Finding a fault in a car
If your car doesn't start in the morning, you should check three things first: the battery, the fuel level and the spark plugs. It is easy to repair these faults. If the battery is flat, you should recharge it. If doesn’t work, you should replace it. If the petrol tank is empty, fill it up. If the spark plugs are dirty, clean them, and if the gap in a spark plug is too narrow or too wide, adjust it to the correct.
If your car still doesn’t start, the petrol pump may be broken or the fuel pipe may be blocked. If the pump is broken, it must be repaired or replaced. If the fuel pipe is blocked, take it off and unblock it.
It there is a loud CLICK! when you work, you turn the key, the starter motor may be jammed. If it is, you can try to release it by pushing the car forwards and backwards (in 2nd gear). If the car still doesn’t start, the starter motor should be repaired or replaced.
EXERCISES
I. Read the text and translate it.
II. Match these pictures with words from the text:
III. Answer these questions:
1. You check the battery. It’s flat. You try to recharge it. It’s still flat. What do you do next?
2. If the gap in a spark plug is too narrow, how do you adjust it? Do you widen it or make it narrower?
3. How do you know that the starter motor might be jammed? What do you hear?
4. You push the car forwards and backwards, but the starter still doesn’t work. What do you do now?
TRUCKS
A truck, or lorry, is a motor vehicle designed to carry freight or goods or to perform special services. The truck was derived from horse-driven wagon technology, and some of the pioneer manufacturers came from the wagon business. Because of their speed and flexibility, trucks carry a quarter of the intercity freight in the United States. By the year 2000, 900 billion ton-miles of freight can be expected to be moved by trucks annually in the United States. Trucks enjoy an almost total monopoly in intracity freight delivery.
In 1896 Gottlieb Daimler of Germany built the first motor truck. It was equipped with a four-horsepower engine and a belt drive with two speeds forward and one in reverse. In 1898 the Winton Company of the United States produced a gasoline-powered delivery wagon with a single-cylinder six-horsepower engine. In World War I motor trucks were widely used, and in World War II they largely replaced horse-drawn equipment. A notable vehicle was the four-wheel-drive, quarter-ton-capacity, short-wheelbase jeep, capable of performing a variety of military tasks.
Types and definitions. Trucks can be classified as either straight or articulated. A straight truck is one in which all axles are attached to a single frame. An articulated vehicle is one that consists of two or more separate frames connected by suitable couplings. A truck tractor is a motor vehicle designed primarily for drawing truck trailers and constructed to carry part of the weight and load of a semi-trailer, which is a truck trailer equipped with one or more axles, so constructed that the end and a substantial part of its own weight and that of its load rests upon a truck tractor. In contrast, a full trailer is so constructed that all of its own weight and that of its load rests upon its own wheels. More than half of the world production of trucks consists of small pickup trucks and vans. Medium trucks have GVW (gross vehicle weight) ratings of from 14,000 to 33,000 pounds and are generally straight designs. They make up about 4 percent of sales. In each of the late decades of the 20th century, about 45 million trucks were added to the world total. The ratio of trucks to passenger cars in the world is increasing annually.