Английский язык. Жесткова М.В - 55 стр.

UptoLike

ВУЗ: 

СамГУПС | Самара

Составители: 

Рубрика: 

55
the Chinese border [to finish], and there [to be] a continuous railway on Russian land from Moscow
across Siberia. In less than 25 years more than 8,600 km of track [to lay down].
The building of the gigantic mainline [to be] a heroic deed accomplished by Russian
construction workers thanks to their tenacious efforts and courage. At first 10,000 workers [to take
part] in the construction. Later, their number [to go up] to 100,000. Some of Trans-Siberian stations
bear their names – Rukhlovo, Vyazemskaya, Baranovsky, Snarsky, Adrinovka, etc.
Notes:
1
ground-breaking – начало строительства (дороги)
2
high road – тракт
Ex.32. True or false? Correct the false statements.
1) The Trans-Siberian Mainline connects the Asian part of Russia with the Pacific Coast. 2)
Alexander III commanded to start constructing the Great Siberian Track. 3) Six projects of the
construction were proposed. 4) The project of the Minister of Railways Witte won. 5) The first rail
of the future Trans-Siberian Railway was laid down in Vladivostok. 6) The length of this railway is
more than 80,600 km. 7) About 5,000 workers took part in the mainline construction. 8) The track
went through swamps and taiga. 9) One of the main obstacles to completion of the line was the
Pacific Ocean. 10) The construction lasted 15 years. 11) The Great Siberian Railway breathed new
life into boundless Siberian lands. 12) The building of the gigantic mainline was a heroic deed
accomplished by English construction workers
TEXT D
Read and translate the text using a dictionary. Pay special attention to the words and word
combinations in bold and guess their meaning.
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE AMERICAN RAIL SYSTEM
[1] The American people and its history have a “love-hate” relationship to the railroad.
Without the railroad, the “Wild West” would not have been settled as quickly as it was. Was this
a good or a bad thing? Ask an average Native American and then ask an average White
American. The railroads eventually put the cowboys out of business, too. The American Civil
War came to a close, in part, because the Union had an extensive railroad system and the
Confederacy did not. Ask an American from Louisiana what s/he thinks about the Northern
victory and then ask someone from Massachusetts. But to move to a more contemporary question,
ask someone from New York if they would rather fly to Los Angeles or take a train there. What
would you rather do if you had to get from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok?
[2] Steam railways began to appear in the East of the USA in the 1820s. At that time, it was
more of a novelty than an efficient transportation method. If you were a merchant or a bold
immigrant and wanted to move west, you went by boat. The first use of the locomotive for
passenger transport was on Christmas day, 1930, in Charleston, South Carolina. Within the next
decade 4,480 km had been laid, mainly within states along the Atlantic seaborder. As the new
nation grew to the Midwest in the 1850s, tracks totaled 14,400 km in length and by 1860 track
length had almost tripled to 48,000 km. Immigration to cities like Chicago grew because of the
railroads. By 1860 the sheer amount of track in the USA almost equaled the total track length of
the world’s countries combined. In essence, the railroad helped America grow industrially.
Population rates increased dramatically.
[3] As mentioned above, the Confederacy lost the Civil War because it simply did not have
the rail or industrial power that the Union did. Much of the Union strategy was based on cutting
the rail lines between Confederate States. After 1865 to about 1914, the real Golden Age of
American Rail reigned. On May 10, 1869, the Atlantic Coast was linked to the Pacific Coast in
Promontory, Utah. Year round, passengers and merchants could travel/send goods from coast to
coast. By 1885, a series of 4 similar rail lines sprung into action, one of which caused the

Страницы