The Rule of the Road

1. What are the rules of safety first when crossing the street? 2. What are the traffic lights for? 3. What are underground passages for? 4. Where are the underground passages usually built? 5. What is a one-way road? 6. What side of the road do cars keep to when driving: the right or the left? 7. What countries have left-hand driving?

3. Happy New Year to You!

1. Has January always been the first month of the year? 2. Is the New Year celebrated at the same time the world over? 3. What are the different ways of celebrating the New Year in different countries? 4. Why is New Year usually a big holiday? 5. Why do people often send postcards with their best wishes to each other on New Year's Day? 6. How is New Year celebrated in your family? 7. Why is New Year especially enjoyed by children? 8. Do you usually see the New Year in at home with the family or with your friends at a restaurant?

Ex. 44. Read the following. Answer the questions, using the vocabulary of the lesson, and retell the passage.

Traffic in Britain is getting heavier all the time and the roads of most big cities are almost permanently blocked by a slow moving procession of metal cages.* One-way streets and traffic lights have not set­tled the problem. The motorist driving in crowded towns gets very lit­tle pleasure out of it.

Some time ago, a friend of mine who works in a part of the city I do not know very well, invited me to call on him. It took me hours to get there and I drove round and round looking for a place to park my car. At last I parked it in a backstreet. As I was already three quarters of an hour late I hurried off on foot. Walking quickly along the street, I could not help thinking that, nowadays, it is much easier to walk than to drive.

At noon, just as I was leaving my friend's office, it suddenly struck me that I had no idea where I had parked my car. I could hardly go up to a policeman and tell him that I had lost a small green car somewhere! I would simply have to look for it myself. Walking down street after street, I looked over each car closely and was happy to see a small green car just behind an old cart.** But how disappointed I was to discover that though the car was exactly like my own, it belonged to someone else! Feeling quite tired now, I decided to drop the search for a while and went off for lunch. Some time later, I left the restaurant and was walking down the street. Turning the corner, I nearly jumped for joy: my car was right in front of me — and there was no mistake this time. I could not help smiling as I approached it. Stuck on the windscreen was a little ticket which informed me that the car had been visited by a policeman in my absence. On top of all, I had broken the traffic regu­lations!

Questions

1. What's happening on the roads of Britain? 2. What is being done in big cities to settle the traffic problem? 3. Why does the motorist now­adays get so little pleasure out of driving? 4. What business brought the author to a part of the city which he did not know any too well? 5. Why did it take the author hours to reach it? 6. How long did it take him to find a parking place for his car? 7. Where did he park it? 8. Why did he hurry to his friend's office? 9. His friend had every reason to wor­ry, didn't he? 10. What could his friend think seeing that his visitor was so late? 11. What idea suddenly struck the author as he was leaving his friend's office? 12. Had the car been removed in his absence? 13. Why couldn't he tell anybody his sad story? 14. How did he know that the car behind the old cart was not his? 15. Why did he decide to drop his search for a while? 16. How did he happen to find his car? 17. What were his feelings when he discovered his car at last? 18. Why was there a ticket stuck on the windscreen? 19. Why did his spirits sink when he saw it? 20. A ticket on the windscreen meant that he would have to put the matter right with the police, didn't it?

Ex. 45. Read the following, answer the questions, retell the text in English.

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