Read the text about electric cars and answer the questions below

Reading and comprehension

Answer the questions.

1) Which methods of transport do you like and dislike?

2) The speed of travel has greatly increased in this century. Why do you think we always go faster?

3) What effect does faster travel have on our lives?

1 Learn the meaning of the following words:

сonsume (v) – тратить, расходовать

average (adj) – средний, обыкновенный

vehicle (n) – транспортное средство

recharge (v) – перезаряжать

range (n) – зд. предел, диапазон

convetional (adj) – обычный, традиционный

consumption (n) – потребление

– What fact suggests that the ideal car should be: small – silent – clean – economical?

– List the advantages and disadvantages of electric cars.

– Describe what a hybrid car is.

ELECTRIC CARS: AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM?

FACT: In 1980 the traffic on German roads consumed 120 million tons of oil.

FACT: In Britain 86 % of all car journeys transport one or two people. The average journey is only six miles.

FACT: Noise and pollution are increasing problems in towns and cities.

The ideal modern car would seem to be a small, silent, non-polluting vehicle, which uses fuel economically. There is only one car which can do all that: the electric car. It recharges at night, when there is plenty of electricity; a small box of electronics replaces complex engine and transmission systems; and the fuel costs are extraordinarily low.

So why aren’t our cities full of electric cars? There have in fact been a lot of electric cars, but none has yet solved the basic problems. First of all, the range of the batteries is only about 40 miles. Secondly, their speed and acceleration are not very good, and lastly they are in fact much more expensive than conventional cars. However, new developments are taking place, which may make the future of the electric car quite different. Scientists are working on a new “high energy” battery which would have an operating range of 159 miles or four times the distance of a traditional battery. The high energy battery would also give a car acceleration equal to that of a motor car.

Another important development is the “hybrid car”. Hybrid cars contain both petrol and electric motors which can be used separately or together. In the town the economical electric motor can drive the car, but once on the motorway the driver can switch to the petrol motor for more power and acceleration. While the petrol motor is on, the electric motor acts as a generator and charges the battery. Moreover, the petrol and the electric motor can also work together at the same time and this keeps petrol consumption low.

Perhaps the electric car is not a dream after all. Maybe one day we will spend more time charging batteries than filling up with petrol.

3 Are these sentences about the text true or false?

– In Britain most car journeys are short.

– An electric car motor is technically simpler than a petrol one.

– With the high energy battery an electric car can go as fast as a motor car.

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