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wait for a telephone call or write letters. They can go and visit a factory or a plant, an exhibition or a fair and easily connect their partners to fix up a meeting or to discuss a purchase. They also do their banking, buy things and rent them over the telephone. They can carry their mobile phones in their pockets or keep them in their cars and use anytime they want.

Moreover, nowadays people use their telephone to connect their home computers to computerized informational centres. People also send letters and documents through phone lines by fax. People don't waste so much time.

Vocabulary Notes

instant – мгновенный, быстрый message – сообщение

to be out – отсутствовать, находиться вне дома, работы to waste time – терять время

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The Internet

The Internet, a global computer network which embraces millions of users all over the world, began in the United States in 1969 as a military experiment. It was designed to survive in a nuclear war. Information sent over the Internet takes the shortest path available from one computer to another. Because of this any two computers on the Internet will be able to stay in touch with each other as long as there is a single route between them. This technology is called packet switching. Owing to this technology, if some computers on the network are knocked out (by a nuclear explosion, for example), information will just route around them. One such packet-switching network already survived a war. It was the Iraq computer network, which was not knocked out during the Gulf War.

Most of the Internet host computers (more than 50%) are in the United States while the rest are located in more than 100 other

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countries. Although the number of host computers can be counted fairly accurately, nobody knows exactly how many people use the Internet. There are millions, and their number is growing by thousands each month worldwide.

The most popular Internet service is e-mail. Most of the people, who have access to the Internet, use the network only for sending and receiving e-mail messages. However, other popular services are available on the Internet: reading USNET News, using the World Wide Web, Telnet, FTP, and Gopher.

Vocabulary Notes

to embrace – охватывать to survive – выживать owing to – благодаря

to be knocked out – зд. выйти из строя route – направлять; маршрут

access to – доступ к message – сообщение

to be located – находиться

Text 9

Transport and Environment

It is known that every type of transport affects the environment. Cars. planes and locomotives pollute the air, especially in big cities. It has been estimated that one car burns an average of 2 tons of fuel per year using up to 27 tons of oxygen in the process. The exhaust gases contain very dangerous carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur and nitrogen oxides and other very harmful substances. Motor vehicles use nearly 4 times as much oxygen as the world population. In addition, land and air transport is a source of harmful noise pollution.

The principle task today is to find ways to reduce the air and noise pollution produced by all types of transport in both the cities and suburbs. Railways have to face up to the problem as well. How-

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ever, as a means of transport, railways are considered better for the environment than both public and private road transport.

Per unit of traffic, railways consume less fuel, produce less noise and air pollution, require less land taken from other users and causes less injury and loss of life. This is due in part to the railways technical system. For a long time railways have carried out structural alterations which have increased efficiency and caused less environmental pollution.

Scientific investigations have confirmed that rail transport causes less noise pollution than other types of transportation. This is due to the railways different frequency structure which is more "friendly" to people. Further reductions in noise pollution is a permanent task.

Thus, for example, the removal of old rails and their replacement by the continuous welded rails has lowered the sound intensity of the noise and vibration level by a quarter.

It is also worth noticing that high speed vehicles at 250 km/hr are not louder, due to the shorter passing times, and even gentler than the conventional train at 140-160 km/hr.

Contemporary Man cannot exist without rapid transport; now we have to make this transport safe and harmless. But environmental problems are not the concern of a single country. Their solution requires the cooperation of all nations.

Vocabulary Notes

to affect – воздействовать environment – окружающая среда to pollute – загрязнять

exhaust gases – выхлопные газы to consider – считать, полагать contemporary – современный to confirm - подтверждать investigations – исследования solution – решение

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