active Vocabulary
- •Vocabulary focus
- •Language skills
- •Writing
- •Discussion points
- •Text b: what economics isn't
- •Text c: Micro, Macro and Fantasy Economics
- •Business communication
- •Introductions How to Say Hello
- •If you're determined not to be caught cardless again, here are some tips to help you remember:
- •Grammar present tenses
- •The present simple tense
- •Make up questions the interviewer may ask her. Here are some prompts to help you.
- •Now formulate questions Alice is likely to ask the interviewer.
- •The present continuous tense
- •The present simple versus the present continuous
- •Unit 2. Factors of production
- •Lead-in
- •Reading drills
- •Words with the stress on the first syllable:
- •Words with the stress on the second syllable:
- •Polysyllabic words with the main and secondary stress:
- •Word-formation
- •Text a: factors of production Active Vocabulary
- •Natural resources – land and mineral deposits
- •Human resources – labour
- •Information as a factor of production
- •Vocabulary focus
- •Language skills
- •Writing
- •Text b: entrepreneurship
- •Text c: Factors of Production for an Innovation Economy
- •Business communication
- •In the office
- •Grammar the present perfect tense
- •The present perfect continuous tense
- •The present continuous versus the present perfect continuous
- •The present perfect versus the present perfect contnuous
- •Present tenses review
- •Unit 3.Types of economic systems
- •Lead-in
- •Words with the stress on the first syllable:
- •Words with the stress on the second syllable:
- •Polysyllabic words with the main and secondary stress:
- •Text a: types of economic systems Active Vocabulary
- •Vocabulary focus
- •Language skills
- •Writing
- •Discussion points
- •Text b:command economy
- •T ext c: the good (and bad) model guide
- •Business communication
- •Grammar exercises past tenses
- •The past simple tense
- •The past continuous
- •The past simple versus the past continuous
- •The past simple versus the present perfect
- •Unit 4. Demand and supply
- •Lead-in
- •Text a: demand and supply
- •Vocabulary focus
- •Language skills
- •Writing
- •Discussion points
- •Text b. The role of prices
- •T ext c: two factors that affect labour supply and demand
- •Business communication making an appointment
- •Grammar past perfect
- •Past perfect continuous
- •Past Continuous or Past Perfect Continuous?
- •Past Simple, Past Perfect or Past Perfect Continuous?
- •Past tenses review
- •Unit 5. Free-enterprise system
- •Lead-in
- •Text a: what is free enterprise?
- •Vocabulary focus
- •Language skills
- •Writing
- •Discussion points
- •Text b: role of government in a free-enterprise economy
- •Text c: invisible hand
- •Business communication at the airport Look at the picture. What do you think the phrase Live out of a suitcase mean?
- •Going through Customs.
- •Do the drills.
- •2) Role-play the situations in the airport using the vocabulary of the lesson. Grammar future tenses
- •The future simple tense
- •The future simple versus the present simple
- •The future simple versus be going to
- •Be going to versus the present continuous
- •The future continuous tense
- •The future continuous versus the future simple
- •The future perfect versus the future perfect continuous
- •Future tenses review
- •The imperative mood
- •Unit 6. Forms of business organisation
- •Lead-in
- •Reading drills
- •Words with the stress on the first syllable:
- •Words with the stress on the second syllable:
- •Polysyllabic words with the main and secondary stress:
- •Word formation
- •Text a: forms of business organisation Active Vocabulary
- •Vocabulary focus
- •Language skills
- •Writing
- •Discussion points
- •Text b: nonprofit organisations
- •Text c: franchising
- •Business communication at the hotel
- •In pairs read the following situations.
- •2). Choose the correct options to the questions.
- •Grammar nouns
- •ArticleS
- •IntoEnglish.
- •Unit 7. Money
- •Lead-in
- •Text a: money and its role in the economy Active Vocabulary
- •Money is a medium of exchange
- •Money is a measure of value or a unit of account
- •Money is a store of value
- •Money is a means of liquidity
- •Vocabulary focus
- •Language skills
- •Discussion points
- •Text b: a glimpse of the american, british and euro
- •Text c: a barter way of doing business
- •Business communication On the phone
- •Inquiring about the telephone number
- •Useful Language Box
- •Grammar determiners
- •Numerals
- •Unit 8. Taxes
- •Lead-in
- •Reading drills
- •Text a: taxes Active Vocabulary
- •Vocabulary focus
- •Language skills
- •Writing
- •Discussion points
- •Text b: taxation in the uk
- •Text c: taxes are good
- •Business communication
- •In company
- •Grammar pronouns
- •Adjective and adverb
- •Very, too, far, much, a lot, rather, a bit, a little, any, by far, quite, nearly, almost
- •Test yourself Test 1
- •Test 11
- •Test 12
- •Test 13
- •Test 14
- •Test 15
- •Граматичний довідник дієслово the verb
- •Дієслова to be і to have.
- •Часи дієслова
- •Група теперішніх часів Утворення стверджувальних, заперечних та питальних форм
- •Правила написання дієслівних форм
- •Типи питальних речень
- •Загальна таблиця випадків використання
- •Не мають форми тривалого часу дієслова, що виражають
- •Інші дієслова, які не можуть виражати дію або стан як процес:
- •Група минулих часів Утворення стверджувальних, заперечних та питальних форм
- •Типи питальних речень
- •Випадки вживання минулих часів
- •Група майбутніх часів Утворення стверджувальних, заперечних та питальних форм
- •Типи питальних речень
- •Випадки вживання майбутніх часів
- •Інші способи вираження майбутнього часу
- •Наказовий спосіб
- •Іменник the noun
- •Число іменників
- •Деякі іменники мають особливі форми у множині:
- •Утворення множини іменників
- •Класифікація іменників за ознакою обчислювані/необчислювані
- •Випадки переходу необчислюваних іменників у обчислювані
- •Іменники, які узгоджуються із дієсловом в однині
- •Іменники, які узгоджуються із дієсловом у множині
- •Рід іменників
- •Рід іменників в англійській мові
- •Відмінки іменників
- •Відмінок іменника. Форми та особливості вживання присвійного відмінку
- •Форми присвійного відмінку
- •Особливості вживання присвійного відмінку
- •Вживання іменників - назв неістот у присвійному відмінку
- •Іменники у функції означення
- •Артикль
- •Вживання неозначеного артикля.
- •Вживання неозначеного артикля a/an (тільки із обчислюваними іменниками в однині)
- •A/anабо one
- •Артиклі з деякими необчислюваними іменниками
- •Вживання означеного артикля
- •Вживання означеного артикля the
- •Вживання нульового артикля (відсутність артикля)
- •Детермінанти
- •Присвійні прикметники і займенники
- •Присвійні прикметники
- •Присвійні займенники
- •Вказівні слова
- •Кількісні слова
- •Some/any/no
- •Many/much/a lot (lots) of/ (a) few/ (a) little
- •All (of)/most (of)
- •Every/each
- •Another/the other/other
- •Both, neither, either, none
- •Числівники
- •Займенник
- •Особові займенники
- •It або there?
- •Неозначено-особові займенники
- •Indefinite Personal Pronouns
- •Зворотні займенники
- •Прикметник
- •Прислівник
- •Ступені порівняння прикметників
- •Особливі випадки утворення ступенів порівняння прикметників і прислівників
- •Appendices
- •Словотворення Word formation
- •Enjoy your reading
- •I, Pencil My Family Tree as told to Leonard e. Read
- •Innumerable Antecedents
- •Money The History of Money
- •Extract 1
- •Extract 2
- •Extract 3
- •Success story
- •The Financier, by Theodore Dreiser Chapter III
- •The Iron Heel, by JackLondon Chapter 2 Challenges
- •Glossary
- •Internet Resources
- •Contents
Text c: taxes are good
Before reading
Can you anticipate what arguments the author will use in favour of paying taxes?
Reading
Read an extract from governmentisgood.com – a web project of Douglas J. Amy, Professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke College, and do the tasks following the text.
(1) Oliver Wendell Holmes, an American physician, poet, professor, lecturer, and author (1809 – 1894), once said: 'I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization.'
(2) Most conservative criticisms about the ill-effects of taxes are exaggerated or untrue. Taxes are in fact good – they are dues we pay to enjoy the numerous vital benefits that government provides for our society.
(3) One of the reasons that some Americans do not have this more positive view of taxes is that they seem to ignore the basic connection between taxes and the beneficial programs they fund. What else could explain the fact that polls repeatedly reveal that many people support tax cuts while at the same time they support increasing government spending in many areas? Naturally, anti-government and anti-tax advocates like to encourage this sense of disconnection between taxes and programs. That is why, for example, when conservatives talk about tax cuts, they rarely talk about the programs cuts that must necessarily follow. They focus on how money will be returned to tax payers, not how money will be taken away from needed government programs. To listen to them, tax cuts are all gains and no pain.
(4) This sense of disconnection is also helped along greatly by the political illusion that the benefits of many government programs are elusive and are often easy to ignore or take for granted. Unlike marketplace transactions, where what we get for our money is immediate and tangible – what we get for our taxes is often delayed and less tangible. When we draw clean water from our taps, we rarely stop to make the connection between this and the taxes we pay to ensure the purity of this vital resource. Also, many of the benefits that come to us from our taxes take the form of things that do not happen to us – like not getting mugged or not breathing dirty air – and these we hardly notice at all.
(5) Anti-government conservatives and libertarians are very good at taking advantage of the fact that while what government does for us often seems elusive, the taxes we pay to government are all too real to most people. Consider, for example, the strategy employed by Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was running for governor of California. In his campaign, he complained loudly about how overtaxed Californians were: “From the time they get up in the morning and flush the toilet, they are taxed. When they go get a coffee, they are taxed. When they get in their car, they are taxed. When they go to the gas station, they are taxed. When they go to lunch, they are taxed. This goes on all day long. Tax. Tax. Tax. Tax. Tax.” This is true – and it helped Schwarzenegger get elected – but it is a misleading half-truth. He leaves out the rest of the story: that we are also constantly benefiting from government programs throughout our day. He deliberately ignores the connection between taxes and the programs they fund. We may be taxed when we flush the toilet, but what we get is the efficient and easy way to dispose of our waste in a manner that does not poison our water or spread disease. We may be taxed when we buy a cup of coffee, but our taxes help pay for inspections of coffee houses and restaurants that ensure that their food and drinks are fit for human consumption. We may be taxed when we pay for gas, but what we get is the interstate highway system that many of us so frequently use. So the reality is really this: Tax. Benefit. Tax. Benefit. Tax. Benefit. Tax. Benefit. While government may be constantly taking from us in the form of taxes, it is also constantly giving back to us in the form of the various programs that improve our daily lives.
(6) Government bashers like Schwarzenegger can only succeed in making taxes seem onerous and unfair by completely ignoring what we get in return. This tactic may be bogus, but it has been a raging success. Conservatives have been winning this ideological fight in the United States in part because they have convinced most Americans to see themselves primarily as “taxpayers” not “beneficiaries.” In their rhetoric, they make sure to constantly refer to people as “taxpayers.” This is another attempt to frame the issue in a way that encourages us to think of government as bad – as a burden on us. “Taxpayers” is not a neutral term at all, but one loaded with powerful political meaning. It unconsciously reinforces a view of citizen/government relations being one-way – from our wallets to its coffers. A recent poll revealed that 28% of Americans agreed with the statement: “I don’t like paying taxes because the government doesn’t do anything for people like me.” And as long as people continue to see themselves only as taxpayers and not beneficiaries, as long as they ignore the connection between our taxes and what they get back from government, they will be ripe for the picking by those who want to weaken government.
Task 1. Discuss what Oliver Wendell Holmes could mean when he said that with taxes he bought civilization. (para.1)
Task 2. Explain whether “anti-government and anti-tax advocates” (para.3) speak in favour of taxes or against taxes.
Task 3. If something is elusive (para.4), is it
a) very complicated and detailed;
b) difficult or impossible to achieve;
c) well-done and of high quality?
Task 4. How does the author argue with politicians who use anti-tax slogans in their election campaigns? (para.5)
Task 5. What does the author mean by “citizen/government relations being one-way”? (para.6) What disconnection does he focus on in the above text?