The writing module

III. Writing exercises:

Exercise 1. Complete the sentences with the suggested words:

meet; which; of; such as; newer.

Caterpillar actively participates in initiatives ____ the United States Environmental Protection Agency's National Clean Diesel Campaign program, ____ encourages retrofitting fleets ____ older buses and trucks with ____ diesel engines that ____ higher emissions standards.

Exercise 2. Fill in the table with words and expressions from the text:

	types of equipment	types of projects	activity
Example: Progress Rail Services Corporation, a provider of			remanufactured locomotive and railcar products and services
products produced by the company include
first annual sustainability report, touting its

Exercise 3. Compose a story on one of the topics (up to 100 words):

“The word’s largest manufacturer of engineering vehicles”

“Caterpillar paid $128 million penalties”

“Caterpillar Inc in the remanufacturing area”

Lesson 5 the reading module

Read the text: The Caterpillar D9

The story of Caterpillar Inc. originates in the late nineteenth century, when Daniel Best and Benjamin Holt experimented with ways to fulfill the promise that steam tractors held for farming. By 1904, these large steam-powered tractors had been plowing California fields for 14 years, and occasionally got bogged down in the soft California soil, especially after heavy rains. These huge tractors were difficult to pull free, even with teams of horses. Benjamin Holt had an idea: why not carry the road with the vehicle? On November 24, 1904 he added wooden block-linked treads around the idlers on Holt No.77, his test tractor. The results were impressive, and the modern tractor was born. Caterpillar became famous for its Caterpillar 30 and its Caterpillar 60 tractors.

Caterpillar formed on April 15, 1925 with the merger of Holt Manufacturing Company of Stockton, California and the C. L. Best Gas Traction Company of San Leandro, California, forming the Caterpillar Tractor Co. Sales the first year were $13 million. By 1929, sales climbed to $52.8 million, and CAT continued to grow throughout the Depression of the 1930s. The Holt Manufacturing Company had earlier pioneered the use of the caterpillar track during World War I.

After the companies merged, Caterpillar went through many changes, including the adoption of the diesel engine.

Caterpillar products range from track-type tractors to hydraulic excavators, backhoe loaders, motor graders, off-highway trucks, wheel loaders, agricultural tractors, diesel and natural gas engines and gas turbines. They are used in construction, road-building, mining, forestry, energy, transportation and material-handling industries.

Caterpillar's crawler tractors inspired the first military tanks, which helped end World War I. Many of their machines helped build the Hoover Dam, tunnel under the English Channel, tumble the Berlin Wall and construct cities and neighborhoods across the United States.

The Caterpillar D9 is a large track-type tractor designed and manufactured by Caterpillar Inc.

Though it comes in many configurations it is usually sold as a bulldozer equipped with a detachable large blade and a rear ripper attachment.

The D9, with 354 kW (474 hp) of gross power and an operating weight of 49 tons, is in the upper end, but not the heaviest, of Caterpillar's track-type tractors, which range in size from the D3 57 kW (77 hp), 8 tons, to the D11 698 kW (935 hp), 104 tons.

The D9 is a series of heavy tracked-type tractors, propelled by Caterpillar tracks and usually used as bulldozers. The D9 has undergone several generations of engineering enhancements. Each new generation is denoted with an English letter added to "D9". Until the introducing of the D10 in the 1980s, the D9 was the largest conventional CAT dozer. The D9L was the first variation of the D9 to employ "High-Drive" design in which the driving wheel is located above the track wheels, and not in the same row. The High-Drive gives the "belly pan" more ground clearance. The current versions are the D9R and the D9T models, but older models such as the D9N and D9L are still common. The L, N, R and T models of the D9 are visually very similar, differing primarily in the design of their internal systems. The D9T main difference from the D9R is the installment of the new Cat C18 ACERT engine. The D9L was probably the most powerful D9 in history, with flywheel power of 460 hp.

The D9's primary working tools are the blade, affixed to the front and controlled by 6 hydraulic arms, and the optional ripper, which can be attached to the back. The blade is mainly intended for earthmoving and bulk material handling: pushing up sand, dirt and rubble. It also can be used to push other heavy equipment such as earthmoving scraper pans, and in military applications, main battle tanks.