К россиянам возвращается оптимизм

First, check out the tie, галстук. And what color IS it? Лиловый (lilac)? And the причёска, hair-do???

Listen to the video, first without looking at the transcript, then while reading along. Then, read the transcript (without watching the video) a couple of times, picking out familiar words. Finally, listen to the video without looking at the transcript, trying to pick out the familiar words.

К россиянам возвращается оптимизм

Согласно исследованию «Нильсен», уровень потребительского доверия в России начал расти впервые с начала кризиса. В течение более полугода этот показатель только снижался и в марте остановился на отметке 75 пунктов. Но подсчеты в мае показали разворот: индикатор прибавил семь пунктов и вернулся к уровню февраля. Среди предстоящих крупных затрат респонденты чаще всего называют путешествия и ремонт — по 20 %. Еще по 10 % россиян планируют приобрести компьютеры и мобильные телефоны, сообщает НТВ.

"According to research..."

In class, I like to confirm that y’all have agreed to the terms of the контракт by saying: Согласны? Do y’all agree? Note that the word is related to голос, voice and гласность, glasnost (the period of openness that began in the mid-1980s Soviet Union.) Notice that the Russians use Nielsen to collect their economic data!

If уровень means “level,” потребовать means “demand” and вера means “faith,” what do you thinк уровень потребительского доверия means? How would an economist translate the phrase?

According to the article, this level has begun to rise—notice the word расти, which is related to a whole host of words having to do with growth, birth, etc: родиться, вырасти, родители, рост (born, grow up, parents, size).

If показать means “show,” what does показатель mean? (Think родитель, преподаватель, etc.)

How does one say crisis in Russian?

Снижаться is a verb derived from низкий, low or small. What do you think it means?

Подсчеты is a noun derived from the verb считать, to count.

Разворот means “u-turn” in Russian—the prefix раз- can mean something like “completely” and ворот means turn…

What kinds of крупные затраты, “major expenses”, do 20% of Russians plan? And what about 10%?

What strikes me in this article is the number of anglicisms/borrowed words, which makes sense as economics is a relatively new discipline in Russia: Crisis, optimism, point (пункт), indicator, respondent (for which Russian has the perfectly good words like отвечаюший, “the one answering” or ответчик), plan, computer, home repair (ремонт, from the French remonter, I presume), mobile phone. Not to mention the months…

I've posted a rough translation of the above in the comments--but try first to listen, comprehend, guess...