Text 36. Water pollution in the usa

1 Render the following in Russian.

Water supply at the expense of ground water plays an important role in the lives of many towns and cities, and in the production of foodstuffs. The water supply of 12−15 million families depends upon individual underground boring wells, which have no purifying facilities. 71 % of the public water supply is based upon ground water. The complexity of the issue lies in the fact that the physicochemical processes of the transformation of ground water are still not fully explored.

Internal economic and political problems are impediments to solving the pollution problem. For several years conflicts have been taking place between private companies, the federal government and the authorities of separate states. Back in 1973 the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, unwilling to spend about 100 million dollars on building purifying plants, undertook a desperate struggle against the laws protecting the environment of the state of Pennsylvania. By 1977 many industrial companies had not introduced the necessary methods of purifying sewage, and there is little hope that the targets planned by the law, will be met. The Association of the Chemical Industry, for instance, has declared that it is unrealistic to expect the modernization of purifying technology, as required by the law.

Quite often local authorities do not plan building a system of second time purification. Discussions are in progress, while in the meantime polluted water runs into reservoirs creating a threat to the health of the people, and complicating the second utilization of sewage.

The arms race and the energy crisis have an impact on the problem of reproduction of water resources. Attempts to overcome the energy crisis have brought about the postponement of many water purification measures.

The problem of providing the country with water resources is still far from being solved.

Vocabulary:

boring – буровая скважина; (просверленное) отверстие

impediment – препятствие, помеха

desperate – отчаянный, безнадежный

sewage – сточные воды, нечистоты

target – цель, задание

in the meantime – тем временем, между тем

reproduction – воспроизводство, возобновление

postponement – откладывание, отсрочка

2 Answer the questions:

1 What role does water supply play in the lives of many towns and cities?

2 What does the water supply of millions of families depend upon?

3 What problem exists now?

4 What are impediments to solving the pollution problem?

5 How were the necessary methods of purifying sewage introduced by industrial companies?

6 How can the energy crisis influence on the problem of reproduction of water resources?

3 Find out the following forms of the verb: Present Indefinite Active and Passive Voice; Present and Past Perfect Active Voice; Participle and Gerund.

Text 37. Rail tracks

1 Render the following in Russian.

Railroad or railway tracks are used on railways to guide trains. They consist of two parallel steel rails, which are laid and fastened upon sleepers (or cross ties) which are embedded in ballast to form the railroad track. Rail tracks are normally laid on a bed of coarse stone chippings known as ballast, which combines resilience, some amount of flexibility, and good drainage; however, track can also be laid on or into concrete (across bridges, for example).

There are different ways of joining rails together to form tracks. The traditional way of doing this, was to bolt rails together in what is known as jointed track. In this form of track, lengths of rail, usually around 20 meters (60 feet) long are laid and fixed to sleepers(UK) (crossties, or simply ties in US practice), and are joined to other lengths of rail with steel plates known as fishplates (UK) or splices (US).

Fishplates or splices are usually 60 centimeters (2 feet) long, and are bolted through each side of the rail ends with four bolts. Small gaps are deliberately left between the rails, which are known as "expansion joints" to allow for expansion of the rails in hot weather, the holes through which the fishplate bolts pass are oval to allow for expansion.

British practice was always to have the rail joints on both rails at the same place, while American practice is to stagger them.

Because of the small gaps left between the rails, when trains pass over jointed tracks they make a "clickety clack, clickety clack" noise. Unless it is very well maintained, jointed track gives a fairly bumpy and uncomfortable ride, and is unsuitable for high speed trains because it is too weak. However it is still used in many countries on lower speed lines and unimportant lines. Most railroad track in the United States is still of this type, however, and laid on timber ties; the lower speeds of American railroads make the disadvantages less apparent and the much cheaper supply of timber in the US makes its use for railroad ties much cheaper than in Europe.

Jointed track is still extensively used in poor countries, due to the cheaper construction costs and lack of modernization of their railway systems.

There are several methods used to fasten rail to wooden sleepers / ties. In traditional British practice, cast metal chairs were bolted to the sleepers, which took a style of rail known as bullhead which was somewhat figure-8 in cross-section - wider at top and bottom and smaller in the middle. Wedges of wood or sprung steel were then driven in between chair and rail to hold it in place.

The idea behind bullhead rails, was that because both the top and bottom of the rails were the same shape, when one side of the rail became worn, the rail could be turned over to the unused side, thus extending the rail's lifespan.

Like most of the world, Britain now uses flat bottomed rail which has become the worldwide standard type of rail, which as the name suggests, has a flat base and can stand upright without support. A flat bottomed rail has a cross-section like that of an upside-down 'T' and is held to the sleeper with a baseplate, a metal plate which is attached to the sleeper.

A variety of different types of heavy-duty clips are used to fasten the rails to the underlying baseplate, one common one being the Pandrol fastener, named after its maker, which is shaped like a sturdy, stubby paperclip.

American practice normally uses spikes, which are fundamentally very large nails with bent-over heads to clasp the flat-bottomed rail. These are cheaper and simpler to install but can loosen if the tie rots - much more easily than the British chair does. This is mitigated by using very large and solid ties and using rot-proofing preservative.

Most modern railways use continuous welded rail (CWR) in this form of track the rails are welded together for several kilometers, to form one long continuous rail. Because there are few joints, this form of track is very strong and gives a smooth ride, and also needs less maintenance.

Because of its strength, trains traveling on welded track can travel at higher speeds and with less friction. Welded rails are more expensive to lay than jointed tracks, but are significantly cheaper to maintain.

As mentioned earlier, rails expand in hot weather and shrink in cold weather. Because welded track has no expansion joints, if special measures are not taken, it could become distorted in hot weather and cause a derailment.

To avoid this happening welded rails are nearly always laid on concrete sleepers, which are so heavy they hold the rails firmly in place. Soon after the segments of rail are laid, the rails are artificially heated to normal summertime temperatures so that they expand, they are then quickly fastened tightly to the sleepers in their expanded form and then welded to the next segment of rail, this ensures that the rail will not expand any further in subsequent hot weather. And because they are firmly fastened to the sleepers, they cannot shrink in cold weather either. However if temperatures reach outside normal ranges (i.e a hotter than usual summer), it can cause problems with welded rails.

Joints are used in continuously welded rail when necessary, though; instead of a joint that passes straight across the rail, producing a loud noise and shock when the wheels pass over it, two sections of rail are cut at a steep angle and put together with a gap between them. This gives a much smoother transition yet still provides some expansion room.

Track needs frequent maintenance to remain in good order, the frequency increasing with higher-speed or heavier trains. This was formerly hard manual labor, but these days is handled by a variety of specialized machines.