Read the text and explain the highlighted words. Which of the following utterances renders the general idea of the text best?

Complete the following sentences with the appropriate terms from the list below.

macroeconomic measures, real income, turning points, trough, recession, business cycle, full-blown expansion, rate of growth, rate of decline, standard deviation, overinvestment, temporary demand, interest rate, cyclical instability, innovations, bank rate

1. Changes are normally visible in key ___ ___such as gross domestic product (GDP), ___ ___, employment, industrial output, and wholesale-retail sales.

2. The ___ ___ of the cycle are called the peak, which is at the end of the expansion phase, and the ___, which is at the end of the contraction phase.

3. The average length of the expansion in the cycles between 1854 and 1982 in the USA was 27 months with a ___ ___ of 11 months.

4. One of theories focused on such factors initiating causes of cyclical movements in the economy as ___, variations in funds flow and ___.

5. Each technology achievement generates a ___ ___ for the required investment goods.

6. The ___ ___ ___ turns negative, causing the economic activity to decline and the ___ ___ ___ slows down as the economy passes through the contraction phase.

7. Most economists accept that fiscal policy, especially in wartime, has been a source of ___ ___.

8. The expansion phase of the ___ ___ starts with a short period of recovery before becoming a ___ ___.

9. The ___ ___ affects that the level of economic activity would begin to increase while the ___ ___ is the return on financial assets in general and commercial bank loans in particular.

III.  Select the correct endings of the sentences.

1. Many theories of a business cycle explain

a)  an internal mechanism of economy,

b)  a domestic stability,

c)  the country’s bank rates.

2. Internal dynamics of the economy plays a key role in the phases of

a)  a business cycle,

b)  the funds flow,

c) the demands for the required investment goods.

3. Any business cycle

a)  is never constant,

b)  always returns to its starting place,

c)  starts the country’s fiscal policy.

4. The economy boom begins when

a)  the cost of borrowing falls below expected returns on investment,

b)  the interest rate grows,

c)  the rate of return goes down.

5. During the expansion period, the economy continues  

a)  to grow gradually at a decreasing rate,

b)  to fall considerably,

c)  to slip into a severe recession.

6. The recession phase is marked by a rapidly

a)  declining economy from its peak,

b)  growing economy from its start,

c)  stabilizing economy, industry and a social sphere.

IV.  Answer the following questions using the active vocabulary.

1. What does a business cycle refer to?

2. Can you name the macroeconomic measures of any country?

3. What are the common phases of a business cycle?

4. Could you characterize the turning points of a business cycle?

5. What is the average length and mechanism of a business cycle?

6. Do the major theories of a business cycle differ greatly from each other?

7. What features do these theories of a business cycle focus on?

V.  Read the text again and decide whether these statements are true (T) or false (F). Discuss your answers in pairs.

1. The turning points of the cycle are called the peak and the trough.

2. A period of recession occurs at the end of the contraction phase.

3. During the recovery phase, the economy turns into a positive growth period with an increasing rate of growth.

4. After the peak is reached, the rate of growth will turn negative, causing the economic activity to decline.

5. The economy grows and changes constructing the process of creative destruction.

6. After the expected rate of return on investment falls below the rate at which funds are borrowed, the process begins to reverse and the recession is on.

VI.  Make up the summary of the text.

TEXTS FOR READING AND DISCUSSION

Read the following texts and discuss them in groups of three or four.

Text 1.BUSINESS MARKETING

Business marketing is the marketing of products to organizations for the direct use of the product in the production of another product, for use in the general daily operations of the organization, or for reselling the product to other businesses or the final consumer. The nature and characteristics of the business market, the types of consumers, who are involved in the decision-making process and the business-to-business buying process all differ significantly from the consumer market. These differences often make the normal purchasing process more involved and complex.

Nature and Characteristics of the Business Market.The first obvious difference is that there are significantly fewer customers in the business market than in the consumer market. These customers also buy in significantly larger quantities