What is International Trade?

When Honduras exports bananas to Switzerland, they can use the money they earn to import Swiss chocolate – or to pay for Kuwaiti oil or a vacation in Hawaii. The basic idea of international trade and investment is simple: each country produces goods or services that can be either consumed at home or exported to other countries.

The main difference between domestic trade and international trade is the use of foreign currencies to pay for the goods and services crossing international borders. Although global trade is often added up in U.S. dollars, the trading itself involves various currencies. Japanese TV set is paid for in German marks in Berlin and German cars are paid in U.S. dollars in Boston. Indian tea, Brazilian coffee and American films are sold around the world in currencies as diverse as Turkish liras and Mexican pesos.

Trade and investment is a two-way street and with a minimum of trade barriers, international trade and investment usually makes everyone better off.

In an interlinked global economy consumers are given the opportunity to buy the best products at the best prices. By opening up market a government allows its citizens to produce and export those things they are best at and to import the rest, choosing from whatever the world has to offer.

Some trade barriers will always exist as long as any two countries have different sets of laws. However when a country decides to protect its economy by erecting artificial trade barriers, the result is often damaging to everyone, including those people whom barriers were meant to protect.

The Great Depression of the 1930s, for example, spread around the world when the United States decided to erect trade barriers to protect local producers. As other countries retaliated, trade plundered, jobs were lost, and the world entered into a long period of economic decline.

 

Найдите в тексте эквиваленты следующим словосочетаниям и выражениям.

Экспортировать в, платить за, основная идея, торговля, инвестиции, производить товары, товары и услуги, основное различие, внутренняя и внешняя торговля, иностранная валюта, во всем мире, покупать лучшие продукты по лучшим ценам, искусственные барьеры, распространяться по всему миру, защищать местного производителя.

 

4. Ответьте на вопросы к тексту:

1) What is the basic idea of international trade?

2) What is the main difference between domestic and international trade?

3) How can you consider trade barriers?

4) What is the difference between trade and investment?

5) What were the sequences of the Great Depression of the 1930s?

 

Текст №2

1. Перед чтением текста рекомендуется изучить следующие слова: Department Store, Shopping Center, a clearance sale, bargain prices, to invite, dress slacks, long-sleeved shirts, at low prices, a ladies’ department, as low as half price, the selection in sizes, outstanding, on sale.

 

Прочтите текст и переведите его на русский язык.

Harrison’s Department Store

Harrison's Department Store in the Northside Shopping Center invites you to a winter clearance sale. Check these bargain prices: men’s suits - regularly one hundred and eighty dollars, now only one hundred and fifty; sport coats - regularly one hundred and twenty, now just eighty dollars. And to go along with these suits and sport coats, you’ll find dress slacks, long sleeved sport shirts and ties, all colors, all sizes, at low prices.

In the ladies’ department, better dresses have been reduced to prices as half prices. New merchandise has been added, and the selection in sizes is outstanding.

This is the greatest clearance sale that Harrison’s has ever had. Thousands of items of winter clothing are on sale.

Shop at Harrison’s in the Northside Shopping Center and save. The shop is open until six on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Open until nine – on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays. Closed all day on Sundays.

Come to Harrison’s winter clearance today.

 

3.Найдите в тексте все существительные во множественном числе, объясните их образование. Приведите слова в форму единственного числа, запишите их в словарь, переведите на русский язык.

4. Найдите в тексте все слова, выполняющие функции определения, в том числе прилагательные в сравнительной и превосходной степени. Переведите соответствующие словосочетания (прилагательное + существительное) на русский язык.