Л.А. Бердюгина Some facys about Cars (Немного об автомобилях)

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over a few decades. The car was changing the world, and the building industry’s most famous figures were inventors and innovators like American Henry Ford, Henry Leland, and Charles Kettering.

It is a measure of success of these pioneers that the privately-owned automobile travelling on public highways is the primary transportation system in most industrialized nations. The automobile has had an enormous impact on where people live and work and how they conduct their daily lives, and the millions of cars sold worldwide each year reaffirm their role as a symbol of freedom and affluence (благосостояние).

But despite all the benifits (выгода) the Automotive Age brought with it pollution, traffic jams, oil dependence, and safety problems. Consumers and government regulators around the world are pushing the automotive industry toward a future of constant innovation in search of safer vehicles that emit fewer pollutants and rely on different sources of energy.

Heritage of Invention

By the most accepted dating, the automobile as we know is more than 110 years old. A pair of German engineers, Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz, who separately built primitive cars propelled by internal-combustion engines in the late 1880s. The two pioneers founded companies that later merged (сливать, объединять) into the Daimler-Benz company, maker of MercedesBenz cars. Germany and France were the early leaders in the development of this new invention. It was not until 1896 that the Duryea brothers built the first American cars in Massachusetts and Henry Ford drove his first creation, the so-called quadricycle near Detroit, Michigan. The United States auto industry traces its birth to that year.

Like Daimler and Benz, the Duryeas and Ford chose the spark-ignition, internal-combustion engine to propel their “horseless carriages”. There were competing alternatives, the most prominent of which were steam engines (the well-known and developed technology used in railroad locomotives and ships) and electric power. Steam engines required the driver to plan ahead, boiling water and building up pressure for at least an hour, often longer, before beginning the journey. Although they were successful developments, steam required a reputation for being dangerous, due to several explosions that were widely publicized by advocates of competing propulsion system.

Unlike the early internal-combustion car, electric vehicles did not require a strong upper torso to crank the engine over by hand, nor did they require smelly, flammable (легко-воспламеняющийся) fuel. So pioneering electric

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vehicles had strong backers (сторонник), particularly among women living in cities. The disadvantage was that electric cars could travel only a short distance before they needed recharging, due to the limitations of battery technology. In the first decade of the 20th century, a single battery charge only could last about 130 km (about 80 miles).

In 1911 Charles Kettering made a compact electric motor. The technology quickly found its way into the 1912 Cadillac automobile, which featured the first self-starting engine. Within four years, most American drivers started their gasoline-fueled car engines with the push of a button or twist a switch.

An important exception was Ford’s famous Model T car. That was an important exception, since the Model T was putting America on wheels. Prior to the Model T’s introduction in 1908, cars were mostly playthings (игрушка) for the wealthy. Ford’s vision was to make the car affordable (доступный) to the average person. He made that possible not by cheapening the quality of his product, but by manufacturing it more efficiently through the use of assembly lines. The assembly line had been used in other industries for production of consumer goods (потребительские товары). But Ford perfected its use for so large and complex a machine as car.

Over the 15 years it was produced, the Model T’s price kept dropping as Ford found ways to reduce the costs (затраты) of building cars. The Model T became one of the biggest-selling cars of all time, and Ford’s assembly-line innovation spread throughout the world.

California and the Electric car

California has made a lot to produce the car of the future. Initially motivated by the health risks of smog. Noting that the rising number of cars on the road, the California Air Resources Board (комитет) established a rigid (жесткий) set of mandates in the early 1990s. These rules require a certain percentage of the sales of each automaker in the state to meet increasingly rigid emission standards by certain dates. The standards included provisions (обеспечение) for Low Emission Vehicles (LEVs), Ultra-Low Emission Vehicles (ULEVS), AND Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEVs).

The California ZEV requirement was partially controversial. It virtually required that vehicles be powered by electricity only, and that no pollutants emerge from the car. The original law required that 2 % of any manufacturer’s fleet in the state be comprised of ZEVs by 1977, rising to 10 % in 2003.

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Automakers argued that cars powered exclusively by electricity would either be very expensive for most consumers or useless due to their short driving ranges. They also noted that most of the generating stations needed to produce electricity for battery-powered cars would emit pollutants.

The ZEVs requirements have already had their effect. They forced carmakers to take an entirely fresh look at automotive propulsion, opening the door again for alternatives to gas-fueled, internal-combustion engines. Other states are also beginning to put on the pressure, following California’s lead.

Phrases for resuming the text

1.The title of the text is…

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5.The problem of…is of great importance.

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19.Finally…43

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FILE 1. (to page 7)

You are a manager of a transportation company. Use this information to answer your client’s questions.

The dimensions of your trailers are:

Length – 12 m, width – 2 m, height – 2.5 m. Their cubic capacity is 60 m3.

The maximum load is 23,5000 kg.

FILE 2. Read the specifications of Jeep Cherokee. Ask your partner about 3-door wagon. (See page 24.)

Specifications	5-door wagon	3-door wagon
Wheelbase, in	101.4
Overall length, in	166.9
Overall width, in	67.7
Overall height, in	63.8
Curb weight, lbs	293.2
Cargo volume, cu. ft	71.8
Fuel capacity	5
Front head room, in3	38.3
Max. front leg room, in	41.4
Rear head room, in	38.5
Min. rear leg room, in	34.9

Literature

1.Hollett V. Business Objectives. SB. OUP, 1998.

2.Hollett V. Business Objectives. WB / V. Hollett, M. Duckworth. OUP, 1999.

3.Hollett V. Business Opportunities. SB. OUP, 1999.

4.Consumer Guide. Automobile book. USA, 1995.

5.Duluth News Tribune

6.Moscow News

7.Коноплянко В.И. Организация и безопасность движения / В.И. Коноплянко, В.В. Зырянов, А.С. Березин и др. – Кемерово: Кузбассвузиздат, 2003.

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Contents

Unit I. The history of the Nissan Motor Company	2
Fold-up car that fits in a case	3
Car problems	4
Ford Cartina	5
Guaranteed used cars	6
Size and dimension	7
Who said the electric car was a new invention	8
The EV battery problem ends right here	9
The diesel route	10
Three different diesels and ways of comparison things	11
Graphs: Traffic accidents in Russia, Kemerovo and other countries.	12
A story of Danny's first driving lesson	17
Cars and stars. Love me, love my car	20
Your car is killing the Earth	22
Hyundai Sonata and its specifications	22
Jeep Cherokee and its specifications	23
Questions concerning cars	24
Cars: passion or problem?	27
New age offering to suit the family	30
General Motors introduces first mass-produced electric cars	31
Unit II. Glossary	33
Unit III. Individual texts. Smart cars to enter auto market	37
Wheels of change – the car of the future	39
Phrases for resuming the text	42
Files	43
Literature	43

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Составитель Лидия Абрамовна Бердюгина

Some facts about Cars (Немного об автомобилях)

Методические указания по английскому языку для выработки умений и навыков говорения по проблемам,

связанным с будущей специальностью: 240100 "Организация перевозок и управление на транспорте", 240400 "Организация и безопасность движения"

Редактор З.М. Савина

Подписано в печать 20.05.03. Формат 60×84/16.

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