Ii-semester lesson 1

Read the text and answer the questions.
1. In what way does economic activity influence nature?
2. What examples of the best global policy in the sphere of environmental protection were given in the text?
3. What must be next steps of CITES?


Scan the text for the following information.
1. What four problems concerning environment does the author mention
in the text?
2. Why doеs the author think that these problems can't be solved without
global measures?
3. What are these measures?
Link the two sentences to make one sentence, using the word given. Don't change the order of the two original sentences. Use a comma if the link word comes at the beginning of your sentence.
1 She was very tired. She went to bed. (as) As she was very tired, she went to bed.
2 I can't use my car. It's broken down, (because) / can't use my car because it's broken down.
3 He hasn't done any work. I don't think he'll pass the exam, (since)
4 The bus crashed. The driver fell asleep, (because)
5 It was raining. We decided not to go out. (as)
6 The climate is changing. The earth is getting warmer, (because)
7 Monday is a public holiday. We're going to spend the weekend in the
mountains, (since)

8. 
   Romeo committed suicide. He thought Juliet was dead, (because)
   

9. 
   You haven't seen the cathedral yet. I'll take you there on Sunday, (as)
   
10. 
    The concert was cancelled. The singer was ill. (because)
    

Lesson 12

MUTUAL FUNDS. A DIFFERENT APPROACH

Up until now, we have described the ways in which securities are bought directly, and we have discussed how you can make such investments through a brokerage account.

But a brokerage account is not the only way to invest. For many investors, a brokerage account has disadvantages – the difficulty of selecting an individual broker, the commission costs (especially on small transactions), and the need to be involved in decisions that many would prefer to leave to professionals. For people who feel this way there is an excellent alternative available – mutual funds.
It isn't easy to manage a small investment account effectively. A mutual fund gets around this problem by pooling the money of many investors so that it can be managed efficiently and economically as a single large unit. The best-known type of mutual fund is probably the money market fund, where the pool is invested for complete safety in the shortest-term income-producing investments. Another large group of mutual funds invest in common stocks, and still others invest in long-term bonds, tax-exempt securities, and more specialized types of investments.
The mutual fund principle has been so successful that the funds now manage over $400 billion of investors' money – not including over $250 billion in the money market funds.