1. What is the text about? 2. What will produce better, ‘smarter’ automobiles? 3. When did onboard navigation become one of the new automotive technologies? 4. What does the onboard navigation system use? 5. What are some cars now equipped with? 6. What can cars equipped with computers and cellular telephones perform? 7. Do microprocessors regulating other systems share data with the CPU? 8. When do the car’s brakes automatically slow the vehicle? 9. What are engineers working on? 10. What advantages have diesel engines?
Exercise 3 Translate and memorize the following expressions from the text.
Expanded use, computer technology, science fiction, to become reality, onboard navigation system, to pinpoint the vehicle’s location, digitized maps, alternative routes, direct repair, to equip with computers, cellular telephone, route directions, to automatically obtain business information over the Internet, to manage personal affairs, looking ahead, to reduce driver errors, anti-collision system, warning signals, diesel engines, heavy vehicles.
Exercise 4 Find synonyms among the following words.
Use, to direct, to link, data, portion, to reach, constantly, automobile, to equip, error, to produce, modern, to adjust, typical, location, consumption, to create, car, position, to achieve, to control, to fit out, to connect, continually, information, to arrange, contemporary, normal, mistake, part.
Exercise 5 Write a summary of the text, presenting the content of each paragraph in 2-3 sentences. Use the expressions:
The main idea of the text is... The text deals with one of the most important (urgent) issues... Much attention (consideration) is given to (classification, description)... It focuses on the matters of … The text gives an overview of... The text is mainly concerned with... The aim of the survey is to show (demonstrate, find)... Particular emphasis is given to the analysis of... The text gives a detailed analysis of (reports on)... To sum up... In conclusion...
Индивидуальное задание для студентов заочного отделения к курсу
«Английский язык»
Вариант № 6/3c
Exercise 1 Read the text and translate it in written form.
Traffic Control
The term ‘traffic control’ refers to not only road, rail, sea, and air transportation but also the traffic of shoppers in a supermarket, the flow of papers in large offices, and the movement of components on an assembly line.
The primary aims of all traffic-control systems are to speed the traveller and to ensure safety, but almost everywhere the crisis of congested systems has supervened. Thus, the most urgent objectives of present-day control systems are to increase vehicle capacity, to unblock problem points, and still to maintain safety. In recent years, the huge cost of upgrading traffic control systems has been a factor in slowing the rate of improvement. But the very size of such systems makes them amenable to computerization that will eventually program and control the movement of all types of traffic.
Some forms of traffic control on roads and highways are simple and relatively inexpensive. These include speed limits, one-way streets, prohibition of turning across oncoming traffic, tidal-flow schemes where lanes are reserved at peak hours, and-above all-clear signs indicating that these controls are in effect. Electric traffic signals were introduced in 1928. Today visual control systems are linked to pneumatic vehicle detectors, electronic queue detectors, and signals and television pictures are fed to a central computer control room, with human managers, who can take charge in an emergency. Before the 1984 Summer Olympics, Los Angeles installed 3,200 computer-linked sensors in the intersections at 800 traffic signals in its central, downtown area. A similar system in New York City was installed in the mid-1990s. (The city’s basic problem has remained unchanged owing to a lot of cars on the city streets.) Basic queuing theory has assisted in speeding traffic flow systems.
Cybernetics and Transport
Man has always been striving to make physical work easier by using ever more efficient tools and mechanical means. The greatest progress has been made in the past 100-120 years. In 1850 man’s muscle power accounted for 15 per cent, animal muscle power for 79 per cent, and water, wind and steam machines for only 6 per cent of mankind’s total power balance, nowadays the muscle power of men and animals constitutes about one per cent of the total power expenditure and the other 99 per cent is being generated by steam, gas, electric and other engines.
However, steady technological progress has been accompanied by growing intellectual and nervous strain on man connected with the control of new machinery. To see for yourself how true this is, just look into the driver’s cab of a modern diesel locomotive, into the wheel-house of an ocean-going ship or into the cockpit of a modern airliner, with their multitudinous controls and indicator dials.
This has presented today’s world with new problems. At present, there is only one way of solving these problems, namely, through extensive use of highly efficient means and methods of cybernetics. Its immense possibilities as a science dealing with the most general laws of control have opened up boundless prospects for the automation of complex and labour-consuming process in all spheres of human activities.
