Unit 02 : Numbers/ lesson 01

Decimals, percentages and fractions

 Simple numbers
 There are 30 (thirty) blue-chip stocks in the Dow Jones stock market index.
 The consumption tax rate in Hungary is 27% (……………………).
 The income tax rate in Bahrain and Qatar is 8% (………………).
 In 1955 (………………)the dollar-yen exchange rate was 360 (……………………)

 Large numbers:
 The starting capital of Apple Computers was 1300 dollars. (…………………….)
 The average summer semi-annual bonus in Japan in 2012 (twenty twelve) was 611000 yen
( …………………………..).
 AOL’s merger with Time Warner was worth a 165,000,000 dollars. (………………………….)
 In 1979 (…………………………) 4.1 million (…………………………) UK workers were
involved in strikes. (4.1 m can be also written as 4,100,000 four million one hundred thousand)
 The highest ever price per share was 167,900,000
(………………….……………………………………..) Japanese yen .
 In April 2013 (……………), the Bank of Japan announced that it would invest 70,000,000,000,000
(…………………………) (in bonds etc).

 How to say “0” Zero, oh and nought

 For the number 0 on its own , we say zero .
 Before a decimal point, we say either zero or nought, e.g. 0.5 : zero point five or nought point five.
 After a decimal point we say oh: e.g.:0.01 zero point oh one or nought point oh one .
 We also say oh in telephone numbers, years, hotel rooms, bus numbers, etc.

 Decimals:
 In Sweden the top rate of income tax is 59.7% (…………………………………….).
 The largest ever daily drop in the Dow Jones Stock Index was 22.6%
(………………………………….) in 1997.
 In twenty eleven, 0.4% (……………………………..) of the oil used in Japan was extracted.

1
  Fractions :
To express the fraction in words, write the numerator, add a hyphen and then spell out the
denominators you would write the rankings of a race or contest, such as third, fourth, fifth, sixth ,
seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth …..
𝟏 𝟏 𝟏
 We pronounce as one-third, as one-fourth, and as one-eighth…. ; As well, “a” means “one”
𝟑 𝟒 𝟖
𝟏 𝟏 𝟏
so: We pronounce as a third, as a fourth, and as an eighth (written without the hyphen.)
𝟑 𝟒 𝟖

 In English grammar, ordinal numbers are countable, so you need to add “s” to the word, if the
𝟐 𝟑 𝟔
numerator is greater than one. E.g. We pronounce as two-thirds, as three-fourths, and as
𝟑 𝟒 𝟖

six-eighths.
𝟐 𝟑
 We can also pronounce fraction as two over three , three over four
𝟑 𝟒
𝟏
 We have special words to talk about fractions that have “2” and “4” on the bottom: We pronounce
𝟐
𝟒 𝟏
as one-half or a half or one over two , as four-halves, as one-quarter or a quarter or a fourth
𝟐 𝟒
𝟑
or one over four , and as three-quarters or ; three fourths or three over four .
𝟒

 Convert fraction to percent

The method to change a fraction to a percent is as follows: Divide the numerator by denominator.
(Convert it to a decimal) Take the result and multiply by 100. The result is the fraction as a percent

 Activities

Activity 1: How to pronounce fractions?

𝟓 𝟒 𝟐 𝟏𝟓
………………. …………….… ……………… …………………...…
𝟑𝟎 𝟗 𝟏𝟐 𝟐𝟎

𝟓 𝟔 𝟏 𝟓
……………….. ………………. ………………… …………………….
𝟏𝟑 𝟏𝟏 𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝟏𝟎𝟎𝟎

Activity 2: How do you say 0 in the following sentences?

 The meeting is in Room 502 (……………………….).
 You need to take Bus 205 (……………………….).
2
 She was born in 1907 (……………………….).
 My telephone number is 07781 020 560 (.……………………………….. OR
…………………………………….).
 The exact figure is 0.002 ( …………………………. OR ……………………………... OR
……………………………...)
 The result was 0.501 ( …………………………. OR ……………………………... OR
……………………………...)

Activity 3: Write the following number and equations in letters:

 104 (……………………… or ……………………… or ………………………)
 426 (………………………or ………………………)
 2,085 (………….……………………or …………….…………………)
 532,868 (………….………………………………….…………………)
 4,253,167 (………….………………………………….……………………………….……………)
 7+5=12 (………….………………………………….…………………)
 7-5=2 (………….………………………………….…………………)
 7×5=35 (………….…………………………OR ………….…………………………)
 10÷2=5 (……………………………… OR ….……………………………)
 9÷5=1.4 (………….………………………………)
 √9 ……….……………………
 √x ……….……………………
3
 √32 ……….………………………
3
 √𝑥 ……….……………………..
4
 √60 ……….……………………..
 42 ……….……………………or ……….……………………
 53 ……….……………………
 64 (6^4 ) ……….……………………or ……….……………………
 7−4 (7^(-4)) ……….……………………or ……….……………………
 𝑥 𝑝−1 ……….……………………

3
Unit 02 / lesson 02

Prices
Pricing is an integral part of marketing. Consumers decide which products to purchase based on the
price, whether it is a low price decision or a perceived luxury.
 Definition of price: The price is an amount of money that has to be paid to acquire a product.
this amount represents the value of that product ,so the price is also a measure of value.
 Definition of “Price Mechanism”: it refers to the system where the forces of demand and
supply determine the prices of commodities and the changes therein. However, sometimes the
government controls the price mechanism to make commodities affordable for the poor people
too.
Supply refers to how many of a certain goods or services are available for people to purchase.
Demand means how many people wish to buy that good or service.
You may wonder why the prices of goods go up and down so often. One of the reasons is the law of
supply and demand.
The Law of demand: If the price goes up, the quantity demanded goes down. If the price
decreases, quantity demanded increases. This is the Law of Demand.
The law of supply: states that there is a direct relationship between price and quantity supplied.
In other words, when the price increases the quantity supplied also increases.

How does this work? Let’s say that a brand-new super powerful video game is about to come out.
The game makers must decide how many of the games to make so they are not stuck with too many.

They then have to decide how much to charge for the game – its price. They would need to charge
enough for the game to cover the costs of creating the game, advertising the game, shipping the game to
stores. Since they want to make a profit on the game, they will also want to figure that cost as well.

However, if the price of the game is too high, people may not be able to afford it or decide it’s not
worth that price and there will be an oversupply. If the price is too low, costs will not be covered and
little profit will be made even though the game may sell very well. The company would lose money and
may even have to close.

If the product is truly excellent one, there will probably be a high demand. Also if it is well
advertised, more people will know about the product and be apt to want it. If the product is not well
advertised or is not a good product, people will not want it and the demand will be low and the supply
greater.

In the case of video game, if a better game came on the market later with superior technology. The
demand for the current game would probably drop and thus the price would have to drop to sell it.

1
 Activities
Activity 01 :
- What is the main cause of price fluctuation?
- What do we mean by the concept of demand and supply?
- What are the costs mentioned in the text above?

Activity 02: Give synonyms, and opposites to these words.

words synonyms words opposites
Publicity To buy
To show loss
Decline Decrease
Enter the market Gain
To purchase High

2
Unit 02 / lesson 03
Changes in values

 Usually as prices rise, the supply or amount of a product increases and as prices fall, the
supply decreases. On graph this is represented by an upward sloping line from left to
right.

 When the prices goes up, the quantity demanded of a product decreases and as prices
goes down , the demand on the products increases. This is represented by a downward
sloping line from left to right.

Activities
Activity 1: match the words with their definitions:
1- grow 2- fluctuate 3- decrease 4-steady
A- ………………….not changing.
B- ………………….to change frequently.
C- …………………..to become larger or bigger.

1
 D- …………………..to become less or smaller.
 Activity2: Use the words below to describe these line charts:

Sales …………………………………… Wages ……………………………………

Inventory …………………………………… Costs ……………………………………
Overhead …………………………………… Production …………………………………… .
Supply …………………………………… Unemployment ……………………………………

Activity 3: Find other ways to describe the terms used in the exercise above and match them below:
1. remained constant a. was steady
2. fell gradually b. rose slowly
3. declined sharply c. was up and down
4. reached a peak d. peaked and then fell a bit
5. rose sharply e. shot up
6. leveled off f. dropped like a rock
7. fluctuated g. eased off
8. increased gradually h. moved up slowly
i. dropped off a bit