Деньги - Money. Невежина С.Б - 35 стр.

       To make business transactions safer and more convenient,                       • Recognizability. Money should be easily recognized for what
people began depositing their coins with local goldsmiths, who gave            it is and hard to copy. The quality of the paper and the engravings
them a written receipt in exchange for the coins. In this way, the             make paper money extremely difficult to counterfeit.
goldsmith became a kind of medieval banker.                                                      (from 'Applied Economy', 'Streamline. Destinations')
       Merchants accepted the receipts in payment for goods because
they could redeem the receipts for gold at the goldsmith's shop. In                 1. Add a prefix to the adjectives below to give each an
time, the goldsmiths' receipts became very popular with merchants and          opposite meaning:
travelers who had to move large sums of money. As their use spread,                   equal, direct, reasonable, convenient, possible, popular,
the earliest form of paper money in Western Europe came into being.            satisfactory, respective.
       Now most governments issue paper money in the form of notes,
which are really 'promises to pay'. It may or may not be backed by                   2. Write down the word families of the following words:
gold or silver. Paper money is obviously easier to handle and much                   uniformity, divisibility, recognizability, stability, portability,
more convenient in the modern world. Cheques, bankers' cards, and              durability.
credit cards are being used increasingly and it is possible to imagine a
world where 'money' in the form of coins and paper currency will no                  3. What words have the opposite meaning to:
longer be used.                                                                      advanced, often, reject, different, decrease, easily.
       Although anything can serve as money, it should possess the                   4. What words correspond to these definitions:
following qualities:                                                                1) to happen at the same time, to be in agreement __________
       • Stability. The value of money should be more or less the same              2) of the period in history between about 1100 and 1500
today as tomorrow. In societies where the value of money fluctuates            ___________
(goes up and down) people will hoard it in the hope that its value will             3) worker who makes articles of gold __________
increase, or spend it immediately thinking it will be worth less tomorrow.          4) written statement that something has been received
Either action could be harmful to the economy.                                 ____________
       • Portability. Modern money has to be small enough and light                 5) easily seen or understood ___________
enough for people to carry. Bowling balls would not be a practical                  6) at once, without delay ___________
form of money.
       • Durability. The material chosen has to have a reasonable life               5. Can you explain the following:
expectancy. For that reason most countries use a very high quality paper              1) liable to be stolen: Coins, were inconvenient to carry and
for their money.                                                               liable to be stolen.
       • Uniformity. Equal denominations of money should have the                     2) redeem: Merchants accepted the receipts in payment for goods
same value. It's easy to see that if some quarters or dollar bills were        because they could redeem the receipts for gold at the goldsmith's
worth more than others, things could be pretty confusing.                      shop.
       • Divisibility. One of the principal advantages of money over                  3) spread: As their use spread, the earliest form of paper money
barter is its ability to be divided into parts. In other words, while making   in Western Europe came into being.
change for a dollar is easy, making change for a chicken is more                      4) handle: Paper money is obviously easier to handle and much
difficult.                                                                     more convenient in the modern world.


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