SPEAKING

1. Speak about economics using key words, phrases and the topic sentences.

2. Speak about economics education in the USA and that in our country. Discuss the questions given after the text. Make use of the following clichés:

What about ... ?

I think ... If you ask me ... .

Well, I must say ... (for strong opinion).

Don't you think ... ? (very polite).

Yes, but look ... . You don't really think ... ?

3. In groups of two or three discuss the following problems and report back to the class on your major conclusions.

1) A large percentage of the human race still lives in very small self-sufficient peasant communities.

2) The inhabitants of cities are totally incapable to provide for themselves, directly, the means of their survival.

3) In industrialized societies a high standard of living is possible only if the organized cooperation of large numbers of people can be guaranteed.

4) Neither people’s wants nor their ability to produce goods and services are constant.

5) The problems of choice are essentially problems of allocation.

6) To an economist, economic society presents itself as a mechanism for survival – a means whereby people are able to carry out the tasks of production and distribution.

WRITING

1. Write an essay on the following topic: “Whatever the reason the fact is we find ourselves in a situation of scarcity.”

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Text 1

1. Read the text and share your opinions on the problems of primary and secondary job of economists.

In the United States, academic economists' primary job is teaching economics. The majority of AEA members do so; the majority of the job listings in the Journal of Economics are for teaching jobs, and such jobs pay the salaries of most academic economists. Since most teaching of economics is the teaching of undergraduates, it would follow that one task of graduate schools is to prepare people to do so.

A second important job of economists is to apply economic analysis to the real world. Economists working for government, business, and consulting firms are supposed to do such applied work. Thus, a second task of graduate schools would be to teach people how to do sound applied work.

But preparing people either to teach economics or to do applied economics is not a primary concern to most graduate economics departments today; in most schools, teaching and applied economics are viewed with derision. Graduate schools are principally interested in what they call "theoretical" research. Graduate professors' research interests guide what is taught; the needs of the students and the world outside of academia are frequently forgotten.

Economics education is not succeeding, not because of any problems with methods of teaching, but because the content of what is being taught is flawed. Students are taught how to publish in academic economic journals. The mundane tasks of dealing with real-world data; gaining access to existing knowledge; and critically examining issues, models, and data are not taught. Unless professors acquire, on their own, the skills they need to teach economics, they are not going to have those skills. We believe that the teaching of economics is pulled in two separate directions: one reflects what academic economists actually do their technical research, which in turn reflects what they are taught in graduate school; and the other reflects what most economists believe they should do.

What is currently taught is deeply connected with criteria for advancement and promotion. Almost from the start of an economist's training, the economist is directed toward technique, toward arriving at definite answers even when only fuzzy answers exist, toward becoming expert at modeling and game playing, but not recognizing the limitations of models- a lack of imagination that has dire consequences when the models influence policy-making. Because of this influence, our concern about the teaching of economics must also reflect a broader concern about economics research — what economists do and why they do it.

Thus we believe that the current situation in graduate economics education is perverse and that the perversity affects everything that economists do.

2. Answer to the following questions.

1) What is the primary job of economists in the United States?

2) What is the second important job of economists?

3) What is a primary concern to most graduate economics departments?

4) Why is economics education not succeeding?

5) What are the two separate directions of economics teaching?

Text 2

1. Read the text and translate it into Russian.

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