Episode 157

EPISODE 157
LEVEL A2

READING COMPREHENSION

Inflation – causes and effects

Older people often talk about how cheap things were when they were young. A brand new car may have cost only $5,000 compared to $20,000 today, or petrol that cost only a few cents in the 60s costs over a dollar today. Inflation happens when money loses some of its value. We measure the rise of inflation in percent. For example, 2% inflation means that a $1 bottle of milk will cost $1.02 next year. Causes of Inflation Inflation has many causes. In times when the economy is good and people have enough money they want to buy more products than factories can produce, so the prices go up. Inflation can also happen when worker’s demand more money or when the raw materials that producers need rise in price. The end product becomes more expensive and has to be sold at a higher price. Inflation is not produced by one country alone. Sometimes a country cannot control the prices of certain goods as it would like to. A country that does not have any energy supplies of its own has to import energy. It has to pay a high price for oil and gas. Inflation in the past happened in times of crisis, war or conflict. Governments printed too much money and didn’t have the goods that people could buy. This happened in the final years of World War II. By the end of the war the German currency was not even worth the paper on which it was printed. Effects of inflation Inflation is a sign that the economy is growing. It is normal when prices go up only a few percent every year. High inflation, on the other hand, leads to uncertainty in the population. Industries may not want to borrow money and invest when inflation is high. People don’t want to buy goods any more. Factories may get stuck with products they cannot sell and as a result workers become unemployed. It is very difficult to fight inflation. Banks can control interest rates and make it difficult for people to get loans and have more money. Governments have an effect on inflation when they raise or lower taxes. They can also try to control wages and prices as far as possible.

 

 

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

1. ____________ = reason
2. ____________ = the type of money a country has
3. ____________ = to want
4. ____________ = the system of money and products in a country
5. ____________ = the changes that happen
6. ____________ = forms of energy that a country needs for its economy, like oil, coal, etc.
7. ____________ = products
8. ____________ = the money that you borrow from a bank
9. ____________ = to calculate
10. ____________ = to lift
11. ____________ = basic things that industries need like oil, gas, coal etc..
12. ____________ = to go up
13. ____________ = signal
14. ____________ = here: they cannot sell products
15. ____________ = you are not sure about things
16. ____________ = out of work
17. ____________ = the money that something is worth
18. ____________ = the money a worker gets for his work, usually for a week

 

 

Exercise 2
Complete the collocations with the verbs in the box:

control / demand / lower / measure / pay / raise
1. to _____________ the rise of inflation
2. to _____________ the prices of goods
3. to _____________ a high price
4. to _____________ more money
5. to _____________ / _____________ taxes

 

I know English idioms!

A sentence from this lesson’s text reads: “Factories may get stuck with products they cannot sell”, which can mean in free translation “zatykają się”. But the idiomatic phrase “get stuck” has other meanings too and so let’s have a look at them:

• I got stuck in a traffic jam when I was going to work this morning. (utknąć)
• The photocopier got stuck when I was using it so I couldn’t finish my job. (zaciąć się)

 

Phrasals, phrasals…

This lesson’s text deals with the issue of inflation. As we know, inflation is such a thing that needs to be controlled and decreased or even suppressed when it gets out of control. English has a number of phrasal verbs to describe these activities: to bring down – obniżyć to cut down – ograniczyć to keep down – utrzymać na niskim poziomie to slow down – spowolnić

 

Grammar corner

Banks can control interest rates and make it difficult for people to get loans and have more money. This sentence from the reading text contains a useful grammatical structure, which can be summarized as: adjective + “for” + object + infinitive. Another such example can be: It’s easy for me to speak English with native Americans. which would just mean (Łatwo mi rozmawiać…)

Try and say these sentences in English using the structure above:
1. Trudno mi rozmawiać z nim o swoich kłopotach.
2. Łatwo mu krytykować (criticize) innych.
3. To oczywiste (obvious) dla nas, że nie dostaniemy podwyżki (pay rise).

 

GLOSSARY
inflation – inflacja
cause – przyczyna
effect – skutek
brand (new) – zupełnie
compared to – w porównaniu do
petrol – benzyna
value – wartość
measure – mierzyć
percent – procent
economy – gospodarka
factory – fabryka
demand – żądać, domagać się
raw materials – surowce
rise – wzrastać
end product – produkt końcowy
goods – towary
energy supplies – źródła energii
to print – drukować
currency – waluta
worth – wart(a)
sign – znak
to grow – rozwijać się
to go up – wzrastać
to lead to – prowadzić do
uncertainty – niepewność
industry – przemysł
to borrow – pożyczać (od kogoś)
to get stuck – „zatkać się”
unemployed – bezrobotny
to fight – zwalczać
interest rate – stopa procentowe
loan – pożyczka
to raise – podnosić
to lower – obniżać
wages – płace

 

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