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VI. Прочитайте и устно переведите следующий текст.
FROM BARTER TO A HIGHLY ORGANIZED MARKET
1. Since ancient times people have always needed various things: essentials like food and clothing and
some non-essential commodities. Money didn't exist in those days so people had to trade with each other or bar-
ter to obtain goods they wanted.
2. The first trades were probably animal skins and grains. These exchanges were as usual as day and night
and soon such commonplace commodities like grains started to assume the role of money. For instance, in early
Egypt barley became an accepted means of payment for goods and services. By 700 B.C. the Egyptians had
abandoned barley and adopted gold as an instrument of exchange. Being a rare and beautiful metal, gold had
become the universal symbol of wealth and power.
3. A hundred years later King Croesus of ancient Lydia (now Western Turkey) gained control over Asian
richest gold mines. It was Croesus who ordered the first gold coin to be minted. Bearing the image of a lion and
a bull the coin became an ideal standard of exchange for trade and commerce. It was much easier to use coins in
transactions than raw gold because people didn't have to weigh them to define their value.
4. By the fifteenth century trade and commerce had expanded greatly. There was a great need for a more
perfect system of making payments.
5. Nowadays money is used for buying or selling goods, for measuring value of commodities and keeping
economic balance. Almost any society has its own monetary system. This monetary system would not be able
to function properly without a great number of Stock Exchanges scattered all over any developed country of the
world.
6. What is the Stock Exchange? It is a highly organized financial market where various types of securities
can be bought and sold. Only experts can deal on such a market. As for non-specialists they are not allowed
here. Only using sophisticated electronic equipment a highly qualified expert staff is able to execute a good
transaction and find the best obtainable price on securities which are bought and sold. The best obtainable price
is the right or fair price which suits both buyers and sellers and permits specialists of the Stock Exchange to
earn their money.
VII. Найдите в тексте английские эквиваленты следующих русских слов и словосочетаний и вы-
пишите их:
1) с древних времен; 2) товары первой необходимости; 3) вести натуральный обмен; 4) выполнять
роль денег; 5) общепринятое средство платежа за товары и услуги; 6) инструмент (средство) обмена; 7)
богатейшие золотые прииски; 8) отлить золотую монету; 9) сделка; 10) необработанное золото; 11) оп-
ределить цену товара; 12) для сохранения экономического баланса; 13) денежная система; 14) фондовая
биржа; 15) ценные бумаги; 16) вести дела на рынке; 17) высококвалифицированный штат экспертов; 18)
совершить хорошую сделку; 19) найти оптимальную цену; 20) цена, которая устраивает как покупате-
лей, так и продавцов.
VIII. Найдите в шестом абзаце текста предложение, содержащее прилагательное в превосход-
ной степени. Выпишите это предложение, подчеркните прилагательное, укажите его положитель-
ную и сравнительную степень и переведите это предложение.
IX. Найдите в 1, 3, 5, 6 абзацах текста семь случаев употребления модальных глаголов и их экви-
валентов. Выпишите эти предложения, подчеркните модальные глаголы или их эквиваленты и пись-
менно переведите эти предложения на русский язык.
X. Перепишите и письменно переведите 2, 3 и 4 абзацы текста.
XI. Письменно ответьте на следующие вопросы к тексту.
1. Why did people in ancient times have to barter with each other to obtain goods they wanted?
2. What was an accepted means of payment in early Egypt?
3. Who ordered to mint the first gold coin?
4. What is the Stock Exchange?
5. What do the Stock Exchange specialists consider to be the best obtainable price?
