1. Give equivalents to:

• соnсrete

• area

• amount

• level

• space

• truck

• equipment

• output

117. Complete the sentence according to the text.

• The following general aspects should he kept in mind _________________________________________________________

• Adequate space should be allowed at sides and _________________________________________________________

• A well-designed plant must have sufficient capacity for the normal output plus _________________________________________________________

118. Define grammatical tense:

• a vast amount of excellent work has already been done ______________________________________

• a great number of plants is now in operation______________________________

• a careful appraisal of the requirements provides ______________________________________

• the following aspects should be kept in mind__________________________________

• machinery designers have made important contributions ______________________________________

119. Define the part of speech and make all possible word combinations with «reinforced concrete»:

Height, high, deepen, depth, deeply, hard, hardly, harden, hardness, strength, strengthen, strong, long, length.

References:

Plekhanova, R. and others – English for Civil Engineering Institutes/M: Higher School, - 1998, pp. 55, 56

English in railway construction.

UNIT 1. EUROSTAR TOPS 10 MILLION PASSENGERS

Vocabulary

high speed – высокоскоростной

ridership – пассажиропоток

to handle – перевозить

a milestone – контрольный ориентир, этап, рубеж

a joint venture – совместное предприятие

low-cost – недорогой, дешевый

economic downturn – экономический спад, рецессия

a stand-alone company – автономная/независимая компания

a trial – эксперимент, пробный тест

EUROPE: Cross-Channel high speed train operator Eurostar International carried more than 10 million passengers during 2013, setting a new ridership record. The annual total was slightly up on the 9.9 million handled in the previous year.

Announcing the milestone on December 30, Eurostar reported that it had now carried more than 140 million passengers since the start of services between London, Paris and Brussels in November 1994.

At that time Eurostar was a joint venture between the three national railways of Britain, France and Belgium, and was predicting that ridership would reach 10 million passengers/year by 1998. In the event, traffic growth was slowed by competition from low-cost airlines and later by the economic downturn. Eurostar was subsequently restructured as a stand-alone company although still owned by three state-owned bodies.

Eurostar attributed the increased ridership in 2013 to 'recent signs of a recovery in the UK economy, along with a busy summer for leisure travel'. The year also saw the operation of additional services, including the trial Route du Soleil direct service between London and Aix-en-Provence in the south of France which ran on selected summer weekends. The trial is to be repeated this year, and Eurostar says the route will be introduced 'on a permanent basis from 2015'.

Commercial Director Nick Mercer said '2013 has been a record-breaking year for Eurostar. With a leap in passenger numbers as well as the introduction of new routes and new destinations, we are seeing growing demand from customers across Europe and indeed around the world. As we enter our 20th year of operation, we have a year of activity planned on the run up to our 20th birthday in November.'

Read the text again and answer the questions:

1. What sort of company is Eurostar International?

377. How many people have been carried by Eurostar since the start of services?

378. Why did the ridership decrease in the 1990s?

379. What were the reasons for increasing the number of passengers in 2013?

380. How many years has Eurostar been operating in the market?

Exercises: