VI. Match the words in the left-hand column with their synonyms

1 eventually a goal

2 target b damage

3 inflict c consider

4 profitable d finally

5 contemplate e lucrative

VII. Insert the suitable words into the gaps:

adjustments; vital; central-heating; economics; to maximize; oil-producing; oil price shocks; economic; wide-ranging; functioning; affected; goods and services; resources; sufficient; arises; science; scarcity; available; to satisfy; response

1)______ is the social science concerned with how 2)______ are used 3)______ people’s wants. The 4)______ of economics 5)______ from the need to overcome 6)______. The resources 7)______ for production are not 8)______ to satisfy all our wants. We need therefore to use them in such a way as 9)______ output. As a result, decisions must be made either by society or by individuals, on three 10)______ issues: what 11)______ are to be produced, how these goods and services are to be produced, and for whom they are to be produced. Economics is about these three issues and the decisions, surrounding them, which are so 12)______ to the 13)______ of any society.

In a market economy these decisions are 14)______ by prices. This was well illustrated by the 15)______ of 1973-74 and 1979-80, which had 16)______ repercussions for our three issues of what, how, and for whom. Smaller cars and gas-fired 17)______ became more popular; firms looked for techniques of production which were less reliant on oil; the 18)______ countries became relatively better off. All this was in 19)______ to price changes. Further 20)______ would be expected to have followed the sharp fall in world oil prices in 1986.