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Text 3D

DRIVING CARS

It is about the same to drive a car in England as anywhere else. To change a punctured tyre in the wind and rain gives about the same pleasure outside London as outside Rio de Janeiro; it is not more fun to try to start up a cold motor with the handle in Moscow than in Manchester; the roughly 50-50 proportion¹⁾ between driving an average car and pushing it is the same in Sydney and Edinburgh.

There are, however, a few characteristics which distinguish the English motorists from the continental, and some points which the English motorists have to remember.

In English towns there is a thirty miles an hour speed-limit²⁾ and the police keep a watchful eye on law breakers.The fight against reckless driving is directed

extremely skilfully and carefully according to the very best English detective traditions. It is practical­ly impossible to find out whether you are being fol­lowed by a police car or not. There are, however, a few indications which may help people.

The police always use a 13 h. p., blue Wolseley car³⁾, three uniformed policemen sit in it, and on their cars you can read the word POLICE written in large letters in front and rear, lit up during the hours of darkness.

I think England is the only country in the world where you can have to leave your lights on even if you park in a brilliantly lit-up street. The advantage being that⁴⁾ your battery gets exhausted, you cannot start up again and consequently the number of road accidents is greatly reduced. Safety first!

There is a huge ideological warfare going on behind the scenes of the motorist field.

Whenever you stop your car in the City, the West End or many other places, two or three policemen rush at you and tell you that you must not park there. Where may you park? They shrug their shoul­ders. There are a couple of spots in the South Coast and in a village called Ninchinhampton. Three cars may park there for half an hour every other Sunday morning⁵⁾ between 7 and 8 a. m.

The police are perfectly right. After all, cars have been built to run, and run fast, so they should not stop.

This healthy philosophy of the police has been se­riously challenged by a certain group of motorists who maintain that cars have been built to park and not move. These people drive out to Hampstead Heath or Richmond on beautiful, sunny days, pull up all their windows and go to sleep. They do not get a spot of air; they are miserably uncomfortable, they have nightmares, and the whole procedure is called "spending a lovely afternoon in the open."

Notes

50-50 proportion¹⁾ – поровну, пополам

a thirty miles an hour speed-limit²⁾ – предельная скорость 30 миль в час

а 13 h.p., blue Wolseley car³⁾ – голубая машина марки Уосли с мотором мощностью в 13 лошадиных сил

the advantage being that...⁴⁾ – так как в результате...

every other Sunday morning⁵⁾ – по утрам через воскресенье

ORAL PRACTICE

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16