Exercise 37 Make up a story on one of the topics discussed in the text.

1. Yesterday’s and today’s technologies in rail signalling and operation 2. ROC is a type of advanced signalling system 3. Standardization is a way to interoperate within European railway space 4. TBS is a preferred radio signalling technology for the world’s metros 5. Simulation technique and virtual railway in staff training 6. CyberRail is a new multi-media concept to provide information for passengers

Exercise 38 Basing on the logical connectors in the jumbled text below:

a) organize the following paragraphs into a text;

b) suggest the title for the newly organized text; and

c) discuss it with your classmates.

Text

(1) The companies that made these products were proud of their goods. They wanted everyone to know that the products were as modern as possible. So, in all kinds of advertising, companies described their products as ‘high tech’. Soon, everyone knew the expression.

(2) The opposite of ‘high tech’ is ‘low tech’. As you might imagine, low tech describes a technology that is traditional, simple and easy to operate. A wooden plow pulled by oxen is low tech. So is a hand pump that lifts water from a well.

(3) High tech became a popular expression in the United States during the early 1980s. Because of improvements in technology, people could buy many new kinds of products in American stores. Products like small, powerful home computers, or low cost microwave ovens for cooking food quickly, or modern music systems that use digital electronics systems of recording sounds.

(4) ‘High tech’ is the expression that describes very modern technology. High tech is just a shorter way of saying high technology. And high technology describes any invention, system or device that uses the newest ideas of science and engineering. What is high tech? A computer is high tech. So is a communication satellite. A modern manufacturing system is surely high tech.

Exercise 39 Read the text without using a dictionary and write its summary in two or three sentences. Discuss it with your classmates. What are the most notorious computer crimes you have heard of lately?

Computer Crime

In many businesses, computers have largely replaced paperwork, because they are fast, flexible and do not make mistakes. As one banker said, ‘unlike humans, computers never have a bad day’. And they are honest. Many banks advertise that their transactions are ‘untouched by human hands’ and therefore safe from human temptation. Obviously, computers have no reason to steal money. But they also have no conscience, and the growing number of computer crimes shows that they can be used to steal.

Computer criminals don’t use guns. And even if they are caught, it is hard to punish them because there are no witnesses and often no evidence. A computer cannot remember who used it, it simply does what it is told. The head teller at a New York City bank used a computer to steal more than one and a half million dollars in just four years. No one noticed this theft because he moved money from one account to another. Each time a customer he had robbed asked questions about the balance in his account, the teller claimed a computer error, then replaced the missing money from someone else’s account.

Some employees use the computer’s power to get revenge on employers they consider unfair. Recently, a large insurance company in the USA fired its computer-tape librarian for reasons that involved her personal rather than her professional life. She was given thirty day’s notice. In those thirty days, she erased all the company’s computerized records.

All computer criminals have been minor employees. Now police wonder if this is ‘the tip of the iceberg’. One official said, ‘I have a feeling that there is more crime out there than we are catching. What we are seeing now is all so poorly done. I wonder what the real experts are doing – the ones who really know how a computer works.’

Exercise 40 Retell briefly the text using the following expressions:

I titled the text... because...

The text deals with …

The first (second, third, etc) part deals with (tells us about, says that…

I think that this text discusses interesting (topical, urgent) issues because ….

The text reviews the story...

It covers several interesting points concerning...

Exercise 41 How will innovative technologies transform railways in the near future? Give your project.

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