1. Unit 1
Businesses are structured in different ways to meet different needs. The simplest form of business is called an individual or sole proprietorship. The proprietor(经营者) owns all of the property of the business and is responsible for everything.
For legal purposes, with this kind of business, the owner and the company are the same. This means that the proprietor gets to keep all of the profits of the business, but also must pay any debts.
Another kind of business is the partnership. Two or more people go into business together. An agreement is usually needed to decide how much of the partnership each person controls.
One kind of partnership is called a limited liability partnership. These have full partners and limited partners. Limited partners may not share as much in the profits, but they also have less responsibilities for the business.
Doctors, lawyers and accountants often form partnerships to share their risks and profits. A husband and wife can form a business partnership together.
Partnerships exist only for as long as the owners remain alive. The same is true of individual proprietorships.
But corporations are designed to have an unlimited lifetime. A corporation is the most complex kind of business organization.
Corporations can sell stock as a way to raise money. Stock represents shares of ownership in a company. Investors who buy stock can trade their shares or keep them as long as the company is in business. A company might use some of its earnings to pay dividends(红利) as a reward to shareholders. Or the company might reinvest the money into the business.
If shares lose value, investors can lose all of the money they paid for their stock. But shareholders are not responsible for the debts of the corporation.
A corporation is recognized as an entity(实体)——its own legal being, separate from its owners.
A board of directors control corporate policies. The directors appoint top company officers. The directors might or might not hold shares in the corporation.
If shares lose value, investors can lose all of the money they paid for their stock.
But not all corporations are traditional businesses that sell stock. Some nonprofit groups are also organized as corporations. 2. Unit 2
In the past three week I have introduced you to the ideas and methods of economics.
In the next week, we will start learning more, in more detail the principles of economic behavior and economic policy.
As you proceed through the whole semester, you will be asked to draw on many of your intellectual skills.
在过去的三周里，我向你介绍了经济学的思想和方法。
在接下来的一周内，我们将开始学习更多的，更详细的经济行为和经济政策的原则。
当你进行整个学期，你会被要求画上许多你的知识技能。
You might find it helpful to keep in mind some advice from the great economist John Maynard Keynes:
你可能会发现它很有帮助，以保持在一些意见，从伟大的经济学家凯因斯梅纳德：
The study of economics does not seem to require any specialized gifts of an unusually high order. Is it not a very easy subject compared with the higher branches of philosophy or pure science?
经济学的研究似乎并不需要任何特殊的高阶的特殊的礼物。它不是一个很容易的学科相比，更高的分支机构的哲学或纯科学？ An easy subject, at which very few excel! The paradox finds its explanation, perhaps in that the master-economist must possess a rare combination of gifts. He must be mathematician,historian,statesman, philosopher- in some degree. He must understand symbols and speak in words. He must contemplate the particular in terms of the general, and touch abstract and concrete in the same flight of thought. He must study the present in the light of the past for the purposes of the future. No part of man`s nature or his institutions must lie entirely outside his regard. He must be purposeful and disinterested in a simultaneous mood as
aloof and incorruptible as an artist yet sometimes as near the earth as a politician.
一个简单的主题，在其中非常少！悖论找到了它的解释，或许在那个大师的经济学家必须拥有一个罕见的组合的礼物。他一定是数学家、历史学家、政治家、哲学家--在某种程度上。他必须理解符号和用词说话。他必须考虑到这一特殊的方面，在同一飞行中的抽象和具体的思考。为了将来的目的，他必须根据过去，学习现在。任何人的本性或机构的一部分，都必须完全在他的考虑之外。他必须在同时情绪冷漠和廉洁是有目的和公正作为一个艺术家，但有时像政治家一样脚踏实地。
It is a tall order. But with practice, you will become more and more accustomed to thinking like an economist.
这是一个高阶。但在实践中，你会变得越来越习惯于像经济学家一样思考。 3. Unit 3
People differ in many ways. One difference is in how attractive they are. The actor Brad Pitt, for instance, is a handsome man. In part for this reason, his movies attract large audiences. Not surprisingly, the large audiences mean a large income for Mr. Pitt.
人们有许多不同的方式。一个区别是如何吸引人。例如，演员布拉德皮特是个英俊的男人。为了这个原因，他的电影吸引了大量的观众。毫不奇怪，大的观众意味着一个巨大的收入为皮特先生。 How prevalent are the economic benefits of beauty? Labor economists Daniel Hamermesh and Jeff Biddle tried to answer this question in a
study published in the December 1994 issue of The American Economic Review.
美容的经济效益有多普遍？劳动经济学家哈莫米斯丹尼尔和比德尔杰夫试图在十二月1994期美国经济评论中发表的一项研究中回答这个问题。
Hammerers and Biddle examined data from surveys of individuals in the United States and Canada. The interviewers who conducted the survey were asked to rate each respondent’s physical appearance. Hammerers和比德尔研究的数据来自美国和加拿大的个人调查。进行调查的面试官被要求对每个答辩人的外貌进行评价。
Hamermesh and Biddle then examined how much the wages of the respondents depended on the standard determinants --- education, experience, and so on--- and how much they depended on physical appearance.
哈莫米斯和比德尔然后检查了多少的受访者的工资取决于标准的决定因素---教育，经验，等等---和多少取决于物理外观。
Hamermesh and Biddle found that beauty pays. People who are deemed to be more attractive than average earn five percent more than people of average looks.
哈莫米斯和比德尔发现，美的付出。被认为是更具吸引力的人比一般人平均收入高百分之五。
People of average looks earn 5 to 10 percent more than people considered less attractive than average. Similar results were found for men and women.