II. Look through the text again and answer the following questions:

1. What were the first engines like?

2. Who was the manufacturer of the first steam engines?

3. What was the main problem that faced the manufacturers of the engines?

4. Who and when developed an engine with two cylinders?

5. Who conducted the earliest experiments with steam locomotives? Were they successful or not?

III. Match the words with their definitions and make up your own sentences with these words:

1. consumption a) the act of applying to a particular purpose or use;

2. experiment b) to make or become smaller in size, number,etc.;

3. application c) perfected, made better in quality;

4. to manufacture d) marked by a favourable outcome;

5. improved e) vapour into which water is changed when boiled;

6. to reduce f) to place equipment in position and adjust for use;

7. steam g) to raise air or liquid into or from smth.;

8. successful h) the act of consuming;

9. to pump i) to process or make a product from a raw material;

10. to install j) a test or investigation;

IV. Read the following statements and discuss them with a partner:

1. For the first time in history power began to be produced within a vehicle from fuels.

2. The earliest engines were highly inefficient.

3. The steam engine was not the invention of a single person.

4. The machinery was applied to transport vehicles only at the end of Boulton and Watt's partnership.

5. Most of the steam engines constructed in the 18th century were large and rather weak.

Giving your opinion you may find the following expressions helpful:

By the way as for me I’d like to know

I see I’m afraid I wonder

It seems to me that I don’t know exactly If I’m not mistaken Text 4

I. Read the first part of the story about the entering of the automobile into the world market.

The automobile and mass transportation (part I)

In the developed world, the automobile entered the transportation market as a toy for the rich at the beginning of the 20th century. It became increasingly popular because it gave travelers important new freedoms: to visit many different places (while mass transportation served only fixed routes), to make trips at any convenient time (while mass transportation operated on a predetermined schedule), and to carry several people and their packages for one fixed price (while mass transportation charged fares for each person in a family or group). As a result, in Europe and North America the automobile became mass transportation's chief competitor.

The automobile is an individual technology. The convenience of the automobile freed people from the need to live near rail lines or stations; they could choose locations almost anywhere in an urban area, as long as roads were available to connect them to other places. Many states in the United States established motor fuel taxes that were used only to build and maintain highways. Thus, the auto highway system became largely self-sustaining.

Automobile ownership grew rapidly after World War II, particularly in the United States and western Europe. During the war, automobile motors, fuel, and tires were in short supply. There was an unsatisfied demand when the war ended and plenty of production capacity as factories turned off the war machine. Many people had saved money because there was little to buy in the war years. Workers relied heavily on mass transportation during the war and longed for the freedom of the automobile.

As automobiles became more widespread, there was political and economic pressure to expand the road network. A demand for housing, particularly single-family homes, was met in the United States with government loans and other incentives to expand housing in suburban areas. Life in the suburbs became feasible with the automobile, which provided mobility everywhere, anytime. Thus, after World War II, at least in the United States, the automobile, the auto industry, the urban road network, and the suburbs grew together.

The result was a dispersed urban geography, often called sprawl, which characterized not only the suburbs of large cities but also whole cities that experienced the bulk of their growth after the automobile became popular. It is a dispersed market that is difficult to serve economically with mass transportation.