Английский язык. Жесткова М.В - 69 стр.

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69
Ex.25. Here are the answers. Write the questions.
1) Subsurface lines, ground based lines and elevated lines. 2) Under city streets or under rivers.
3) Only 0.9m long. 4) Directly on concrete base. 5) From the third rail. 6) In 80 cities all over the
world. 7) The cut-and-cover method. 8) On January 10, 1863. 9) In Budapest. 10) In Moscow and
Rome.
TEXT B
Read and translate the text.
LONDON UNDERGROUND
Part 1
The underground railways as a kind of city transport appeared in the second half of the 19
th
century. The first underground system was proposed by Charles Pearson in 1843. Twenty years later
the first line of the London Underground was opened for traffic. Its length was almost four miles.
On that first historic day 30,000 Londoners made the first underground railway travel in the world.
In the early days, the trains were driven by steam locomotives which burnt coal, filling the
tunnels with smoke. It is said that the train staff and porters asked for a permission to grow beards
and moustaches – as an early form of smog mask. The tunnels of the first underground were made
as small as possible in order to reduce the construction costs. The coaches themselves were small
and narrow.
According to Pearson’s project all lines were laid down close to the ground surface. The deep
tunneling came later, in 1890. Constructing the tunnel through miles of clay, sand and gravel is no
easy task, and it was James Henry Greathead who developed the method which made the
construction of most London tunnels possible. One of the longest continuous tunnels in the world is
the 17½ mile tunnel on the Northern line. The first escalator was also installed in the London
Underground in 1911.
During the World War II the London Underground served as a shelter for thousands of
Londoners. Many British Museum treasures spent the war in the tunnels of the Underground. The
railways were prepared for any emergency that might occur. They had duplicate control systems,
repair groups, duplicate power supply and so on. To minimize the danger of flooding the
underground near the Thames, isolating doors were built in the tunnels. All the trains were equipped
with special reduced lighting for using on open sections of track.
Part 2
Nowadays the London Underground (it is often called the Tube) is the most popular means of
city transport because it is relatively cheap, convenient, quick and safe. Its length is about 400 km.
Every day the Tube carries over 2.5 million passengers. The total number of passengers carried by
the Underground each year is enormous and it is constantly growing.
In the London Metro there are 11 underground lines, each of them has got its own color. For
example, the lines are called: Central (red), Circle (yellow), East London (orange), Metropolitan
(dark brown), Northern (black), Victoria (light blue) and so on.
Only half of the trains go under the ground, new lines that connect London with its suburbs go
over the ground. On such routes express trains are operated. They stop at a very few stations on their
way that is very convenient for those people who live in the suburbs but work in the center of
London.
There are 275 stations in the London Metro. Most of them are old and not attractive to the eye.
The walls are simply white or gray plastered with all kinds of advertisements. Numerous stations
which are rather deep under the ground are equipped with escalators. About 200 escalators can carry
10,000 passengers an hour at maximum speed. The longest one is at the station “Leicester Square”,
its length is over 80 feet. On long escalators the speed is changeable. The “up” escalator runs at full

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