Text 8 the london underground

Notes to the text:

emergency situation - экстремальная ситуация

In 1890 the first electric, underground railway was opened for public traffic. It’s trains were hauled at a speed of 11^1/2 miles an hour by 12-ton electric locomotives.

The first electric underground railway was a great suc­cess and attracted many passengers but a more frequent service was provided when the system of signalling, was improved.

For many years of its existence London's Underground was the most popular and efficient means of public transport in the city. However, during the five years of World War II it played a far more important part in the life of England's ca­pital, than in the pre-war period.

In those hard days thousands of Londoners had to spend nights in London's Underground. Besides, many ancient books and rare collections from the British Museum spent the war in the underground tunnels. Some of the unused tunnels 5 miles in length were occupied by a factory producing airplanes.

Life for the people at the 79 stations was made as comfortable as possible. There were sleeping accommodations and a clinic at these stations. Special trains carried food to 124 canteens.

The operation of London's Underground was so perfectly organized that even in the worst days of the war it was hand­ling its normal volume of traffic during the day and was used as home by 177,000 people every night.

Great efforts were made in order to ensure a safe opera­tion of the whole system. The underground railways themselves were prepared for any emergency situation. They had duplicate control and power supply system. In order to reduce the dan­ger of flooding the tunnels near the Тhames were equipped with isolating doors. All London trains had special reduced lighting for use on the track sections running on the surface.

EXERCISES

I. Найдите в тексте абзацы, где говорится о Лондонском метро в годы Второй мировой войны.

П. Ответьте на вопросы по тексту:

1. What can you say about the first electric underground railway in London?

2. How was the London Underground used during World War II?

3. What was done to make the people's life in London's Under­ground during the five years of the war as comfortable as possible?

Text 9 electric locomotives

Notes to the text

up-to-date -современный

transfer lines - линии передач

analog simulation - аналоговое моделирование

The Soviet Union occupies the first place in the world as regards the length of its electrified lines and. volume of traffic hauled by electric locomotives (60% of the total volume of railway traffic). A large fleet of electric loco­motives serves this purpose. Every year the home industry turns out hundreds of new electric locomotives for the rail­ways of our country.

Heavy traffic on electrified railways in different cli­matic areas, including permafrost and dry hot regions; requi­res electric locomotives featuring excellent performance and high reliability which are able to haul heavy tracks and are easy to maintain.

The electric locomotives are produced at specialized electric locomotive-building works which are highly mechani­zed enterprises, furnished with automatic transfer lines uni­que complexes, up-to-date testing facilities and railway pro­ving grounds. The designers of the electric locomotives widely use in their work analog simulation, physical modelling and computers taking into account the information obtained during long and successful operation of the large fleet of electric locomotives on the last network of electrified railways in the USSR.

According to the volume of output, parameters of the elec­tric locomotives, and their diversity the Soviet electric lo­comotive building keeps abreast with any firm in the world.

High rates of growth of traffic volume require constant re-equipment of the main-line transport. The electric locomo­tive builders were faced with the problem of designing more powerful locomotives with perspective parameters to provide for considerable increase in the mass of the freight trains and throughput of the railways.

The Soviet-made electric locomotives operate advantageously under various climatic conditions: from semi-deserts to the Far North, at ambient temperatures from plus 40 to mi­nis 60 °C. To produce the locomotives suitable for such adver­se conditions new materials and complementary articles were required.

Greater consideration is given to automatic control systems for the locomotives. Automatic equipment, apart from facilitating the operating conditions of the crew, increases maximum track capacity, materially reduces labour intensity in hauling, increases the service life of the brake shoes, and offers a number of other technical and economical advantages.

EXERCISES

I. Озаглавьте 3-й и 5-й -абзацы текста.

II. Поставьте 2 вопроса к предложению:

The Soviet-made electric locomotives operate advantageously under climatic conditions: from semi-deserts to the Far North, at ambient temperatures from plus 40° to minus 60 C.