Предтекстовые упражнения

1. Какие русские слова имеют тот же корень, что и сле­дующие английские слова. result, social, typical, million, financial, industrial, political, center, modern, urban, landscape, sanitary, function, collective, principle, factor, mass, cables, invisible, process, asphalt, transportation, separate, trolley, element, occupy, industrialism, mechanical.

2. Вспомните значения следующих английских слов, зна­комых по предыдущим текстам.

transformation, create, technical, means, quarters, down to, changes, space, erection, conveniences, originate, effec­tively, scale, whole, appear, design, improvement, commu­nity, invisible, concrete, separate, wheeled vehicles, under­ground, suburbs, existence, serve, dominate, order, water supply, sewer pipes.

3. Прочтите текст. Определите, города каких эпох и времен упоминаются в нем.

T e x t. The Industrial Transformation of the City

(1) As a result of new economic and social forces, the nineteenth century witnessed a multiplication of cities, a transformation of their physical utilities, and an unparal­leled increase in their size—in population, in area, and often in density. The typical city of the Middle Ages, outside Italy, held less than fifteen thousand people—and often less than five thousand —though Marco Polo* had brought back from China accounts of cities with a million inhabit­ants. Аs a result of the expansion of financial, industrial, and political power from the year of 1500 onwards, the newer centers often had more than a hundred thousand people. In the nineteenth century, cities of a hundred thousand became common and those of a million, like London, Paris, and Berlin, became possible. Indeed the forces that created giant cities were in operation before the technical means to make them habitable were available: London had a mil­lion inhabitants at a time (in 1800) when in many quarters the water supply was turned on only twice a week.

(2) One of the most important changes was the relative increase in the space devoted to industry. Modern industry came into city, so to say, by the back door: its spread was marked by the building over of open spaces; by the intro­duction of smoke, filth, and rubbish; by the erection of great mills or factories scattered over the urban landscape. These were soon surrounded by rows of close-built workers' houses, often lacking light, water, and sanitary conveniences, to say nothing of paved streets. Even where the factory was the originating cause of the city, the form of the town was not effectively altered.

(3) The new form that would utilize the changes of scale and function and create a collective whole did not appear; in general, the new industrial cities lacked any coherent principle of design. Nevertheless the nineteenth century introduced certain improvements which have become per­manent factors in modern community building. Urban util­ities, such as iron piping and sewer pipes, were invented and produced on a mass scale. In time these new utilities created a complicated invisible underworld of pipes, mains, cables, and wires. With the introduction of the rubbertired motor car an expensive type of asphalt or concrete paving was introduced; but hardly anywhere the function of the street as a thoroughfare for wheeled vehicles has been se­parated from its other function as a public way dedicated to underground utilities; hence breakages and new instal­lations continue to result in a costly tearing up of the road.

(4) One final change must be noted—the effect of new means of transportation. Four of these came into existence in the nineteenth century: the surface railroad, the elevated rail­road, the trolley car, and the motorcar. All four hastened the expansion of the city and made it easier to effect a tem­porary escape from it. The industrial transformation of the city was accompanied by a movement that served as a coun­terpoise: the retreat to the suburb.

Although the industrial element of the city was occupying more space and in the form of gas tanks, factory chimneys, and power stations was dominating the skyline with increas­ing emphasis, no satisfactory architectural solution for the grouping of these new units was offered. This has been equal­ly true, almost down to the middle of the twentieth century. History shows that industrialism when left to itself did not produce even mechanical order.