Vocabulary notes

truck (lorry) грузовой автомобиль

straight truck грузовой автомобиль с цилиндрами в ряд

articulated truck грузовой прицеп

freight груз, фрахт; грузовые перевозки

coupling соединение, сцепление

EXERCISES

I. Read the text, translate it and render it in Russian.

II. Answer the questions:

1. What is a truck?

2. What do the trucks carry in the U.S.A.?

3. When and where was the first truck built?

4. How were the trucks used in World War I and II?

5. What are the main types of trucks? What is the difference between them?

6. What is a truck trailer?

7. What is the ratio of trucks to passenger cars in the 20^th century?

III. Make up a brief summary of the text.

Modern buses

There are four main types of buses: city or transit, suburban, intercity or tour, and school. The city bus operates within the city limits and is characterized by low maximum speed, low-ride platform, provision for standing and wheelchair passengers, two entrances on the curb side, low-back seats, and no luggage space. The suburban bus is designed for short intercity runs and has high-back seats, luggage compartments and racks, and a single front entrance.

The inter-city type has a high-ride platform to provide maximum luggage space under the passengers, high-back seats, overhead luggage racks, individual reading lights, and a washroom. A typical intercity coach weighs about 26,000 pounds (12,000 kilograms), has a capacity of up to 47 passengers, a two-stroke-cycle V-8 diesel engine with up to 450 horsepower, an electronically controlled automatic transmission, and air brakes. School buses generally consist of a 50-passenger bus body, with special signal lamp and safety provisions, mounted on a long-wheelbase truck chassis.

Articulated buses were first used in Europe in the 1950s. In this arrangement a trailer body is connected to the rear of a conventional front-engine bus by means of a hitch, a flexible diaphragm, and a continuous floor panel with arcurate mating surfaces during turn maneuvers. This arrangement permits up to a 75 percent increase in seating capacity and a 20 percent improvement in fuel efficiency per seat-mile. The turning radius is the same as that of a conventional bus. Manufacture of this design was begun in the United States in the 1980s by several European firms.

Vocabulary notes

city (transit) bus городской автобус

suburban bus пригородный автобус

intercity (tour) bus междугородный автобус

coach автобус (междугородного сообщения)

curb обочина, край тротуара

rack полка; сетка для вещей (в автобусе)

rear задняя, тыльная сторона

hitch удар, толчок

arcuate mating surface дугообразная парная поверхность

conventional bus обычный, традиционный автобус

EXERCISES

I. Read the text and translate it.

II. Speak on the topics:

1) main types of buses;

2) first articulated buses in Europe and the U.S.A.

III. Give the summary of the text.

Motor companies

As America moved into the “Roaring Twenties”, the automobile became an important part of the every citizen’s life. The car became more affordable for the people with the average income. Automobile production figures rose from two million in 1920 to five and a half in 1929. By the late twenties a point was reached at which it was possible to move the entire population of the United States by road at one time, since there was close to one motor vehicle for every five people. Thus the car was no longer a luxury, but a useful and necessary item of the household.

There are two factors that made this possible. First- the price drop on the cars, which reached its lowest point in 1926, when a Model T (one of the first Ford’s cars) could be bought for $290. Secondly there was a liberal access to the credit for both consumes and dealers. The big companies such as General Motors and Ford went into financing of sales on a big scale. The result was that by 1925 three-fourths of all sales of motor vehicles, new and used, were made on time-payment plans.

Motor-vehicle manufacturing was by then the largest industry in the country and was still growing rapidly. Employment in the automobile factories was a quarter of a million in 1922 and in excess of the 400,000 in 1929; the of paid wages doubled from $400 millions to $800 millions. It also had a great effect on other industries: highway construction, retail, repair and gas services. These industries employed about the 1,2 million people. The motor vehicle was now consuming annually 90 % of the country’s petroleum products, 80 % of the rubber, 20 % of steel, 75 % of the plate glass, and 25 % of the machine tools.

Of course all this auto mobilization of such huge country as U.S.A. required reorganization of a whole highway system in order to provide motorists with usable ways of transportation. In 1916 the Congress passed the Road Aid Act by which all state governments were required to have a highway department to keep state roads in order. But new Federal Highway Act of 1921 went even further by providing states with federal help in maintaining of the roads of the federal importance (about 7 % of the non-urban road mileage in each state) on a fifty-fifty matching basis. Initially about two hundred thousand miles of trunk highways received federal support. In order to justify these expenses Oregon’s state government used simple and apparently painless method of taxing the sale of gasoline in an amount of one cent per gallon. Ten years later every state had gasoline tax, and the average had risen to three cents per gallon.

During this time the automobile industry was undergoing fundamental changes in structure. The day, when the individual with technical skills and a garage could start a motor company like in the beginning of the century, was gone. In order to gain the mass market the company had to have a tremendous capital, great manufacturing facilities and widespread network of dealerships. Thus during this time the so-called Big Three consolidate about three-fourth of the market, leaving the remaining 25 % to about 50 other companies. So this Big Three consisted of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler.