Text 1. London Underground

1. The paragraphs in the texts are not in the correct order. Put the text into the logical order and give title to each paragraph.

▪the necessity for building underground; ▪opening of underground;

▪the way it moves; ▪different symbols

▪nowadays we are happy to have it;

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The Metropolitan Railway bought specially designed steam locomotives to run through its tunnels. These were supposed to consume their own smoke by diverting it into the engine’s water tanks. In practice, the same had to be frequently expelled, necessitating the construction of ventilation shafts to the ground above.

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It was thanks to horse drawn vehicles, like stage coaches, and the congestion they caused in London’s streets, that people turned their thoughts to constructing an underground railway.

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Over the ensuing years, the London Underground expanded throughout the centre of the capital and beyond. Today’s network covers 415 kilometers, over one-third of them in tube tunneling, and over 2.8 million journeys are made on the Underground each day.

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London Underground has always been at the forefront of innovative design. Its distinctive symbol with its bright red circle and blue bar is a familiar sight around the city and its suburbs. An earlier version, with a solid red disc, first appeared on station platforms in 1908 as a way of displaying the station’s name. The famous Underground line diagram, originally designed by Henry Beck in 1931, has become an internationally acknowledged masterpiece.

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When it was opened in 1863, the London Underground, or ‘tube’ as it is affectionately known, was the world’s first urban underground railway. The first line ran between Paddington and Farringdon via King’s Cross and was operated by the Metropolitan Railway. Despite reports in The Times that Londoners would never take to traveling underground, the new railway was an immediate success.

2. Answer the following questions:

1. Why did the Londoners turn their thoughts to constructing an underground railway?

2. What railway engine was bought by the Metropolitan Railway?

3. What is the distinctive symbol of London Underground?

3. Do you have underground in your city? What do you know about it? Text 2.

1. Read the text and choose the best title for it.

a. New train service

b. Eurostar

c. Connection between Europe and UK

It is partly thanks to a railway that the UK’s links with continental Europe are growing ever closer. Eurostar is the international train service that operates from London and Ashford in England through the Channel Tunnel to Paris and Lille in France and Brussels in Belgium.

From these cities, passengers can connect to the railways throughout Europe. Services also run to Disneyland Paris and, in the winter skiing season, to the French Alps.

Eurostar is operated jointly by Eurostar (U.K.) Limited, French Railways (SNCF) and Belgium Railways (SNCB/NMBS). It now carries more people from London to Paris and Brussels than any airline, and research suggests that five times as many people in London and south-east England have visited Paris than before the service started. In return it brings millions of visitors to the U.K.

Each sleek, aerodynamic train carries up to 766 passengers, almost equivalent to two Boeing 747 jumbo jets. At 392 meters long, the trains are over one and a half times as long as the U.K.’s tallest building Canary Wharf. Eurostar reaches speeds of up to 300 kmph, making journey from London to Paris in just less than three hours and to Brussels in two hours 40 minutes. A new rail link now under construction in south-east England will reduce these journey times by a further 40 minutes.

Those who want to take their car through the Channel Tunnel can catch Le Shuttle at Folkestone on the English coast or at Calais in France. Cars, coaches and freight vehicles are carried by 800-metre long rail freight vehicles – the largest purpose designed rail wagons in the world. The journey time from platform to platform is just 35 minutes.