Episode 152

EPISODE 152
LEVEL A2

READING COMPREHENSION

Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system in which private people, not the government, own and run companies. These companies compete with other companies for business. They decide what products they want to produce, how much they should cost and where to sell them. Companies do all these things in order to make profits for their owners. People who use their money to start companies or run companies are called capitalists. Even though a pure form of capitalism does not exist and governments control the economy in some ways it remains the world’s most popular economic system. In the United States the government keeps itself out of the economy as far as possible but in some European countries economic control is much larger. Other names for capitalism are free-market economy or free enterprise. In a capitalist system private households need goods. They buy these goods from the income that they have. Some households have more income than others. Sometimes only one member of a household has a job, at other times both husband and wife go to work. Then they have more money to buy goods. This is the demand side of the economy. On the other hand companies and businesses offer private households goods and services. They produce the goods that they think consumers will want to buy. To do this they need workers to produce these goods and services. This is the supply side of the economy.

 

 

Exercise 1
Match these words from the text with their definitions:

1. to compete                              a person whom something belongs to
2. demand                                   amount of goods that can be sold
3. economic                                financial
4. economy                                 people who live privately in one house
5. free enterprise                       the leaders who rule a country
6. goods                                       the money you get from selling things after you have paid your costs
7. government                           the money you get when you have a job and work
8. income                                    the need to have certain things
9. owner                                      things that are produced so that you can sell them
10. private household              to be in charge of , to control
11. profit                                     to stay
12. to remain                             to try to get people to buy your goods and not from other companies
13. to run                                    when companies and business can operate without much control
14. services                                work that you do for a person or an organization
15. supply                                   the system of producing goods and selling them

 

 

Exercise 2
Combine the words from the two columns to form collocations as in the text:

1. to run                      a job
2. to compete            companies
3. to make                  goods
4. to control               profits
5. to buy                     the economy
6. to have                   with each other

 

I know English idioms!

Looking at the picture under this lesson’s text one very popular idiom comes to mind:  carrot and stick (marchewka i kij) which can be defined as “a system in which you are rewarded for some actions and threatened with punishment for others” Sometimes I just have to use the carrot and stick approach with my employees. They are so difficult to manage.

 

Phrasals, phrasals…

 

A sentence from our reading text says: People who use their money to start companies or run companies are called capitalists. When we want to describe a newly formed company in English we call it a “start-up”. The word is a phrasal noun made from the verb “to start-up”.

 

Grammar corner

These companies compete with other companies for business.
Some households have more income than others.
These sentences from the reading text contain similar words: “other” and “others” both of which can mean “inny”, “inni” etc. Why then one of them takes “s” at the end? The answer is simple: this one word “others” has the meaning of two words, in our context: “other households”

Try and use correctly: “other” or “others”:
1. The _____________ workers are more interested in their work than these.
2. Among all salesmen John had better results last month than the _____________.
3. Why don’t we employ some graduates? They’re cheaper than any _____________ workers.
4. Some people like working early in the morning while _____________ prefer evening shifts.

 

GLOSSARY

capitalism – kapitalizm
economic – ekonomiczny
private – prywatny
government – rząd
to own – posiadać
to run – prowadzić
to compete – współzawodniczyć
to produce – produkować
in order to – w celu, żeby
profits – zyski
owner – właściciel
even though – chociaż
pure – czysty
to exist – istnieć
to remain – pozostawać
to keep (yourself) out of – trzymać (się) z dala od
as far as possible – na ile możliwe
free market – wolny rynek
enterprise – przedsiębiorstwo
household – gospodarstwo domowe
goods – towary, dobra
income – dochód
member – członek
demand – popyt
side – strona

 

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