Glossary Unit 6&7 (Social Sciences)

Unit 6

Economic activity- Actions that involve the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services at all levels within a society.

Economic agent- A person, company, or organization that has an influence on the economy by producing, buying, or selling.

Goods- possessions and personal property.

Services- Work performed for remuneration.

Production- The act of bring something into existence.

Distribution- The act of dispersing or the condition of being dispersed.

Marketing- The act or process of buying and selling in a market.

Consumption- The act or process of consuming (to use up).

Supply- To furnish with something that is required.

Demand- To request peremptorily or urgently.

Inflation- A progressive increase in the general level of prices brought about by an expansion in demand or the money supply or by autonomous increases in costs.

Profit- Excess of revenues over outlays and expenses in a business enterprise over a given period of time, usually a year.

Tax-  A compulsory financial contribution imposed by a government to raise revenue, levied on the income or property of persons or organizations, on the production costs or sales prices of goods and services.

Raw material- A substance in its natural state that will be used to make something else in an industrial process.

Telecommuting- The use of home computers, telephones,… to enable a person to work from home while maintaining contact with colleagues, customers, or a central office.

Employer- A person who employs.

Employee- A person who is hired to work for another.

Self-employed- Not working for an employer but having your own business or finding work for yourself.

Active population-The fraction of a population that is either employed or actively seeking employment.

Inactive population- All persons who were neither "employed" nor "unemployed" during the short reference period used to measure "current activity".

Disabled-  Lacking one or more physical powers, such as the ability to walk or to coordinate one's movements, as from the effects of a disease or accident, or through mental impairment.

Retired- To give up or to cause (a person) to give up his work.

Full-time contracts- It’s a legal agreement that is enforceable in a court of law or by binding arbitration in which an employee agrees to work on a fulltime basis for a specified period.

Part-time contracts- It’s a form of employment that carries fewer hours per week than a full-time job.

Unit 7

Plot- A small piece of land that is intended for a particular purpose.

Soil- The material on the surface of the ground in which plants grow.

Crop rotation- A method of farming where a number of different plants are grown one after the other on a field so that the soil stays healthy and fertile.

Intensive agriculture- A way of producing large amounts of crops, by using chemicals and machines. 

Extensive agriculture- Farming that uses traditional methods and uses less labour and investment than more modern methods in order to farm fairly large areas of land.

Dryland farming- A mode of farming, practiced in regions of slight or insufficient rainfall, that relies mainly on tillage methods rendering the soil more receptive of moisture and on the selection of suitable crops.

Irrigated farming- Farming based on the artificial distribution and application of water to arable land to initiate and maintain plant growth.

Polyculture- The raising at the same time and place of more than one species of plant or animal.

Monoculture- The use of land for growing only one type of crop.

Greenhouses- A building with transparent walls and roof, usually of glass, for the cultivation and exhibition of plants under controlled conditions.

Subsistence agriculture- Farming that provides enough food for the farmer and their family to live on, but not enough for them to sell.

 Shifting cultivation- A land-use system in which a tract of land is cultivated until its fertility diminishes,when it is abandoned until this is restored naturally.   

Livestock farming- Raising of animals for use or for pleasure.

Housed livestock- Animals are fed with fodder in farm buildings.

Cattle- Cows and bulls that are kept for their milk or meat.

Fodder- Food that is given to cows, horses, and other farm animals.

Rear- At the back of something.

Fishing grounds- An area in a body of water where fishes congregate.

Aquaculture- The cultivation of freshwater and marine resources, both plant and animal, for human consumption or use.

Overfishing- Catching too many fish in an area of the sea so that there are not many fish left there.

Fleets- A group of ships or all of the ships in a country's navy.

School of fish- A group of fish, all together.