St.Petersburg-Tsarskoe Selo Railway

Ex. 1. Practice the reading of the words:

emperor, since, area, other, severe, emphasize, geography, relatively, terrain, route, immediately, earthworks, measure, damage, thaw, curious, ceremony, swampy.

Ex. 2. Practice the reading of the proper names.

• St. Petersburg (Saint Petersburg) ['seɪnt 'pi:tǝzbɜ:g] – Санкт-Петербург

• Austria ['ɔstrɪǝ] – Австрия

• Moldavia [mǝl'deɪvɪǝ] – Молдавия

• Danube ['dænju:b] – Дунай

• Gerstner ['gɜ:ʃtnǝ] – Герстнер

Ex. 3. Copy the following words and phrases and memorize their meanings.

advantage (≠ disadvantage) – преимущество (≠ недостаток) although – хотя; несмотря на то, что to approve – одобрять to benefit – приносить пользу condition – условие curve – кривой участок пути to damage – повреждать to decay – гнить, разрушаться to drain – осушать due to (= because of) – благодаря; из-за embankment – насыпь to ensure – гарантировать, обеспечивать to erect – возводить (мост), сооружать flat – плоский, ровный to order – заказывать; приказывать to promise – обещать sleeper (= crosstie, tie) – шпала straight – прямой to treat with smth– обрабатывать чем-л., пропитывать чем-л.

Ex. 4. Translate the nouns into Russian and memorize their meanings:

approval, benefit, damage, decay, drainage, order, promise, treatment.

Ex. 5. Read the sentences and translate them into Russian.

1. The wooden sleepers are treated with creosote to prevent them from decay.

2. Box cars are used for carrying various kinds of freight, which require protection against unfavorable weather conditions.

3. Periodically, ballast is to be removed and replaced with clean ballast to ensure adequate drainage, especially if wooden ties are used.

4. The main disadvantages of steel sleepers are their high cost and the noise caused by trains passing over them.

5. A barbed-wire (колючая проволока) fence separates the railway embankment from the meadow to keep the livestock away from the track.

6. There are practically no curves and gradients (уклон) on the Paris-Lyon high-speed line.

7. Two gangs have been working 12-hour shifts to restore the section of the track damaged by the flood.

8. The main function of ballast is to drain the water away and to distribute (распределять) the load evenly over the track.

9. All first carriages had three main disadvantages: they were built of wood; they were heated with stoves, and they had an open platform at each end that was especially dangerous in case of an accident.

10. To ensure maximum stability of railway embankment, the earth must be put in layers and each layer is to be thoroughly compacted before the next is placed.

11. In Japan, railways play an extremely important role in passenger travel, although they continue to give way to competition from road and air transport.

12. Concrete crossties first appeared in Europe in 1868, mainly due to the shortage (нехватка) of durable wood in some countries.

13. Irish Rail has ordered a fleet of 67 new coaches from CAF, Spain, at a cost of Euros 117 million.

14. The aim of a tilting mechanism (механизм наклона кузова вагона) is to ensure fast and smooth running of the train on curves.

Ex. 6. Complete the sentences with a required verb from the list. Mind your grammar!

They arrived at 7.30 as they had ___. The swimming pool is ___ and cleaned every winter. Italy’s government ___ a plan to restructure the Italian Railways’ management. Officials plan to ___ a monument in Lindbergh's honor. Critics argue that the tax cuts (снижение налогов) will only ___ large companies. Regular servicing ___ the smooth operation of the engine. The company was ___ to pay compensation to its former employees. Several vehicles were ___ in the accident. In some luxury trains, passengers can ___ dinner directly to their compartments. You will need to ___ the central heating system before you replace the radiator. Police have ___ barriers across the main roads into the town. I’ll try my best to get tickets, but I can’t ___ anything. We should spend the money on something that will ___ everyone. Many buildings were badly ___ during the war. This equipment can be ___ directly from the manufacturer. You ___ me the car would be ready on Monday. The train was moving at a high speed when the driver saw that the line was ___. Automatic block and other kinds of modern signaling are used on the railways to ___ safety of train movement at speeds.

to approve to benefit to damage to drain to ensure to erect to order to promise

Ex. 7. Select phrases (on the right) that collocate with the verbs (on the left).

A	B
to approve	regular service
to order	a speed
to insist	forests
to erect	swampy areas
to clear	from decay
to drain	a plan
to prevent	trials
to hold	on high quality
to reach	a bridge
to begin	locomotives, cars, rails, and other equipment

Ex. 8. Insert either straight or flat into the following sentences.

1. The accident happened on a ___ section of the highway.

2. The car skidded on the ice and went ___ into the wall.

3. The countryside near there is ___ as a pancake.

4. We found a large ___ rock to sit on.

5. The road continues as ___ as an arrow.

6. The railway station was a low building with ___ roof.

7. Can’t you give me a ___ yes or no?

8. The road stretched ahead across the ___ terrain.

9. People used to think the earth was ___.

10. First, draw two ___ lines across the page using a ruler.

11. The road ran dead ___ for 50 miles across the desert.

12. I asked several people what had happened but nobody gave me a ___ answer.

Ex. 9. Complete the sentences with a required word from the list.

Steel ___ are used in desert and tropical regions because great variations in day and night temperatures don’t affect them. The Japanese high speed train called Bullet Train runs at speeds of more than 100 mph over special tracks with minimal ___. The conversion of railways to electric traction ___ the improvement of labor conditions, the reduction of air pollution, the electrification of settlements (населённый пункт) located along the railway lines. For corrosion protection, the car bodies must be ___ on the inside with a special antirust compound (антикоррозионный состав). The overhead contact lines (контактный провод) ___ in the yesterday’s storm have been already repaired. ___ the weight of passing trains, the edges (край) of rails cut into ties. The engineers consider that the main ___ of the new equipment is its high cost. Railway ___ for single tracks generally have a width of 18 feet to 24 feet at the top when new. It is often necessary to change the direction of the line due to topographical ___. ___ the railways are the main cargo haulers, motor transport carries the greatest number of passengers.

although conditions curves damaged disadvantage due to embankments ensures sleepers treated

Ex. 10. Match the words and phrases in column A with their Russian equivalents in column B.

A	B
under conditions	земляные работы
earthworks	идти полным ходом
public railway	маршрут
quality	приводить к чему-либо
route	принимать меры
to take measures	в условиях
immediately	ехать; управлять транспортом
to drive	качество
to lead to	немедленно, сразу
network	железная дорога общего пользования
to be underway	сеть

Ex. 11. Read the sentences and translate them into Russian.

1. The internal combustion engine is more powerful than the steam engine because it uses better-quality fuel: petrol or kerosene.

2. Opened in October 1964, the first Shinkansen line (Japanese: “New Trunk Line”) from Tokyo to Ōsaka was immediately a commercial success.

3. The festival was a great success, and preparations are underway for another one next summer.

4. In 1988, Hurricane Gilbert severely damaged Jamaica’s railway network, leading to the suspension (временное прекращение) of passenger services in the 1990s.

5. Speed control devices are used to provide definite speeds under certain conditions.

6. When the first self-moving vehicle appeared, measures were taken to limit their speed in many countries.

7. Special signals installed along the railroads help enginemen drive trains without accidents.

8. Earthwork on the Trans-Baikal railway was hampered by mountainous areas, a great number of bogs and impassable Taiga forests.

9. More than half of Russian railway network is located in areas subject to heavy snow falls and storms for up to six months of the year. Under these conditions, snow clearing has reached a very high degree of mechanization.

10. Locomotive No.1, the first engine to run on the public railway between Stockton and Darlington opened in 1825, is now on exhibition at Bank Top station.

11. The relatively short life of the wooden sleeper has led to using the concrete sleeper; its average service life is from 40 to 50 years.

12. China’s rail network consists of a series of north-south mainlines, crossed by a few major east-west lines.

13. A new electronic device will calculate how far one can drive on the petrol left in the tank.

14. Some old steam locomotives are still operational on tourist routes in England.

15. The only narrow-gauge public railway built on Cyprus proved uneconomical and was closed in the early 1950s. Because there are no public railways, inland travel depends entirely on roads.

16. The Yamagata-Akita railway line (Japan) was opened for traffic in March 1997. It became so popular that passenger turnover between these cities immediately increased by more than 50%.

Ex. 12. Match the two parts of the sentence.

A	B
Statistically, it’s safer to travel by air…	average speeds are higher: 100 mph is reached over many routes.
Under average conditions, the use of electric locos instead of diesel ones…	the largest ones within the Russian railway network.
All measures must be taken…	the transportation of both passengers and freight.
Steel used for the production of rails…	than to drive a car.
The top speeds on British railway network are lower than in France and Japan but…	if I left immediately.
The computation centre of the Kuibyshev Railway ranks among…	leads to the increase in the speed of trains by 15-25 %.
These new routes will give the airline…	which led to great tragedies.
A public railway (Am E: common carrier) is a railway used for…	must be of high quality.
I could still catch the early train…	a considerable advantage over its competitors.
In the early history of bridge construction, the bridges were built without basic knowledge of mathematics…	to ensure safe operation of trains in tunnels.

Ex. 13. Answer the questions, using the information given in brackets.

1. What is Tsarskoye Selo? (a former Russian residence of the imperial family)

2. Where is it located? (23 kilometers south from the center of St.Petersburg)

3. What is it now? (part of the town of Pushkin)

4. When was the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum opened? (October 19, 1811)

5. Who was the most famous graduate of the Lyceum? (Alexander Pushkin)

6. What was Franz Anton Ritter von Gerstner? (Europe’s leading specialist in railroad construction)

7. Where was von Gerstner born? (in Prague)

8. What higher school did he graduate from? (Prague University)

9. Where did he work after graduating from the University? (at Vienna University of Technology)

10. What did von Gerstner examine? (the management and organization of railroads and canals)

Ex. 14. Before reading the text, make sure you know the following words.

to convince – убеждать curious – любопытный deadline – последний срок to emphasize – подчёркивать

to insist – настаивать relatively – относительно severe – суровый since – так как

swampy – болотистый terrain – местность thaw – оттепель

Ex. 15. Read the text and translate it into Russian.