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Lesson 7. Money: Currencies, Figures, Prices, Expenses: General Objectives
Lesson 7. Money: Currencies, Figures, Prices, Expenses: General Objectives
UNIT 7
General objectives
In this lesson, you will know how to talk about economic issues such as currencies, prices or
expenses. You studied the necessary information about figures and measures in lessons 1 and
2. So you are able to follow this lesson without difficulty.
Specific objectives
1. Knowledge of different currency symbols.
The use of quantifiers and present and past tenses in order to describe an economical
situation.
Remember that the language that you are going to practice with in each unit is just a
review or reminder of the general grammar that you already know but related to the topic of
each lesson.
As you know, the present tenses are used to express actions that are happening at the
moment of speaking or on a daily basis. And the past tenses are the ones that place the
action or situation in a past time. These tenses might be simple, perfect or continuous. There
may be some misunderstanding in making a difference between action in the past or in
the present when the present perfect or the simple past are used.
- The present perfect is used when the time period has not finished or the action
action can be repeated in the period of time we are speaking. For example, I
have gone to the cinema twice this week (I may go to the cinema again because the
week has not finished yet).
- The simple past is used when the time period has finished. We are speaking about
something that happened in the past. For example, I went to the cinema last week
(The week has already finished).
Links for extra practice and self-evaluation of present perfect and simple past:
https://www.aulafacil.com/Ingejerc/Lecciones/Lecc20.htm
https://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbs5.htm
https://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/228.html
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Margarita Goded Rambaud and Lourdes Pomposo Yáñez, revised
English for Social Scientists
Grados en Ciencia Política y de la Administración, Sociología, Economía y Administración y Dirección de Empresas
UNIT 7
In the following activity, you have to choose the suitable tense. They are all related to
the present and the past, but they can be in the continuous form too.
1. Do you mean that the Minister stole / has stolen / has been stealing money all this time?
2. You look very guilty. What did you do / have you done / have you been doing since I left / I
have left the room?
3. It’s a long time since I last saw / have seen / have been seeing you. What did you do / have
you done / have you been doing lately?
4. I’m having problems with my ex-husband. He has called / has been calling me up to work to
come back home.
5. How long did you have / have you had / have you been having driving lessons? And did you
take / have you taken / have you been taking your test yet?
Quantifiers
Quantifiers are words that capture the meaning of quantity in general terms. Unlike
numbers that are precise by nature, quantifiers are naturally vague about the amount
of something.
Quantifiers go before nouns to tell you how much or how many things we are talking about.
The main quantifiers are a few, a little, a lot of, a great deal of, all, enough, lots of, many,
much, more, most, no, some, any, a number of and several.
A few and few, a little and little are expressions that show the speaker’s attitude towards
the quantity he/she is referring to. A few (for countable nouns) and a little (for uncountable
nouns) describe the quantity in a positive way:
• I’ve got a few coins, I can buy that book (= maybe not many, but enough).
• I’ve got a little money, I can survive (= I’ve got enough to live on).
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Margarita Goded Rambaud and Lourdes Pomposo Yáñez, revised
English for Social Scientists
Grados en Ciencia Política y de la Administración, Sociología, Economía y Administración y Dirección de Empresas
UNIT 7
Some quantifiers can only go with uncountable nouns (sugar, water, money), and some can
only go with countable nouns (coins, books, computers). They are shown in the following
chart. The quantifiers in the middle column can be used with both countable and uncountable
nouns.
With uncountable nouns With uncountable and countable With countable nouns
How much How much / how many How many
A little No / none A few / a number of
A bit (of) Not any A number of
A great deal of Some Any
A large quantity of A lot of / lots of A majority of
PRACTICE 1
Complete this report comparing three airlines using the following quantifiers: more, fewer,
less, (not) as many, (not) as much, the most, the fewest and the least (adapted from
Grammar for Business (2009) C.U.P. Mc Carthy. M., McCarten, J., Clark, D. & Clark, R.).
Happy Flying had a mixed year. They had (1) ____________ passengers than close rival
Sunny Days and in fact had (2) ______________ passengers of the three airlines. However,
there are dangerous signs for the company. Happy Flying generated (3)
___________revenue than Sunny Days, and New World made almost (4) ____________
profit as Happy Fliying with half the passenger numbers. Sunny Days had a good year,
making (5) _____________profit of all three airlines and giving away (6) _______________
free seats. Although they didn’t fly (7) ________________passengers as their big rival
Happy Flying, Sunny Days generated (8) ______________ revenue than Happy Flying,
probably because it gave away (9) ____________ free seats. New World generated (10)
_____________ revenue, and gave away (11) ___________ seats, but they have the
best revenue-to-profit ratio of any of the airlines. Happy Flying , the biggest carrier, made (12)
____________profit in relation to revenue.
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Margarita Goded Rambaud and Lourdes Pomposo Yáñez, revised
English for Social Scientists
Grados en Ciencia Política y de la Administración, Sociología, Economía y Administración y Dirección de Empresas
UNIT 7
http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-quantifiers.php
http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises_list/mengen.htm
Currencies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency
http://finance.boston.com/boston/currencies
http://www.coins-world.org/MonedasyPaises.htm
1. INTRODUCTION: ACTIVITY 1
Money is the medium of exchange. This simple statement answers the question: What is
money? But the answer merely shifts the attention to a different set of questions. What is a
medium of exchange? Why is it used? What benefits or costs accrue to individuals and society
from the use of money?Attempts to answer these questions have introduced “motives” for
holding or using money, legal restrictions, or assumed some difficult-to-define services
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Margarita Goded Rambaud and Lourdes Pomposo Yáñez, revised
English for Social Scientists
Grados en Ciencia Política y de la Administración, Sociología, Economía y Administración y Dirección de Empresas
UNIT 7
provided by money, for example, liquidity. Money is used in transactions or to reduce costs of
bearing uncertainty about the timing of future receipts or payments.Money is a nominal stock
with a nominal price of unity; a dollar is a dollar, and a pound is a pound. The real value of
a unit of money is 1/p, where p is some measure of the cost of a basket of goods and
services such as the consumer or retail price index. As p rises, each unit of money buys
fewer real goods and services. The real value of a unit of money falls, and in periods of high
inflation, the real value of money falls rapidly. The cost of holding money rises with the
price level. The longer money is held, the less each unit is worth. People use substitutes for
money to avoid the costs of holding money. Barter is an alternative to money, but it is a very
costly procedure. (Wood, 1998: 8)
a) Write a summary of 5 lines (max.) about money and how it is related to the economy.
b) Find passive sentences in the text (see unit 2 for more information).
c) What do you think about money? Give your opinion in the forum.
Read the following extract from the Financial Times and complete the chart (adapted
from Market Leader. Intermediate (2005). Cotton, D., Falvey, D., & Kent, S.)
WAL MART
By Lauren Foster
Wal-Mart yesterday really surprised investors when it sounded a strong note of optimism.
This optimism is a marked turnaround for three months ago when Wal-Mart warned about the
strength of the recovery in US consumer spending. Lee Scott, the CEO, said: “I am more
optimistic about the year we have just started than I have been in several years. I am not only
optimistic about the economy and the continuing strength of the housing market but also
encouraged about Wal-Mart ́s position”.
Mr. Scott was also encouraged by consumer spending, which he said was driven by higher
tax refunds and eventually improvements in the jobs “picture”.
The world’s largest retailer by revenues said fourth quarter profits rose 11 percent to $2.7
bn, or 63 cents a share, compared with $2.5bn, or 56 cents a share over a year ago. Revenues
for the quarter increased 12.2 percent to $74.5bn.
For the full year, Wal-Mart’s profits jumped 13.3 percent to $8.9bn or $2.03 a share, up
from $7.8bn. Revenues increased 11.6 percent from $229.6bn to $256.3bn. International sales
were strong, contributing about $7bn to the near $27bn gain in overall sales.
Mr. Scott said Wal-Mart had a good year but the international division had an excellent
year.
He stressed that, while gross margin was better than originally forecast, the improvement
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Margarita Goded Rambaud and Lourdes Pomposo Yáñez, revised
English for Social Scientists
Grados en Ciencia Política y de la Administración, Sociología, Economía y Administración y Dirección de Empresas
UNIT 7
was thanks to the mix of merchandise, not higher prices. “We are not raising prices and have
no intention of doing so”, Mr. Scott said.
Total profits
% increase in
profits/earnings
Sales revenue
CURRENCY
A currency (from Middle English curraunt, meaning “in circulation”) in the most specific use
of the word refers to money in any form when in actual use or circulation, as a medium of
exchange, especially circulating paper money. This use is synonymous with banknotes, or
(sometimes) with banknotes plus coins, meaning the physical tokens used for money by a
government.
A much more general use of the word currency is anything that is used in any
circumstances, as a medium of exchange. In this use, "currency" is a synonym for the concept
of money.
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Margarita Goded Rambaud and Lourdes Pomposo Yáñez, revised
English for Social Scientists
Grados en Ciencia Política y de la Administración, Sociología, Economía y Administración y Dirección de Empresas
UNIT 7
In most cases, a central bank has monopoly control over emission of coins and
banknotes (fiat money) for its own area of circulation (a country or group of countries); it
regulates the production of currency by banks (credit) through monetary policy.
In order to facilitate trade between these currency zones, there are different
exchange rates, which are the prices at which currencies (and the goods and services of
individual currency zones) can be exchanged against each other. Currencies can be
classified as either floating currencies or fixed currencies based on their exchange rate
regime.
In cases where a country does have control of its own currency, that control is exercised
either by a central bank or by a Ministry of Finance. In either case, the institution that
has control of monetary policy is referred to as the monetary authority. Monetary authorities
have varying degrees of autonomy from the governments that create them. In the United
States, the Federal Reserve System operates without direct oversight by the legislative or
executive branches. A monetary authority is created and supported by its sponsoring
government, so independence can be reduced by the legislative or executive authority that
creates it.
Each currency typically has a main currency unit (the dollar, for example, or the euro) and a
1
fractional currency, often valued at ⁄100 of the main currency: 100 cents = 1 dollar, 100
1 1
centimes = 1 franc, 100 pence = 1 pound, although units of ⁄10 or ⁄1000 are also common.
Some currencies do not have any smaller units at all, such as the Icelandic króna.
3. Who has the control over the emission of coins and banknotes?
UNIT 7
Bibliography
Galant, M. & Dolan, B. (2007). Currency Trading for Dummies. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing
Lecq, V. (2000). Money, Coordination, and Prices. Massachussets: Edward Elgar Publishing.
McCarthy, M., McCarten, J., Clarck, D. & Clarck, R. (2009). Grammar for Business.
UK: Cambridge University Press.
Wood, G. (1998). Money, Prices and the Real Economy. Massachussets: Edward
Elgar Publishing.