Unit Seven. Great American Depression

SURVEY

Americans were rather optimistic about their future in 1928. Herbert Hoover ran his presidency with a popular slogan “A chicken in every pot, two cars in every garage”. But the reality turned out to be worse and less than a year later, the whole country plunged into the worst depression it had ever experienced.

Are you optimistic about the future? Conduct a survey of five of your classmates and record the results using the form below. Then report the results to the class.

How Do You Feel About the Future in Russia?

Vocabulary:

Look at the words and phrases below and circle the six that are the most difficult for you to understand. Then ask your classmates to explain these circled words.

Bankruptcy; collapse; fiscal year; hopelessness; plunge; inflation; exchange rate; stock market; prosperity; relief; pension; evolution; crippled; deposit; stagnation; economic boom; unconstitutional; merged companies; recovering of the economy; have dimes, devaluation.

Now, compose six sentences with these difficult words or phrases about the economic situation in the United States and the Russian Federation.

Exercise № 77. Read the text below. Insert required prepositions into blank spaces.

The year of 1929. Some years …. the United States witnessed expansion and inflation on a scale unknown …. any country …. the world. Inflation in wages, real-estate values, and stock prices seemed …. bring prosperity to everyone. While financial activity continued at an unprecedented rate through the summer of 1929, industrial activity was already slowing down. The collapse of the speculative mania …. the stock market was slowly followed by a realization that …. the United States as well as in other parts …. the world many grave economic and financial problems had not been faced. These were now to cause the most serious disarrangement …. economic structure that the world had yet known. Agricultural depression, the result …. falling prices for farm products and …. land, cost thousands of farmers their homes through foreclosure. Unemployment and bank failures were more common than ever ….. in American history. The domestic factors were complicated …. foreign affairs, such as war reparations and the questions of inter-Allied debts.