At the railway station

Exercise 22. Translate into Russian.

A railway station is a point of call for trains, allowing passengers to board and alight.

Train stations usually include either ticket booths, or ticket machines. All but small rural stations usually include some form of convenience store. Larger stations usually have fast-food or restaurant facilities. In some countries, such stations would also have a bar, or pub. Other station facilities include: toilets, left-luggage, departures and arrivals boards, luggage trucks/trolleys, waiting rooms, taxi ranks and bus bays.

The world's busiest train station, in terms of daily passenger throughput, is Shinjuku Station in Tokyo, Japan. By train throughput, the world's busiest train station is Clapham Junction in London.

Exercise 23. Read the following essay and say if you feel the same when at a railway station.

A RAILWAY STATION

There can surely be nothing in modern life more like a dragon's cave than a large city railway station. Even on the sunniest day it has a dim and gloomy atmosphere with only one semicircular patch of brightness in the far distance where the rails emerge into the light of day. And when an express train enters the station it comes breath­ing out fire and roaring with as frightening a voice as any dragon lifted up in days of old.

Hardly anybody is in a normal state of mind on a railway station. Either one has arrived far too early and is impatiently fretting at the waste of time involved in wait­ing for the train, or one has left for it too late and is in a state of terrified apprehension lest the luggage should be left behind, or the lunch-basket forgotten or the tickets lost or the train missed altogether. Mothers gather their children about them like hens with their chickens, rebuk­ing the adventurous ones who wish to roam and enquire, and stirring up the sleepy ones who are in danger of be­ing run over by a porter's truck or of attaching them­selves to the wrong party.

All one's natural kindliness and courtesy seem to de­sert one on the railway station and in a train which is about to start. One rushes for the best seat, and glares indignantly at passengers who have the temerity to introduce themselves into the same compartment. Men and women who would, in their normal states of mind, be the first to acknowledge the gracious loveliness of children, shudder with dismay when they see a child or two enter the train. Their minds at once fly to the pieces of banana they will find adhering to their shoes, the innumerable questions in shrill voices to which they will be obliged to listen if not to answer and the thousand and one "don'ts" that will proceed from the guardian of the young before the end of the journey.

As the time for the departure of the train draws nearer, the infernal nature of this gloomy cavern of a station in­creases. Doors are banged, guards shout and blow their whistles, the train itself hisses and snorts, everybody shouts out the things that have been said a thousand times; those on the platform quite unnecessarily exhort those in the train to write to them when they arrive at their destination. At last, with a final fiendish snort and shriek, the dragon pulls itself together and precipitates itself out of its cave in a cloud of steam. The gloomy cav­ern is left dull and lifeless and those left behind turn and walk away into the world again, quickly forgetting their brief sojourn in the draconial den.

(From Fifty Model Essays by Joyce Miller)

Exercise 24. Describe the following situations.

1. boarding a train; 2. seeing somebody off at the station;

Exercise 25. You're at a railway station. Explain what the following are for:

waiting-rooms, a refreshment counter, a left-luggage office, luggage lockers, a booking office, a newspaper stall, slot machines, platforms, departures/arrivals board

Exercise 26. Read the text and speak on the service Eurostar features.

EUROSTAR

Eurostar is the first true international train. It connects the capital cities of France, England and Belgium. From London to Paris and vice versa, Eurostar offers frequent service: every 30 minutes during peak hours, and approximately once per hour during non-peak time.

Each train set has 18 cars — 1 in Premium First, 5 in first class, 10 in second class and 2 bar cars. All Eurostar trains are nonsmoking.

Premium First class, available exclusively between London and Paris, features superb service. It includes complimentary taxi transfer (reserved before departure from the Eurostar Lounge), fast lane check-in, use of Executive Lounges, a 4-course lunch or dinner with a choice of entree and wine, a complimentary drink, and newspapers. 1st Class provides complimentary food (including a 3-course dinner), beverages, and newspapers while you relax in your reclining seat. Full fare 1 st class gives you access to the Eurostar Lounge. Standard Class offers comfort, convenience, and value. Enjoy the bar car, or purchase snacks and refreshments from the trolley cart when it comes to your seat.

Each train has up to 15 attendants, recognizable by their Eurostar uniforms which were created by the French designer Balmain. All of them speak fluent English.

To ensure total comfort and security during the journey, all Eurostar passengers must follow a boarding process. You will check-in through the automated gates if your ticket has a magnetic stripe on the back. If it doesn't, you'll present your non-magnetic ticket at one of the check-in booths. The minimum check-in time for passengers with Premium First tickets is 10 minutes. For passengers boarding ski trains, and passengers holding regular tickets, check-in time is 30 minutes. Each passenger is allowed 2 pieces of luggage and 1 carry-on bag. You'll then go through security and passport control before being able to enjoy the boarding area amenities and then you'll board and head to your designated car and seat.

Passengers may get on and off at as many stops as they wish, as long as they continue proceeding toward their final destination along the same route.

Exercise 27. Say what the duties of the following railway officials are:

a station master, a booking clerk, a train driver, a guard, a ticket-collector, a porter, an attendant

Exercise 28. When and under what circumstances might we use or hear the following:

1. Here is the luggage receipt.

2. There will be overweight to pay.

3. Will you see to my luggage, please?

4. It is time you got out (of the carriage), or you will be taken on to Portsmouth.

5. I want two uppers and one lower for the 6.12 on Tuesday.

6. Won't you come and sit in the carriage with me before the train starts?

7. Try and find me a corner seat in a smoker, facing the engine, if you can.

8. You have just missed one. They go every hour. The next one is at ten o'clock.

9. How much is the fare for a child under 12 years?

10. You're due to arrive at 6.15.

11. The dining-car steward is taking bookings for dinner. Do we go for the first or the second sitting?

12. If you don't mind, I'll turn off the heating.

13. It is draughty in here. Shall I close (pull down) the window?

14. Mind you don't miss the train.

15. I am getting off at Stockholm. Be sure to wake me up in time.

Exercise 29. Review the topical vocabulary and translate the following:

1. С какой платформы и с какого пути отходит поезд на Брайтон?

2. У нас очень много вещей: 9 мест. Надо взять носильщика и сдать несколько мест в багаж.

3. Где проводник? Я хочу попросить его исправить дверь нашего купе (помочь мне снять чемодан с багажной полки, поднять (опустить) верхнюю полку, поднять (опустить) окно, принести постель, чай, расписа­ние; узнать, когда мы будем в Копенгагене).

4. Поезд опоздал на три часа из-за сильных снежных заносов вблизи Балтимора.

5. Скажите, пожалуйста, как пройти: (а) в зал ожидания вокзала, (б) в камеру хранения багажа, (в) на 6-ую платформу, (г) к билетным кассам, (д) в кабинет начальника вокзала, (е) н а платформу, от которой отходят пригородные поезда на Пушкино, (ж) в туристическое агентство?

6. Пора в вагон! Поезд отходит через две минуты.

7. Мы едем строго по расписанию. В Ростов мы прибыли минута в минуту.

8. «Мы опаздываем на 20 минут, но я думаю, что поезд нагонит и в Москву мы прибудем вовремя», - сказал проводник.

9. «В багаж что-нибудь сдадим»? — спросил носильщик. — «Нет, у нас только четыре места.» - «Счастливого пути».

10. Я предъявил билет контролеру.

11. Надо торопиться. Мы можем опоздать на поезд.

12. Поезд на Москву отправляется со второго пути.

13. Поезд № 19 из Сочи прибывает по расписанию.

14. Проводник удобно устроил нас в купе.

15. Положить ваши вещи на полку? – Да.

16. У меня много вещей. Ты меня проводишь?

17. Вы уже взяли вещи из камеры хранения?

18. Интересно, сколько времени осталось до отхода поезда. Мне нужно сдать вещи в багаж.

Exercise 30. Make up a story of your own using the following expressions:

1. to book seats for; 2. to see smb. off; 3. to get all the things done; 4. to see to the luggage; 5. to miss a train; 6. to have (enough) time to go to the snack bar; 7. to sit in the carriage before the train starts; 8. Time we got out of the carriage; 9. We're off now.

Discussion points.

1. Describe any railway station you have been to.

2. There are seven major railway stations in London. Can you name them?

3. How many terminii are there in Moscow? Can you describe any of them?

4. What facilities are provided for the passengers on board a modern train?

5. What is happening in a compartment of a railway carriage when the train is approaching its destination?

Exercise 31. Read the passage and choose the answers that fit best, according to the passage. Retell the text.

COMMUTERS

People do not travel for pleasure on the roads and trains leading into cities on weekday mornings; they are commuting. Commuters represent the antithesis of Robert Louis Stevenson's view of travel­ling that 'For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake.' Commuters travel because they have to; the destination is the only thing that matters.

Commuting is modern. Up until the 1950s most workers lived in the shadow of their workplace and within earshot of its whistle or hooter; people walked or cycled to work, even going home for their lunch. As cities grow and as the pressure on city centre property increases, so ever more people have had to move further away from their place of work. The suburbs grow and this results in the horrendous rush hours, many of which tail back to the suburbs themselves. To ease the commuter congestion city governments build new roads, especially ring roads, but these generate more traffic, adding to the traffic jams and bad health. San Francisco introduced BART to take the pressure off its roads, but after an initial positive response the scheme was over­taken by the sheer magnitude of commuter growth.

Trains and subway systems are little better. In Tokyo 'pushers' are employed to squeeze commuters into carriages, in London and New York the underground systems are near capacity and unpleasant to ride. In Paris petty crime on the Metro is rife. In Soweto the trains are so crowded that commuters hang on to the outside of the 'black only' trains. The associated health hazards are rivalled by those caused by traffic accidents and the stress-related diseases created by the tension in all forms of commuting.

The bigger the city, the larger the daily commuting public and the longer the distances travelled. Although most people dislike the unpleasant 'dead time' of commuting, some people turn it to their advantage. J.M. Keynes wrote his General Theory en route from London to Cambridge, and there are classes in French, business studies, bridge and chess (among other topics) on commuter trains into the London main-line stations. Other people, especially those who can afford the comfort of first-class tickets, catch up on their reading, do the preparation for the day's work, use their computers or the train telephones, or listen to music. Others take the view that commuting should make you fit. They walk, run, cycle, row, sail, skate and skate-board into work.

(from Cities Fit To Live In by Barrie Sherman)

1. San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit scheme ...

A could not cope with the numbers of passengers.

B has been a resounding success.

C took a long time to become successful.

D was eagerly awaited.

2. As a solution to the rise in the number of commuters, trains and subways are ...

A more effective than new roads.

B not as effective as new roads.

C rather more effective than new roads.

D scarcely any more effective than new roads.

3. It is more pleasant to live in cities which . . .

A are small enough for people not to need to commute.

B encourage commuting.

C have efficient public transport systems.

D improve conditions for commuters.

4. The majority of travellers . . .

A don’t enjoy wasting their time commuting.

B make the most of the time they spend commuting.

C keep fit while commuting.

D exercise their minds while commuting.

Exercise 32. Agree or disagree with the opinion expressed in the passage.

People travelling long distances, frequently have to decide whether they would prefer to go by land, sea or air. Hardly anyone can positively enjoy sitting in a train for more than a few hours. Train compartments soon get cramped and stuffy. It is almost impossible to take your mind off the journey. Reading is only a partial solution, for the monotonous rhythm of the wheels clicking on the rails soon lulls you to sleep. During the day, sleep comes in snatches. At night, when you really wish to go to sleep, you rarely manage to do so. Inevitably you arrive at your destination almost exhausted.