Download ECONOMIC ISSUES

CANKAYA UNIVERSITY
OFFICE OF BASIC AND ELECTIVE COURSES
-ENGLISH UNITECONOMIC ISSUES
FOR ENG 205 COURSE
WEEK 8
WARM UP
 What are the greatest threats to the world economy?
 mass unemployment?
 trade wars?
 international terrorism?
 poverty in the Third World?
 an ageing population?
 the East-West divide?
Vocabulary items
 Deficit (n.): the amount by which money spent or owed is
greater than money earned in a particular period of time
Ex: a budget / trade deficit
Ex: The trade balance has been in deficit for the past five years.
Ex: the country’s widening budget deficit
Collocations: have/show/face/reduce/cut/eliminate a deficit
 Swing (v.): to change or make sb/sth change from one
opinion, mood, etc. to another
Ex: His mood could swing from joy to despair.
Ex: Do campaign gift swing votes?
Ex: The war had begun to swing in Britain’s favour.
Ex: swing to the Right/Left (politics)
Vocabulary items
 Soar (v.): if the value, amount or level of sth soars, it rises
very quickly
Ex: soaring costs / prices / temperatures
Ex: Unemployment has soared to 18%.
Ex: The price of petrol has soared in recent weeks.
 Slump (n): a period when a country’s economy or a
business is doing very badly
Ex: the slump of the 1930s
Ex: The toy industry is in a slump.
Ex: The war was followed by an economic slump.
Ex: a worldwide slump
Vocabulary items
 Boom (n.): a sudden increase in trade and economic
activity; a period of wealth and success
Ex: a boom in car sales
Ex: Living standards improved rapidly during the post-war
boom.
Ex: a boom year (for trade, exports, etc.)
Ex: a property / housing boom
Ex: The economy went from boom to bust very quickly.
 Speculative (adj.): (of business activity) done in the
hope of making a profit but involving the risk of losing
money
Ex: speculative investments
Vocabulary items
 Pursuit (n.): (pursuit of sth) the act of looking for or
trying to find sth
Ex: the pursuit of happiness/knowledge/profit/liberty/war
criminals
Ex: She travelled the world in pursuit of her dreams.
 Merger (n): the act of joining two or more organizations
or businesses into one
Ex: a merger between the two banks
Ex: Our proposed merger with the university has been
declined.
Vocabulary items
 Meltdown (n.): a situation in which prices fall by a very
large amount or an industry or economic situation
becomes much worse
Ex: meltdown on the New York Stock Exchange
Ex: The stock market crash may lead financial meltdown.
 Lay off (phr. v.): to stop employing sb because there is not
enough work for them to do (syn. make sb redundant)
Ex: The company laid off 286 workers in December.
Ex: Millions of people have been laid off in the steel
industry.
Vocabulary items
 Instability (n.): the quality of a situation in which things
are likely to change or fail suddenly
Ex: political and economic instability
Ex: the instability of the market
 Escalate (v.): to become or make sth greater, worse, more
serious, etc.
Ex: The fighting escalated into a full-scale war.
Ex: the escalating costs of health care
Ex: We do not want to escalate the war.
Vocabulary items
 Influx (n.): the fact of a lot of people, money or things
arriving somewhere
Ex: a massive/sudden influx of visitors
Ex: the influx of wealth into the region
Ex: a sudden influx of cash
 Unemployment benefit (n. phr.): money paid by the
government to sb who is unemployed
Ex: people on (= receiving) unemployment benefit
Ex: Applications for unemployment benefits dropped last
month.
Vocabulary items
 The poverty line (n. phr.): the official level of income
that is necessary to be able to buy the basic things you
need such as food and clothes and to pay for somewhere to
live
Ex: A third of the population is living at or below the
poverty line.
Ex: 20% of the population now live below the poverty line.
 Dead-end (n.): a point at which you can make no further
progress in what you are doing
Ex: We had come to a dead end in our research.
Ex: He’s in a dead-end job in the local factory (= one with
low wages and no hope of promotion). (very impt)
Vocabulary items
 Monopoly (n.): the complete control of trade in
particular goods or the supply of a particular service; a type
of goods or a service that is controlled in this way
Ex: In the past central government had a monopoly on
television broadcasting.
Ex: Electricity, gas and water were considered to be natural
monopolies.
 Unprecedented (adj.): that has never happened, been
done or been known before
Ex: The situation is unprecedented in modern times.
Ex: Crime has increased on an unprecedented scale.
Vocabulary items
 Recession (n.): a difficult time for the economy of a
country, when there is less trade and industrial activity
than usual and more people are unemployed
Ex: the impact of the current recession on manufacturing
Ex: The economy is in deep recession.
Ex: policies to pull the country out of recession
 Bring down (phr. v.): to reduce sth
Ex:We aim to bring down prices on all our computers.
Ex: The government hope these measures will help to bring
down inflation.
Vocabulary items
 Enter into (phr. v.): to begin sth or become involved in
sth
Ex: to enter into an agreement
Ex: to enter into negotiations
 Bring about (phr. v.): to make sth happen (syn. cause)
Ex: What brought about the change in his attitude?
Ex: How can we bring about a change in the attitudes of
some students?