UNIT 1 ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

Most people work to earn a living, and produce goods and services. Goods are either agricultural (like maize and
milk) or manufactured (like cars and paper). Services are such things as education, medicine and commerce. Some
people provide goods, some provide services. Other people provide both goods and services. For example, in the
some garage a man may buy a car or some service which helps him to maintain his car.
The work people do is called economic activity. All economic activities together make up the economic system of a
town, a city, a country or the world. Such an economic system is the sum-total of what people do and what they
want. The work people undertake either provides what they need or provides the money with which they can buy
essential commodities. Of course, most people hope to earn enough money to buy commodities and services which
are non-essential but which provide some particular personal satisfaction, like toys for children, visits to the cinema
and books.
I. ORAL QUESTIONS
a) Why do most people work?
b) What do they produce?
c) What do education, medicine and commerce provide?
d) What two different things can a man buy in a garage?
e) What is an economic system the sum- total of?
f) What two things can work provide for the worker?
g) What can people buy with money?
II. COMPREHENSION
State whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F), and if they are false, state why
a) Most people produce either goods or services.
b) Services are either agricultural or manufactured.
c) Schools and hospitals provide education and medicine.
d) Cars and paper are agricultural goods.
e) Paper is a non - agricultural commodity.
f) An economic system is the work which people do.
g) A city has its own economic system.
h) Economic activity is the sum-total of what people do and want.
i) The work people undertake provides them with money, or with what they need.
j) Most people do not want to buy non-essential commodities and services.
III. VOCABULARY
In each of these sentences a word is missing. Fill in the blank with a word from the text.
a) Transport system like railways, buses and aeroplanes provide the public with important………………..
b) They told him to look at the……………….and then do the exercises.
c) There are usually a lot of……………….at any railway station or airport that handles a lot of traffic.
d) He decided to……………….the work in order to make some money.
e) It was………………., for him to go to the city as soon as possible.
f) They had……………….money to buy most of the things they needed.
g) It was a……………….matter and he did not wish to tell anyone else about it.

IV. WORD STUDY

In these sentences, certain nouns are underlined. Change them inti adjectives which can be used in the
blanks.
Examples: education → education + al → educational
commerce → commerci + al → commercial
a) These goods belong to the nation.
They are therefore………………...
b) Minerals are a part of nature.
They are therefore………………...
c) Schools provide education.
They are therefore centres of ………………...activity.
d) Shops are places of commerce.
They are therefore centres of ………………...activity.
e) He does not want everyone else to do this work. He wants to do the work in person.
It is his………………...concern.
V. SENTENCE STUDY

THE SENTENCE
THE SIMPLE SENTENCE
THE SENTENCE
A sentence is a group of words used to communicate ideas in writing or in speech. It is a complete, independent unit
of thought and consists of two main parts: a subject and a predicate.
Subject
The subject is the word or words that name the person, thing or place that a sentence is about. It is usually a noun or
a pronoun.
Predicate
The predicate makes a statement about the subject. It consists of a verb and its modifiers or complements. The verb
is the most important part of the predicate. It expresses an action or a state of being.
Complement
A complement is a word or words used to complete the meaning of the verb.
Example:
Travel Services has agents in many countries.
(1) (2)
(1) = subject
(2) = predicate
THE SIMPLE SENTENCE
A simple sentence is an independent statement and contains a single idea.
Examples :
– Travel Services is a small company.
– The company has an office in London.
– A team of five executives at Evans corporation are planning an advertising project.
The order of the words in a simple sentence is very important. Look at these two simple sentences. They both
contain the same words but they do not mean the same things.
– Finbank PLC lent Jim the money.
– Jim lent Finbank PLC the money.
A simple sentence can have six parts, although this is not always so.
Study the order of the words in the columns bellow.

1 2 3 4 5 6

Who? Action Who? How? Where? When?

Which? Which?
What? What?

Jim Watson wants a new motorbike

Jim doesn’t have enough money

He can borrow the money from his bank

– Tomorrow he is going to the bank.

– He can buy the motorbike on credit..
– He must pay a deposit of $150.
You will use the six columns again for this exercise. In each sentence, the words are not in the right order. Arrange
them correctly according to the six columns and rewrite the sentence in the provided space.
1. good / the / are / terms / very
................................................................................................................................................................................................
2. loan / choosing / bank / Jim / the/ is
................................................................................................................................................................................................
3. over / Jim / a period / pay / years / five / of / to / has
................................................................................................................................................................................................
4. year/ of / number / Japan/ every/ tourists/ foreign/ to/ increases/ the
................................................................................................................................................................................................
5. at /many /on /they /working /projects /are /moment /the
................................................................................................................................................................................................
6. packages / takes / the / messenger / the
................................................................................................................................................................................................
7. next / going /Alison /is / for / year /apply /to /course /the /business
................................................................................................................................................................................................
8. you/ a rise/ Mr.Blake/approved/pay / for / yesterday / meeting /the / at
................................................................................................................................................................................................
9. we/ in/ finance/ decided/ hotel/ the /to/new/Cairo
................................................................................................................................................................................................
10. percent/ trade/ study/ of/ 25/ students/ the/ international
................................................................................................................................................................................................
UNIT 1: ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
I.  ORAL QUESTIONS
a. to earn a living (and to produce goods and services)
b. goods and services
c. services
d. a car and some service which helps him to maintain his car.
e. the sum-total of what people do and what they want.
f. what they need and the money with which they can buy essential commodities.
g. essential commodities and services which satisfy their basic needs,
and non-essential commodities and services which provide their particular personal satisfaction
II. COMPREHENSION: TRUE or FALSE
a. True    
b. False (Goods – not Services) 
c. False (To make it TRUE, the word “respectively” should be added at the end of the sentence ð Schools
and hospitals provide education and medicine, respectively)
d. False (manufactured)
e. True
f. False (An economic activity – not an economic system)
g. True
h. False (Economic system – not Economic activity)
i. True
j. False (They hope to earn enough money to buy….)
III. VOCABULARY
a. services            b. example       c. activities                  d. undertake
e. essential            f. enough         g. personal
IV. WORD STUDY
a. national           b. natural         c. educational              d. commercial              e. personal
V. SENTENCE STUDY
1. The terms are very good
2. Jim is choosing the bank loan
3. Jim has to pay over a period of five years
4. The number of foreign tourists to Japan increases every year.
5. At the moment they are working on many projects.
6. The messenger takes the packages every day.
7. Next year Alison is going to apply for the business course.
8. Mr. Blake approved a pay rise for you at the meeting yesterday.
9. We decided to finance the new hotel in Cairo.
10. 25 percent of the international students study trade.