Counterfeiting

Counterfeiting of money is one of the oldest crimes in history. In the United States, for example, it was a serious problem in the past, when each bank issued its own currency. Therefore they adopted a national currency in 1863. But it did not solved the counterfeiting problem. The national currency, or the dollar, was soon counterfeited so widely, that it became necessary for the U.S. Government to take special measures. In 1865 the United States Secret Service was established to suppress counterfeiting. It curtailed counterfeiting to a certain extent but this crime still exists.

The U.S. dollar is now the most counterfeited currency in the world.

Modern photographic and printing devices, colour copiers, laser scanners have made the production of counterfeit money relatively easy.

A lot of special security features are usually used in making banknotes of every country.

In making American dollars, for example, the following security features are used:

• red and blue fibres, embedded in the paper

• the intaglio printing of some features and many others.

Besides, not long ago, a few more new security features were added to U.S. dollars. These features are as follows:

• invisible thread embedded in the paper

• microprinting, and others.

These new features appeared first in banknotes of certain denominations only. Other denominations will be gradually made with the same security features.

Lesson 8. Exercises Check your Grammar!

Translate these sentences into Russian. Pay attention to the use of the Complex Subjects:

1. This firm is said to receive high profits.

2. This new business was believed to improve the situation in the market.

3. New banking services seem to come into life rapidly.

4. This practice has been found to require new capital investments.

5. Labour, machinery, raw materials, energy are known to be inputs.

6. Every producer is supposed to study the market carefully before starting the production of new goods.

7. This company proved to contribute a lot to the pension fund.

8. Markets are said to bring together buyers and sellers of goods and services.

9. A subsidy is known to be money or other resources provided by the government to support a business activity or a person.

10. Alcohol and tobacco are usually believed to be products with a very inelastic demand.

11. Demand for imports is expected to rise when domestic income and output rise.

12. The private sector is normally considered to use resources more productively than the government.

13. The 16 percent of world population living in the industrial countries is said to receive nearly 80 percent of the world income.

14. National currencies are considered to be as strong as the national economies which support them.

Say which construction (the Complex Object or the Complex Subject) is used in each of these sentences:

1. The industrial circles expected Volvo to make a productivity gain.

2. Volvo was expected to make a productivity gain.

3. The Swedish kronon was expected to grow.

4. The company expected the kronon to grow.

5. They had been expecting the central bank to cut the lending rate.

6. The lending rate was expected to be cut soon.

7. The prices were expected to move forward.

8. The fruit prices appeared to move downward.