Text 1.

Foreign Languages in Our Life   

Learning a foreign language isn't an easy thing. Nowadays it's especially important to know foreign languages.

Some people learn languages because they need them for their work, others travel abroad, for the third studying foreign languages is a hobby. Everyone, who knows foreign languages can speak to people from other countries, read foreign authors in the original, which makes your outlook wider.

Over 300 million people speak it is as a mother tongue.

The native speakers of English live in Great Britain, the United States of America, Australia and New Zealand. English is one of the official languages of the United Nations Organization and other political organizations.

English language is a wonderful language. It's the language of the great literature. It's the language of William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and others. Half of the world's scientific literature is in English. It's the language of computers technology.

The great German poet Goethe once said, «He, who knows no foreign language, doesn't know his own one ». That's why in order to understand oneself and environment one has to learn foreign languages.

I think, that to know English today is absolutely necessary for every educated man, for every good specialist.

Foreign languages are absolutely necessary for people nowadays, because of our growing international contacts with foreign countries.

There are many reasons, why we begin to study foreign languages. One studies a foreign language to be able to communicate with other people who speak this language, other study it for future career.

If we are planning to travel to countries where the language we can speak is spoken, we can communicate with people there and understand what they are saying to us.

If we are working in any branch of science, we naturally wish to read scientific books and magazines in other languages to raise our professional level. Making business nowadays also means the ability of speaking foreign languages.

The ability of speaking one or two or even more foreign languages helps people from different countries to develop mutual friendship and understanding. We can also make our intellectual and cultural horizons wider through contacts with people of another culture.

It is also very interesting to read foreign literature in its original form. We can also read foreign newspapers and magazines and understand films in foreign languages without any help and translation.

As for me I learn English, because English is a very popular language all over the world. It is used in many parts of the world and there is a lot of business correspondence and literature in English.

There is a saying: the more languages you speak, the more times you are a human being.

 

Questions:

1 .Is it an easy thing to learn a foreign language? 2. Why do people learn foreign languages? 3. Do you know any foreign language? 4. Where do the native speakers of English live? 5. What can you say about the English language?

6. Are foreign languages necessary for people nowadays? 7. Why do we begin to study foreign languages? 8. What language do I learn? 9. What language am I going to learn?

Vocabulary:

author — автор outlook — кругозор official — официальный mother tongue — родной язык effort — усилие

foreign — иностранный necessary — необходимый nowadays — в наши дни growing — возрастающий reasons — причины to be able — быть в состоянии, уметь to communicate — общаться, разговаривать branch of science — отрасль науки to raise smb's professional level — поднять чей-либо профессиональный уровень mutual — взаимный horizon — горизонт wider — шире through — через in the original — в оригинале compulsory — обязательный secondary school — средняя школа higher school — высшая школа correspondence — корреспонденция, переписка at least — по крайней мере

Text 2. Means of Communication

People use various means of communication to get from one place to another. In the old days people had to travel several days, weeks and months to get to the place they needed. They either went on foot, by coaches driven by horses or on horseback or by boats and ships. Then trams, cars, buses, planes, underground and other means appeared.

Many people like to travel by air as it is the fastest way of traveling. A lot of people like to travel by train because they can look at passing villages, forests and fields through windows. Some people like to travel by car. There they can go as slowly or as fast as they like. They can stop when and where they want.

People who live in big cities use various means of communication to get from one place to another. Londoners use the underground railway. They call it “the tube”. London's underground is the oldest in the world. It was opened in 1863. There was one route at that time, four miles long. Now London's underground has 277 stations and it is 244 miles long. Londoners use buses. The first bus route was opened in London in 1904 Today there are hundreds of routes there. The interesting thing is that some of the routes are the same as many years ago.

London's buses are double-decked buses. Londoners do not use trams, though London was the first city where trams appeared. And now it is one of the biggest cities in the world where there are no trams. The last tram left the streets of London many years ago. Londoners use cars. One can see a lot of cars in London streets. When Londoners leave the town, they use trains, ships or planes.

Text 3. Ukrainian Railroads

Іn Ukraine railroads аге the major mode оf transportation. Because the natural waterways lie from north the east-west traffic must be carried by land transportation in which railways play the dominant role. The lower cost of railroad building and maintenance gives them an advantage over motor vehicle transport. Тhе entire railway network іs divided into 6 railways(directorates): Donetsk, Dnieper, Southern, Lviv, South-western and Odessa. They are subdivided into 26 railway divisions. It’s interesting to know several facts from the history of Ukrainian railroads. The first railroad line in Ukraine build in 1861 connected Lviv, Cracow and Viena. Later the line was extended southward towards Chernivsi in Bukovyna 1886. By the turn of the century nine lines had spread rapidly from Lviv, the largest rail centre in Western Ukraine. The other main junctions with five lines each were Stanislav, Stryi and Ternopil. The first railroad in Eastern Ukraine was build in 1865. It ran from Balta to Odessa. In 1868 it was extended to Yelysavethgrad and from there through Kremenchuk to Kiev 1872. Then Kiev had been connected by rail to Moscow in 1869. The same year the railway line that connected Kharkiv with Moskow was built. During the Second World War over 9,200 km of track were destroyed. Ukraine’s railway returned to their prewar capacity only in 1948.

At present the two major junctions in Ukraine are Kharkiv and Lviv, with eight railroad lines each. Kiev, Bakhmach, Kupianka, Yasynuvata, Kovel, Shepetivka, Stryi and Ternopol are five-line junctions. Since 1950 the railway network had been expanded and improved. Many trunk lines have been double –tracked and approx 7,800 km have been electrified. With the exception of some local lines all lines use either electric or diesel power. The heavily used Kiev-Konotop trunk line is being rebuilt into a three-track main line. Modern track consisting of heavier rails (R-100, instead of R-50 or R-70) a solid ballast-type bed, concrete ties, and deep bide ditches for drainage have a higher load capacity. Containers and longer cars with eight instead of four axles have been introduced. More powerful locomotives make it possible to pull heavier loads at higher speeds loads at higher speed. By European standards train speeds is 45 km/h. Most locomotive used in Ukraine are build at its own locomotive works. Major repair shops are located in Lugansk, Popasna, Dnipropetrovs, Odessa, Lviv and Stryi. From the point of view of foreign specialist the Ukrainian system suffers less from obsolete or outdated rolling stock than managerial incompetence. Suburban traffic has its own problems. The major one is the irregularity of traffic.

Ukraine was divided into six railroad directorates: Donetsk, Dnieper, Southwestern, Odesa, Lviv and Southern.

It is clear that transport is of great importance in the progress of any state. In the development of the national economy of Ukraine railroad transport plays an important role. Compared with other modes of transport railway have a number of essential advantages - lover power consumption, high speed of freight delivery, comparatively low cost of transportation and independence of seasonal or climatic conditions. All these factors determine the role of railways in Ukraine as the main mode of transport. Тhе total length оf Ukrainian railroads аt present іs 30,000 km with almost 8,000 km оf electrified lines. Electrification is considered the backbone оf technical progress іn гаіlway transport. Practically all rail transport іs now either electrically оr diesel powered.

Computerization takes place on the railroads of Ukraine. Computers are employed to prepare daily reports about the work of the railway network.

In present – day Ukraine the main task of railways is to raise their efficiency and improve the quality of work. The efforts of all the railwaymen of Ukraine are aimed at the solution of this task.

I. Write the English equivalents for the Ukrainian words and words combinations.

1.The lover cost of (будівництва та експлуатації залізниць) gives them an advantages over motor vehicle transport.

2. The entire railway network is divided into 6 (директорат, правління), they are subdivided into 26 (відділень залізниці).

3.By then Kyiv (був з’єднаний) by rail to Moscow.

4.By 1913 Ukraine had aprox 15.600 km of rails, some of them (двоколійні магістралі).

5.A number of short lines in the heavily industrialized Dnieper-Donetsk region were opened (для того, щоб послабити напруженість) on the trunk lines.

6.The republic’s capital, Kyiv, has only one (вокзал).

7.Modern tracks consisting of heavier rails, a solid ballast type bed and deep side (дренажні канави) have a higher load capacity.

8.More powerful locomotives make it possible (перевозити вантажі) at higher speeds.

9.The Ukrainian systems suffered less from (застарілий рухомий склад) than from managerial incompetence.

10.(Приміський рух) has its own problems.