1. He has no right to come without being invited. 2. This railway company is engaged in carrying freight in large-tonnage containers. 3. On having conducted the experiment you had to ventilate the laboratory. 4. Flying from Los Angeles to Tokyo on board of a new supersonic aircraft will take two hours. 5. In 1996, several Asian countries founded the Pan-Asian railway organization with the aim of their individual railways being united into a continuous network. 6. Thank you for having helped me.

Active Vocabulary

fixed ground equipment - постоянные сигналы;

performance – рабочие характеристики;

a guided radar – радиолокационный сигнал с дистанционным управлением;

a classification yard – сортировочная станция;

to shunt – маневрировать,

a shunter – маневровый локомотив,

shunting operation –маневровая работа.

to comply (with) – подчиняться (каким-то правилам);

a cause – причина,

to cause – являться причиной, вызывать;

to set – устанавливать;

to eliminate – исключать, устранять;

(an) emergency – критическое положение, авария;

an obstacle – помеха, препятствие,

to overcome an obstacle – преодолеть препятствие;

survey – исследование, изыскание,

to survey – наблюдать, изучать;

to be under way (construction, investigation …) - находиться в процессе (строительства, исследования….).

Exercise 3. Match the words and word combinations in column A with their Russian equivalents in column B.

READING

Text

AUTOMATION ON RAILWAYS

(1) At present control of high-speed trains is semi-automatic since they are automatically forced to comply with permissible speeds at any instant. Stops at station platforms are under the driver’s control.

(2) The whole line in Japan, for example, is directly controlled from Tokyo and for this purpose is divided into four systems. The state of the line is continuously surveyed and information is transmitted at high speed to the control centre. Each train automatically identifies itself by generating a unique frequency as it passes fixed ground equipment and the information is displayed on the control panel at Tokyo. Trains entering stations automatically set the points system according to classification, i.e. whether super express, express or freight.

(3) One interesting but simple safety feature enables the operator on the line to stop the train in an emergency. It consists of push-button switches placed at intervals of 50m. Operation of the switch completes the circuit, and the consequent indication in the driver’s cab of an approaching train causes the brakes to be applied automatically when at an appropriate distance from the danger position. All the circuits are fail-safe, and the possibility of an accident due to human error has been virtually eliminated.

(4) Great work is being carried out in order to improve circuits’ performance. It means introduction of such techniques as programmed control, obstacle detection by guided radar, controlled braking to a fixed point and centralized computer control.          

(5) Extensive research is under way in our country to utilize television technique in industry, science and agriculture. Some years ago one of the research institutes of our country designed a television apparatus which is now used in railway transport to record the serial numbers of freight cars arriving at a station. As a train pulls in at a station, somewhere at a distance of ten kilometers an operator sees this train on a screen of his television set. The operator reads aloud the serial number of the freight cars and they are recorded by a tape recorder. On another television set the operator can see all the railway lines in a station. The operator only has to press the button and another station will appear on the screen. These installations are used in classifications yards for shunting operations.

Exercise 4.  Go back to paragraphs 1, 2 and 5 of the text and answer the following questions.

1. Are high-speed trains controlled automatically? 2. Who controls stops at station platforms? 3. Why is the whole line in Japan divided into four systems? 4. In what way does each train identify itself? 5. Where is the information of each train displayed? 6. What does automatic points setting depend on?