И. А. Курбасова Е. И. Силантьева

ВВОДНЫЕ УПРАЖНЕНИЯ К ТЕКСТУ А



1. Переведите сложноподчиненные предложения; объяс­ните, почему в придаточных предложениях употребляется сослагательное наклонение.

1. It is necessary that the track should be kept in a safe condition. 2. It is desirable that the cost of maintaining a building should be estimated beforehand. 3. The engineer suggests that the bridge should be designed with a double-deck roadway. 4. The designer insists that the experiment with his monorail vehicle should be carried out immediately. 5. Every day [the computers must be carefully examined lest they should fail in service. 6. Modern trains are equipped with radio so that (in order that) the driver should communi­cate with the dispatcher.

2. Прочтите развернутый план текста А, не пользуясь словарем; определите значения выделенных слов и слово­сочетаний, исходя из контекста, и перескажите содержа­ние каждого пункта плана по-русски.

(1) The problem of safety in railway transportation be­comes especially important on account of ever-increasing speeds. Safety depends on many factors. First of all, it is determined by the condition of the track. Railroads have a great deal of machines to test the track and maintain it in a good condition.

(2) The efficient method of stopping trains is another factor which must be given much consideration to in discussing the problem of safety. For stopping trains special devices known as brakes are utilized. The first really successful train brake was devised by G. Westinghouse.

(3) To ensure safety great importance must be also attached to reliable signalling. The function of the signals adopted by the early railways was to provide the interval of time between the passing trains. This method of signalling was known as the time interval method.¹ When the number of trains increased and the late arrival of trains at stations became frequent this method could not assure the space interval between trains and was replaced by the so-called space interval method.

(4) The modern variation of this method is the block system. Under the block system, a colour-light signal (свето­фор) is placed in front of a block section and does not admit a train to the section if it is occupied by another train.

(5) At super-high speeds and in bad weather the driver is unable to read the indications of the colour-light signal. That is why the locomotive cab is now equipped with a small colour-light signal which gives the same indications as the trackside signals. An automatic train stop device also installed in the locomotive cab gives a light and a sound warning about a danger and can stop the train in case of an emergency.

(6) Today, very long railway sections are governed by the dispatcher from a central point. We know this method of governing train movements as CTC or Centralized Traffic Control.

(7) Thus the factors mentioned above contribute a great deal to safety and increase the carrying capacity of the track.