Exercise 2. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate prepositions. Consult the box.

1) ___ the information received by us the ship will arrive on the 10^th of April.

2) I go by bus ___ the Library and then walk a few blocks to my office.

3) ___ his help we finished our work early.

4) Taking off the plane was delayed ___ a heavy rain.

5) The dispatcher can communicate with the loco driver over long distances ___ a radio.

6) The new equipment was used ___ test the vibration of the engine.

7) ___ the trouble in the engine there appeared another in the transmission.

8) The work is going on ___ the schedule.

9) He was late ___ heavy traffic.

10) The Metro station is ___ my house.

11) ___ the new project, the railway will be extended ___ the seaport.

12) ___ win in the competition with air transport, the efficiency and quality of freight and passenger services must be improved.

13) The train departure had not been delayed ___ the accident.

14) ___ this device we can carry out more operations in shorter time.

15) ___ the problem with the car, we enjoyed the journey very much.

16) The engine didn't operate well ___ bad fuel.

17) ___ to sails the boat was also supplied with a motor.

18) No traffic was allowed ___ the accident.

19) In big ports ships are loaded and unloaded ___ powerful cranes.

20) ___ the traffic lights ahead, the car continued moving at the same speed.

21) It is necessary to build good roads ___ promote the rapid development of this region.

22) D.I. Mendeleyev arranged chemical elements ___ their atomic weights.

Exercise 3. Open the brackets using the verbs in the required tense form and translate the sentences from English into Russian.

1) Many people [to be– Past Indefinite Active]afraid of the railways when they first [to appear– Past Indefinite Active].

2) The movement of trains was stopped on that section of the line because the workers [to replace– Past Continuous Active]the sleepers.

3) Several newspapers [to report– Present Perfect Active]that the Russian and Finnish governments [to discuss– Present Continuous Active]a project for the reconstruction of the Helsinki - St.Petersburg railroad known in Finland as the Eastern Railway.

4) There [to be– Past Indefinite Active]a car by the side of the road. It had been broken down and the driver [to try– Past Continuous Active]to repair it.

5) Nowadays crossties are made of wood, concrete, steel, cast-iron;

in some countries experiments [to go on– Present Continuous Active]with plastic sleepers.

6) He [to spend– Present Indefinite Active] all his spare time driving his new car.

7) I [to take– Present Perfect Active]somebody else’s suitcase by mistake.

8) Turn off the gas. Don’t you see the kettle [to boil –Present Continuous Active]?

Exercise 4. Past Indefinite or Present Perfect? Put the verbs into the correct tense forms.

1) I [to lose]my passport last month, and nobody to find it yet.

2) Two years [to pass]since he left.

3) They [to move]to Washington several years ago.

4) The engineer [to show]his foreign friends the bridge in the building of which he to take part in 1980.

5) He [not/ to decide]yet what to do.

6) We [to know]each other since childhood.

7) The journalists [to ask]me many questions at the yesterday’s interview.

8) When … you [to arrive]in Prague? – I [to arrive]here last September. So I [to live]in this city for three months.

9) Are you still studying or … you already [to find]a job?

10) I [to rush] to the platform and [to get]on the train.

11) The coffee I [to buy]last week is very good but very expensive.

12) We [to learn]a lot of words and grammatical rules lately.

13) All my money [to steal]on the way to the airport yesterday and I couldn’t fly anywhere.

14) Mail just [to deliver]by the helicopter

15) …you ever [to visit]other countries? – Yes, I [to be]to France and Spain.

16) Today I [to invite]to give a talk on the radio.

17) Don’t worry! The equipment already [to pack].

18) We first to come to this town more than twenty years ago. Everything [to change]in the town since that time.

19) The nearest way to the station [to show]to them an hour ago, but they [not/ to arrive]yet.

20) She [to ask]the clerk if all the trains arrive on time here.

Exercise 5. Read the text putting the verbs in brackets into the correct form of Past Indefinite Active or Past Indefinite Passive.

The Trans-Siberian Mainline

Siberia is a vast expanse of land that stretches across Russia from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. In the 19th century Siberia [to be] Russia's frontier —thinly populated, largely unexplored, yet possessing vast economic potential. Settlement in the region [to remain] sparse until the building of the unique Trans-Siberian Mainline, which [to connect] the European part of the country with the Pacific Coast and [to make] large-scale immigration possible. According to Minister of Railways S.Witte: "The Great Siberian Railway [to breathe] new life into boundless Siberian lands."

The history of railway construction in Russia [to start] at the end of the 19th century. Railway mainlines were laid down from the Western borders of the country to St. Petersburg and Moscow, from the center to the Volga region and from the Urals to Central Asia. In 1892 the railway network in Russia [to have] a total length of 32,000 km. The Samara-Zlatoust railway was built and later it [to become] a liaison between railways in the European part of Russia and the Trans-Siberian Mainline.

On March 15, 1891 Alexander III [to issue] an imperial prescript addressed to future Emperor Nicholay II which [to state]: "I command to start constructing a railway across all Siberia to connect the Siberian region with the European part of Russia. I also entrust you with ground-breaking of the Great Siberian Track in Vladivostok."

Two projects of the future mainline were proposed - "the southern version" and "the northern version". "The northern version" suggested by the Minister of Railways K.N. Posyet [to win]. According to his project the railway [to be] shorter by 400 km and was passing by the Siberian high road and populated areas.

The building of the Great Siberian Track [to begin] in 1893. Work [to start] at the same time from both the eastern and western terminals. The plan originally [to call] for an all-Russian road, but a treaty with China in 1896 [to enable] the Russians to construct an 800-mile (1,300-kilometer) line through Manchuria, thus shortening the distance to Vladivostok. After Manchuria [to pass] to Japanese hands following the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-05, the Russians [to proceed] with a longer railway entirely on their own territory. Construction rates [to be] very fast despite the fact that the railway [to go] through swamps, thick taiga, [to cross] major rivers and huge mountains. One of the main obstacles to completion of the line [to be] Lake Baikal, where there [to be] ferry service. A loop around the lakeshore [to complete] in 1905. By 1916 the Amur River line north of the Chinese border [to finish], and there [to be] a continuous railway on Russian land from Moscow across Siberia. In less than 25 years more than 8,600 km of track [to lay down].

The building of the gigantic mainline [to be] a heroic deed accomplished by Russian construction workers thanks to their tenacious efforts and courage. At first 10,000 workers [to take part] in the construction. Later, their number [to go up] to 100,000. Some of Trans-Siberian stations bear their names - Rukhlovo, Vyazemskaya, Baranovsky, Snarsky, Adrinovka, etc.

Exercise 6. Render the text ‘The Trans-Siberian Mainline’ in 12-14 sentences.

WEB-QUEST

Create a timeline comparing Russian, US and Canadian railroad history. The sites which help you:

http://www.geographia.com/russia/trasib01.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rail_transport