Lesson 7. Money: Currencies, Figures, Prices, Expenses: How To Work With Each Unit

English for Social Scientists (UNED)
Lesson 7: Money, currencies, figures, prices, expenses
How to work with each unit
Punctuation and language use are important components of spoken and written
English. Each unit will be divided into two parts: use of language and contents.
In the use of language part, you will always have a theory section that consists of a
short reminder of basic aspects of grammar, and a practice section with short
exercises to check that you have understood the theory. All this practice will also work
as a self-evaluation section.
The content part consists of reading and writing practice in order to improve your
formal academic English. This will involve reading different types of texts, linking
words, expressions, introductions, and conclusions.
Lesson 7. Money: Currencies, figures, prices, expenses

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.
2. Review of basic grammar aspects related to the main general objectives:
The use of quantifiers and present and past tenses in order to describe an economical
situation.
PART 1. USE OF LANGUAGE.
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.
Present and past tenses.
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 m ay 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 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).
Autoras: Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

- 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:
http://www.aulafacil.com/Ingejerc/Lecciones/Lecc20.htm
http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbs5.htm
http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/228.html
In the following exercise, 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. Its a long time since I saw / have seen / have been seeing you. What did you do / have you
done / have you been doing lately?
4. Im 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 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. These expressions show the speakers 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:
Ive got a few coins, I can buy that book (= maybe not many, but enough)
Ive got a little money, I can survive (= Ive got enough to live on)
Few and little describe the quantity in a negative way:


Few people called him when he was ill (= he had not many calls)
He had little money and he had ask for a loan (= he had almost no money and he
needed it)
Quantifiers with countable and uncountable nouns

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 didnt 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.

Happy Flying
Sunny Days
New World
Passengers
41.6 million
36.2 million
22 million
Free seats
800,000
700,000
850,000
Revenue
$1,700 million
$1,960 million
$1,109 million
Profit after tax
$300 million
$400 million
$318 million
Links for extra practice and self-evaluation:

http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-quantifiers.php
http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises_list/mengen.htm
Currencies
Links for information about currencies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency
http://finance.boston.com/boston/currencies
http://www.coins-world.org/MonedasyPaises.htm
PART 2: READING AND WRITING SKILLS

1. INTRODUCTION: EXERCISE 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
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 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.
READING COMPREHENSION: EXERCISE 2

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 worlds 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-Marts 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
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.

Wal Mart 4th quarter
Wal Mart Full year
Total profits
% increase in profits/earnings
Earnings per share
Sales revenue
b) Are the following statements true or false? Justify your answer.

1. WM feels confident about the future.
2. WM has developed a fashionable image.
3. WM had particularly good results overseas in the last 12 months.
4. 4. WM is planning to increase prices.
5. WM feels its success is due to the variety of its goods.
READING COMPREHENSION: EXERCISE 3

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.
A definition of intermediate generality is that a currency is a system of money (monetary
units) in common use, especially in a nation. Under this definition, British pounds, U.S. dollars,
and European euros are different types of currency or currencies. Currencies in this definition
need not be physical objects, but as stores of value are subject to trading between nations in
foreign exchange markets, which determine the relative values of the different currencies.
Currencies in the sense used by foreign exchange markets are defined by governments, and
each type has limited boundaries of acceptance.
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 krna.
(Adapted from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency)
Answer the following questions:
1. Where does the word currency come from?
2. What is the meaning of currency nowadays?
3. Who has the control over the emission of coins and banknotes?
4. Who controls the currency of each country?
5. How does the currency system work in USA?
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.

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English for Social Scientists (UNED)