THE ECONOMY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Text A

The US economy is immense. In total, the annual value of all goods and services produced in the United States, known as the gross domestic product (GDP), was estimated to be nearly $14.7 trillion in 2010, approximately a quarter of nominal global GDP. Though the 2008-2010 financial crisis has had wide-ranging and long-term consequences¹ for the world and US economies, the U.S. economy maintains a very high level of output per capita. In 2010, it was estimated to have a per capita GDP of $46,844, the 7th highest in the world. The country remains the world's largest manufacturer, representing a fifth of the global manufacturing output. Over 80 percent of the goods and services purchased by US consumers each year are made in the United States, the rest is imported from other nations. The United States is home to 139 of the world's 500 largest companies, which is almost twice that of any other country. The United States has a mixed economy that has maintained a stable overall GDP growth rate, a moderate unemployment rate, and high levels of research and capital investment. It is a dynamic, free-market system that is constantly developing the choices and decisions made by millions of citizens who play multiple roles as consumers, producers, investors and voters. It is individual producers and consumers who determine the kinds of goods and services produced and the prices of those products. But though a great majority of productive resources are privately owned, the federal government does play an important part in the national economy. It provides services and goods that the market cannot provide effectively, such as national defense, public goods and services², assistance programs for low-income families, and interstate highways and airports. The government also provides incentives to encourage the production and consumption of certain types of products, and discourage the

production and consumption of others, establishes guidelines regulating environmental protection.

The United States is the largest trading nation in the world, exporting and importing more goods and services than any other country. The international trade and the policies that encourage or restrict the growth of imports and exports have a wide-ranging effect on the US economy. It increases the total level of production and consumption in the world, lowers the cost of production and prices, that consumers pay, and increases the living standard. The total value of US imports and exports has amounted to 25 percent of the country's GDP. The US economy produces many different goods and services. We can see it more easily dividing economic activities into four sectors that produce different kinds of goods and services. The first sector provides goods that come directly from natural resources: agriculture, forestry, fishing, and mining. The second sector includes manufacturing and the generation of electricity. The third sector, made up of commerce and services, is now the largest part of the US economy. It comprises financial services, wholesaling and retailing, government services, transportation, entertainment³, tourism, and other businesses that provide a wide variety of services to individuals and businesses. The fourth major economic sector deals with recording, processing, and transmission⁴ of information, and includes the communication industry⁵.

Exercise 2. Translate the following words and word combinations into Ukrainian using the text

To exceed

purchased by US consumers unemployment rate

Individual producers and consumers

a limited role in making economic decisions the national economy

to provide public goods and servic

the largest trading nation

made up of commerce and services transportation

Exercise 3. Match the following components as they occur in the text. Translate them into Ukrainian.

to be made	into	goods and services
to have an effect	with	25 per cent
to be imported	on	natural resources
to amount		the US economy
a wide variety		commerce and services
trade		the recording
to deal	to	four sectors
to come	up	other nations
dividing economic activities	from	other countries

Exercise 5. Choose the synonyms from the box. More than one is possible.

to set prices, a consequence, to improve living standard, enormous, a nation, a buyer, to amount to, to stimulate, an influence, lasting, yearly, wide-ranging, a sphere, vast, aggregate value, help to contain, a result, to lead to, to govern,

commodities, a purchaser, to regulate, effectively, huge, to make profits, a

customer, a motive, to be derived from, to charge prices, stimulus, a user, to

motivate, to include, aid, long-standing, an impact

An incentive a sector

immense

to increase living standard

to earn profits

to reach

to establish prices

a consumer

long-term

a country

annual

total value to involve

to encourage assistance

Exercise 6. Rewrite the sentences substituting the words in bold type by their synonyms. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian using the dictionary if necessary.

1. Rewards provide an incentive for people to improve their productivity.

2. Imports and exports amounted to 25 percent of the country's gross domestic product. .

3. Our company made a great profit over the transaction.

4. Over 80 percent of the goods and services purchased by U.S. consumers each year are made in the United States. _

5. Markets work by bringing together buyers and sellers who establish market prices and output levels for thousands of different goods.

6. Besides believing that free markets motivate economic efficiency, American consumers see them as a way of promoting their political values as well.

to come from

7. Americans at times have looked to government to break up or regulate companies that appeared to be developing so much power that they could defy* market forces.

8. The pragmatism and flexibility of Americans have resulted in an unusually dynamic economy.

9. Americans continue to believe that an economy generally operates best when decisions about what to manufacture and what prices to charge for goods are made through the compromise of millions of independent buyers and sellers, not by government or by powerful private interests.

10. The financial crisis has affected governmental and public institutions as well as private companies.

11. The effects on government spending are likely to have long-standing consequences for the provision of all sorts of services.

8. Defy v — npomucmonmii.

Exercise 7. Match each term in column A with its definition in column B

A	B
1. commerce	b) the activity of buying, selling, or exchanging goods within a country or between countries
2. economy	c) the system by which a country's money and goods are produced and used
3. GDP	d) something that encourages you to work harder, start a new activity etc.
4. trade	e) the buying and selling of goods and services
5. incentive	f) a particular type of help or work that is provided by a
6. living standard	g) the amount of all goods and services produced in the country within a single year
7. mixed economy	h) a measure of the amount of goods and services an individual or group considers essential
8. service	i) an economic system in which there exists a mixture of free enterprise and government control