Ex.4 Read the text “Travelling by train”.

There are various means of travel. We can travel by train, boat, aeroplane, car and finally we can travel on foot. You have, all of you, done a certain amount of travelling, so let's talk about the method of travel you like best.

Should you ask me what kind of transport I like best I'd speak in support of the train. With a train you have speed, comfort and pleasure combined. Suppose you want to go from Moscow to Vladivostok. The taxi brings you to one of the biggest stations in Moscow — the "Severny Terminal."

What place is more interesting than a big station? There is the movement, the excitement, the gaiety of the people going away and sorrow of those who are seeing others off. There are the shouts of the porters as they pull luggage along the platforms to the waiting trains, the crowd at the booking-office getting tickets, the children tightly holding on to the skirts of their mothers, and passengers hurrying to board the train.

At last you manage to make your way through the crowd, closely following the porter, who has taken care of your luggage, and get out on to the platform. There are many tracks and trains there. No need for you to look round and read the signs that tell which train you must take. You follow your porter, and here you are — Car number 2, Train — .

You show your ticket to the guard and in you go into a most wonderful carriage. All is bustle and confusion, with people filing in, bumping into each other, and what not. At last you manage to stow away your luggage and get out on to the platform for fresh air and bid farewell to the well-wishers who have come to see you off.

But you have scarcely time to kiss and hug your friends when the station-master on duty, in a red cap, signals the train. You hear no shrill whistle of the engine — the train pulls out of the station noiselessly and without a jerk.

You are on your way. You start up a conversation with your fellow-passengers (people take to each other quickly when travelling) and soon you get to know who is who and what. Now that the excitement of the day is over you begin to feel hungry.

The dining-car steward happens to come along and you take bookings for dinner or supper, whichever it might be. Then you have time to wash. By that time the guard has made your bed. You take your towel and go to the toilet to wash yourself.

You feel tired now, after a hearty meal, so you decide to turn in. You get into your upper berth and begin to absorb the beauty of the changing scenes that fly past you — the cheerful fields of wheat and corn, the meadows under a mantle of flowers, grass and green moss, the rivers that run through woodland countries, the forests with their delicious sense of peace, and the mountains ribbed with sharp steep ridges.

But drowsiness creeps over you. You close your eyes and soon drift away into that vast mysterious void which men call sleep.

Ex.3Replace the words italicised by appropriate words from vocabulary of the topic.

1. The train left the terminus “on time”. I put my briefcase “on the shelf for light luggage” over my head and relaxed in my seat. Soon the attendant would come and “prepare our beds for the night”. My “sleeper” was not far from “the engine” and two “carriages (away)” from the “restaurant”

2. There are “trains” between London and Manchester “that run in the daytime”. There is also “a train leaving London daily, late in the evening”. Passengers may stay on this train till 8 a.m. and have a good sleep, though the train arrives in Manchester much earlier

3. Have “you got your bags” from the cloakroom?

4. I’m “going north” for the whole winter. So I’m taking a lot of luggage with me. Two big suit-cases will “have to go into special carriage for heavy luggage”.

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