- •Reading drills
- •1. Practise the pronunciation of the following words:
- •Sales Taxes3
- •Property Taxes4
- •Comments
- •Vocabulary exercises
- •I. Name the word-building elements (suffixes, prefixes) and the part
- •II. Find equivalents:
- •III. Match the antonyms:
- •IV. Memorize the following words and word-combinations.
- •V. Translate the sentences paying attention to the italicized words:
- •VI. Match each term in Column a with its definition in Column b:
- •Say whether these statements are true or false and if they are
- •X. Answer the following questions:
- •XI. Translate into English:
- •XII. Speak about the types of taxes in the usa using the following
- •Reading drills
- •1. Practise the pronunciation of the following words:
- •Comments
- •Vocabulary exercises
- •I. Give the English equivalents for the following words and
- •II. Define the parts of speech of the following words:
- •III. Fill in the blanks below with the most appropriate terms from
- •IV. Match each term in Column a with its definition in Column b:
- •VII. Complete the following sentences:
- •VIII. Ask someone:
- •IX. Translate into English:
- •Communicative situations
- •Grammar exercises
- •I. Translate into Ukrainian:
- •II. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct form:
- •III. Translate into English:
- •IV. Translate into Ukrainian:
- •V. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct form:
- •VI. Translate into English:
- •VII. Translate into Ukrainian:
- •VIII. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct form:
- •IX. Transform the sentences as in the pattern:
- •X. Translate into English:
- •XI. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct form:
- •XII. Define the type of Conditional Sentences and translate them:
- •XIII. Translate into English:
- •XIV. Complete the sentences, taking care to use the correct tenses:
- •XV. Memorize the following proverbs:
- •XVI. Speak on the following situations:
- •Exercises for individual work
- •I. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct form:
- •II. Give sentences with the same meaning omitting «if» from
- •III. Translate into English:
X. Answer the following questions:
1. What types of taxes are there in the United States? 2. What is a proportional (progressive, regressive) tax? Give examples. 3. What is a sales tax? 4. What does real property include? 5. What is the main problem with personal property as a source of revenue?
XI. Translate into English:
1. У Сполучених Штатах є три типи податків: пропорційний, прогресивний та регресивний. 2. Податок з продажу — це загальний податок, який накладається майже на всі споживчі товари. 3. Більшість штатів дозволяє продавцям залишати невелику частку того, що вони зібрали, щоб компенсувати час та бухгалтерські витрати. 4. Основне джерело доходу — це податок на власність. 5. Нерухомість — це земля, будівлі та все, що постійно перебуває там. 6. Податковий асесор — це людина, яка оцінює майно з метою його оподаткування.
XII. Speak about the types of taxes in the usa using the following
words and word-combinations:
proportional/progressive/regressive tax; percentage rate of taxation; total income; high/low incomes; yearly income; sales taxes; final price; at the time of the sale; to impose; consumer purchases; government agency; to compensate one’s time and book-keeping costs; property tax; tangible or intangible personal property; tax assessor.
Reading drills
1. Practise the pronunciation of the following words:
a) stress the first syllable:
standard, yield, revenue, clarity, benefit, justly, staff, taxpayer, measure, spending, final, finally, fair, fairness, suffer, income;
b) stress the second syllable:
criterion, criteria, effective, efficiency, collect, enforcement, administer, impose, ability, proportion, discomfort, taxation, derive, distribute, distributing, require, design, avoid, convenience.
Text B
In order to have an effective tax system, government must have criteria or standards. One such criterion is that a tax yields enough revenue.
A second criterion is clarity. Tax laws should be written so that both the taxpayer and tax-collector can understand them. This is not an easy task but people seem to be more willing to pay taxes1, when they understand them. A third criterion is ease of administration. A tax should be easy to collect. It should not require a large enforcement staff, and it should be designed so that citizens find it hard to avoid. This criterion also includes convenience and efficiency. That is the tax should be administered at the lowest possible cost. A final criterion is fairness. Taxes should be imposed justly. However, this is hard to do because people do not always agree about what is or is not fair when it comes to taxes2.
In general taxes are based chiefly on two principles: the Benefit Principle3 and the Ability-to-Pay Principle4.
The Benefit Principle of taxation is based on two ideas. First, those who benefit from government services should be the ones to pay for them. Second, people should pay taxes in proportion to the amount of services or benefits they receive.
The Ability-to-Pay Principle of taxation says that people should be taxed according to their ability to pay, no matter what benefits or services they receive. This principle is based on three things. First it is not possible to measure benefits, derived from government spending. Second, people with higher incomes suffer less discomfort than people with lower incomes even if they pay higher taxes. Finally, the only means most people have of paying taxes is the income they earn. Since the benefits of government services to individuals are hard to measure, the other basis for distributing taxes is income.