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Testing Times

Exam stress doesn't occur most strongly during the actual exams but in the few weeks just before them. The climax is usually the night before when last minute preparations confirm your worst fears (страх). There are, however, some simple ways of dealing with the problem.

First, one must know that the night before is too late to do any­thing. Much better to go to a dance, for a walk, to the pictures or to play a game rather than increase stress by frantic efforts to plug in gaps (затыкать пробелы) in your knowledge.

The brain is a complex bio-electrical machine which, like a computer, can be overloaded. It does not work continuously. When you study, your brain reaches its maximum efficiency about five minutes you start work, stays at it for about ten minutes and then it is down. Indeed, after thirty minutes your attention wonders (от­влекаться), your memory shuts off, and boredom (скука) sets in.

For this reason, the best way to study is in half-hour sessions with gaps in between of about the same length. It even helps to change subjects and not keep at the same one since it reduces the boredom factor.

Study stress was experienced by Isaac Newton, the greatest mathematical genius, and by Einstein. Newton had a depression af­ter his efforts on gravity.

Einstein had no such difficulty: he would break off and go sailing or play violin — not very well, he said, but it was very comforting.

The lesson here is clear. To avoid exam stress, you have to tell that what you are doing is fun (забава) and the best way to do this is to treat revision as a game. If you stimulate your brain with short, snappy (энергичный) sessions, you will be surprised how quick and sharp you are. A laugh with friends or a walk through the coun­try is really giving your mind the recreation it needs.

ДОПОЛНИТЕЛЬНЫЕ ЗАДАНИЯ

Упражнение 1. А.Прочитайте следующие слова и словосочетания из тек­ста 7А и постарайтесь понять значения выделенных слов.

1. for long journeysin cars

2. arrivingat the motorway

3. the fuel left in the tank

4. the radar aerial

5. the radar only observesobjects ahead of

6. stationaryobjects

7. the red light and buzzerwarn

8. satellite will indicate the route

В. Подберите к выделенному в А слову или словосочетанию соответст­вующее ему по значению.

a. container for liquid or gas

b. electrical device that produces a sound signal

с way taken or planned from one place to another

d. see, watch carefully objects in front of

e. not moving or changing

f. reach a wide road for continuously moving fast vehicles

g. travel to a distant place
h. antenna

Упражнение 2. А.Прочитайте текст и найдите слова и словосочетания, означающие:

a new idea or product, reduce, basis, joining, position, for each car, whole (com­plete), very great, large number (quantity), at a very high level (suddenly), put together or fit the parts of, take (send to), every year, the same, a person who takes part in a race for the first place.

Mass Production

Car manufacturer Henry Ford laid the foundation for the revo­lutionary change in the entire motor vehicle industry.

The key for mass production was not the moving assembly line. It was the complete interchangeability of parts and the simplicity of attaching them to each other. These were the innovations that made the assembly line possible. Taken together, they gave Ford tremendous advantage over his competitors.

Ford's first efforts to assemble his cars, beginning in 1903, were to set up assembly stands on which a whole car was built. Each as­sembler performed many jobs on one car and had to get the neces­sary parts for it.

The first step Ford took to make this process more efficient was to deliver the parts to each work station. Now each assembler remained in the same place all day. Later in 1908 Ford decided that each assembler would perform only one task and move around the factory from car to car. In 1913 cars were placed on a moving as­sembly line. Each assembler performed one task only and remained stationary. This innovation cut cycle time from 2.3 minutes to 1.19 minutes, thus dramatically improving productivity.

Ford's discovery simultaneously reduced the amount of human effort needed to assemble an automobile. What is more, the more vehicles Ford produced, the more the cost per vehicle fell. In the early 1920s Ford produced 2 million identical vehicles a year.

Ford's mass production was adopted in almost every industrial activity in America and Europe.

В. Заполните пропуски, образуя составные слова, общеизвестные слово­сочетания или термины:

... time the cost ...

vehicle ... ... production

assembly ... ... manufacturer

... effort ... industry

Упражнение 3.Прочитайте текст и постарайтесь понять значения выде­ленных слов.

There was a bad accidenton one of the main motorwaysto Paris this afternoon. A big tourist coach broke downon the inside laneof the motorway, and the driver could not move it. It was about 5.30 in the afternoon, the middle of the rush hour,so it soon created a terrible traffic jam.A driver in a BMW doing about 60 mph tried to go round the coach. Unfortunately, another car was coming in the opposite direction.The driver braked hardand tried to stop, but he could not avoidthe accident. The BMW

crashed intothe front of his car. The driver of the BMW died, the other driver was badly injured,and both cars were badly damaged.

Упражнение 4.Выберите из двух выделенных слов или словосочетаний правильное.

1. While turning a corner at high speed my car hit/crasheda lamp post.

2. The only means of arrival/accessto the station is through a dark subway.

3. We managed to complete our journey ahead of/infront of schedule.

4. The police accused the driver of breaking the speed limit/re­striction.

5. Sixty extra policemen were to direct/controlthe traffic out­side the stadium.

6. When her car broke down, she had to catch/takea taxi.

7. There are road works in center streets and long delays/inter­valsare expected.

8. This car is an automatic, so you do not have to adjust/changegear all the time.

9. Only a mechanic could realize/understandthe true amount/extentof the damage to the car.

10. Travellers who wish to visit the old city should travel in the two front buses/coaches.

11. The driver told his passengers to fasten/fix their safety belts.

12. You mustn't ride/drivea motorbike without a helmet.

13. The two buses collided (столкнуться), but luckily none was injured/wounded.

Упражнение 5. А.Прочитайте текст и постарайтесь понять значения слов tube, poor и run.

Many of the world's major cities were built long before the car appeared and people realized the need to built efficient road sys­tems. Current traffic management problems may be connected with old city planning.

The thing that saves some of these cities is an effective public transport system, usually below ground. London has an old but ef­fective underground train system known as a tube,and a compre­hensive bus and train system above the ground. Hong Kong has cheap, swift and effective public transport in the form of Mass Transit Railway, buses and ferries.

But there are newly built cities, such as, for example, Dallas, Baltimore and Los Angeles in America. Dallas is a wealthy city in Texas, which has grown up in an era when cars were considered to be essential to move about. It has an excellent road system, as does Baltimore, another new city with wise city leaders who insisted on building good roads. However, the public transport system in both Baltimore and Dallas is extremely poor.As a result, travel in these cities is easy except for peak hour, when a twenty minute runcan take more than an hour in traffic jams. Los Angeles suffers from chronic highway blockages, despite efforts to encourage people to use public transport.

Cities with good road systems can use other methods to reduce the number of vehicles travelling together at peak hour. Flexible time is one good method: offices open and close at different times so people are travelling to and from work at different times. Vehi­cles carrying more than one person can use special priority lanes, which means they can travel more quickly. There are even systems to make peak hours car use more expensive, with electronic chips recording the presence of a vehicle in a given high traffic area at a given time.

B. Выберите соответствующие тексту А значения слов ferries, poor.

spacecrafts, airplanes, boats, space vehicles; needing help, small in quantity, low in quality.

C. Найдите в тексте А слова, означающие:

1. demand 5. easily changed for new needs or conditions

2. rich 6. full, including many kinds of

3. journey in a car 7. having experience, knowledge

4. fast 8. main public road