3 Put a / an, the, or nothing (-). Explain your choice:

1) I have two children, __ boy and __ girl. __ boy is 14 and __ girl is 10. 2) Mike is __ soldier in __ Army, and Chloe is at __ university. 3) My wife goes to work by __ train. She's __ accountant. I don't have __ job. I stay at __home and look after __ children. 4) What __ lovely day! Why don't we go for __ picnic in __ park? 5) 'What did you have for __ lunch?' 'Just __ sandwich.'

4 Put the correct article where necessary:

... Saturday, ... 15th of ... November was the sort of day when nothing seemed to go right. I had decided to go to ... London to buy ... book about … mediaeval churches. To start with, I missed ... 9.15 direct train to Central London, which meant I had to go a different, longer route via ... Clapham Junction. Then, when I finally reached ... London, I found that ... specialist shop for ... books on ... architec­ture that I had planned to visit was closed. ‘Oh well,’ I thought, ‘as ... winter is approaching, I'll buy myself ... new anorak at one of ... big department stores in ... Oxford Street.’ I bought ... anorak and got ... 3 o'clock train home. After changing trains at ... Clapham Junction, I was alarmed to find that ... carrier bag with my new anorak was missing. I tried to get another train back to … Clapham Junction only to learn that ... bomb scare had closed every single line to ... station. So I took ... taxi back to … Clapham and, as I approached ... station, I saw … lot of police standing round ... object on … platform. I recognized it immediately as ... bag I had lost, but my relief turned to ... horror when I realized that it was my bag that had caused ... bomb scare!

5 A, an, the or - (nothing)?

1 __diplomat is__person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to__ trip. 2 Writing about__art is like dancing about__architecture. 3 __dog is__only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself. 4 Remember that as__teenager you are at__last stage in your life when you will be happy to hear that__phone is for you. 5 When I was born, I was so surprised that I couldn't talk for__year and__half. 6 Treat__work of art like__prince: let it speak to you first. 7 Nothing's illegal if__ hundred businessmen decide to do it, and that's true anywhere in__world. 8__happiest time of anyone's life

is just after__first divorce. 9 A banker is__man who lends you__umbrella when__weather is fair, and takes it away from you when it rains. 10 California is__great place - if you happen to be__orange.

23 Supply, demand and market prices

market economy - ринкова економіка to ration - розподіляти, нормувати, видавати rationing effect - раціональний вплив items for sale - товари для продажу price increase / decrease – зростання / зниження ціни

the level of output - рівень виробництва the law of demand - закон попиту quantity of goods and services - кількість товарів і послуг elasticity - еластичність; гнучкість

Market economies are directed by prices. Prices ration scarce resources and motivate production. The scarcer something is, the higher its price will be, and the fewer people will want to buy it. Economists describe this as the rationing effect of prices. Prices encourage producers to increase or decrease their level of output (the production-motivating function of prices). In a free market economy, prices are determined by the interaction of the forces of supply and demand.

Demand is a consumer's willingness and ability to buy a product or service at a particular time and place. The law of demand describes the relationship between prices and the quantity of goods and services that would be purchased at each price. It says that all else being equal, more items will be sold at a lower price than at a higher price.

The degree to which price changes affect demand will depend upon the elasticity of demand for a particular item. If total revenue increased following a price decrease, demand would be elastic. If the price decrease led to a decrease in total revenue, the demand for the item would be inelastic. This can happen because of one or more of the following reasons: the goods and services are necessities; it is difficult to find substitutes; they are relatively inexpensive; it is difficult to delay a purchase.

Sometimes things happen that change the demand for an item at each and every price. When this occurs, we have an increase or a decrease in demand.

Supply varies directly with price. At a higher price, more goods and services will be offered for sale than at a lower one, and vice versa.

The price at which goods and services actually change hands is known as the equilibrium, or market price. It is the point at which the quantity demanded exactly equals the quantity supplied. Market price can be represented graphically as the point of intersection of the supply and demand curves.

Shifts in demand or supply will affect market price. When everything else is held constant, an increase in demand will result in an increase in market price, and vice versa. Similarly, an increase in supply will result in a decrease in price, and vice versa.

The market price is the only price that can exist as long as there are perfect competition conditions:

a) buyers and sellers have full knowledge of the prices quoted in the market;

b) there are many buyers and sellers so that no individual or group can control prices;

c) the products are identical with one another;

d) buyers and sellers are free to enter or leave the market at will.