Английский разговорный язык. Практическое пособие по развитию устной речи

Exercise 1

Answer the questions:

1. How have countries been reducing barriers since World War II?

2. What is the GATT\'s central premise?

3. What is the main exemption to the rule of nondiscrimination?

4. What are partners to free trade agreements allowed to do?

5. How do economists call the European Economic Community?

6. What is the main difference between a free trade area and a customs union?

7. What is the EEC currently attempting to transform itself into?

8. How much of the Community twelve members\' trade was with other parts of the world in 1960?

9. How much of the European Community trade stays within the EEC\'s countries now?

10. What has the EEC been preoccupied with since it removed internal barriers to trade?

Exchange Rates

Under the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates, which lasted from 1946 to 1973, exchange rates (for example, the number of dollars it takes to buy a British pound or German mark) were fixed at levels determined by governments. In 1973 «floating» exchange rates were introduced. Since then exchange rates are determined by people buying and selling currencies in the foreign-exchange (Forex) markets.

Floating rates tend to be unstable at times. Thus, the pound sterling / U.S. dollar rate did not change at all from 1949 to 1966. In 1967 the pound was devaluated by 14 percent. Since the end of fixed rates in 1973 to 1991, however, the pound, on average, either appreciated or depreciated by 14 percent every two years.

The experience with floating exchange rates in the twenties had been marked by massive instability. Currency markets were subject to destabilizing speculation, which created pointless and economically damaging fluctuations.During the fifties and sixties, however, both economists and policymakers began to see exchange rate flexibility in a more favourable light.

The main advantage was that nations could pursue independent monetary policies and adjust easily to eliminate payments imbalances and offset changes in their international competitiveness. Some of the changes in exchange rates can be attributed to differences in national inflation rates, as well as in different growth rates in various countries\' money supplies.

Слова и выражения:

appreciate – повышать цену, ценить, повышать курс валюты

attribute – приписывать

competitiveness

– состязательность, конкурентоспособность

currency – валюта

depreciate – обесценивать(ся), снижать стоимость, курс валюты

destabilizing speculation – де – стабилизирующая спекуляция ( игра на курсах валют )

devaluate – обесценивать(ся), девальвировать(ся)

eliminate – уничтожать

fix – устанавливать, фиксировать

flexibility – гибкость

float – плавать

fluctuation

– колебание

mark – марка

offset – возмещать, компенсировать

pointless – бесцельный

pound – фунт (стерлингов)

pursue – следовать, преследовать

tend – стремиться ( к чему-либо ), иметь тенденцию ( к чему-либо )

unstable – нестабильный

Bretton Woods system

– Бреттон-Вудская валютная система

exchange rate – обменный курс

it takes…  – на это требуется…

Forex – сокр . foreign exchange

by 14 percent – на 14 процентов

on average – в среднем

favourable light – благоприятный свет

payments imbalance – платежный дисбаланс

inflation rate – темпы инфляции

growth rate – темпы роста