Dudinka-Norilsk.
Warm-up activities
- Look at the title of the text and guess what it is about.
- Guess whether the following statements are true or false then read quickly through the text and see if your guesses were correct.
- Dudinka is connected with Norilsk via the federal motorway.
- A temporary railway connected the wharf on the Enisey River with the building site of the plant.
- All the enterprises of the Arctic branch of the Mining and Metallurgical Company "Norilsk Nickel" are integrated via the railway.
Dudinka-Norilsk.
Dudinka is connected with Norilsk via the federal motorway, the only one in the region. At the exit from Dudinka, there is a police checkpoint where almost all cars, except for taxis and local government cars, are checked.
The railway from Dudinka to Norilsk, parallel to the motorway, is unique in its own way.
1____A narrow-gauge railway was laid in the winter of 1936-37. From 1943 to 1953, the railway was straightened and converted to wide gauge. Almost 700 million tons of cargo has been transported during the 65 years the railway has been in operation. A single train loaded with this much cargo would surround the earth at the equator four times. Nowadays, all the enterprises of the Arctic branch of the Mining and Metallurgical Company "Norilsk Nickel" are integrated via the railway. There are 38 locomotive sections, 2,5 thousand railroad cars for different purposes, and more than 100 units of special equipment-snowplows, section cars and track machines. The current speed of the trains is not high, only 25-35 km/h. There are hardly any snow-retaining shields left. They were invented by the engineer Mikhail Potapov, a former prisoner of the Norilsk Camp.
2_______But in some places, there are new ones made of ferroconcrete. One can see a lot of partridges, hares and polar foxes near the tracks.
KOSAYA RIVER AND THE SPRING
At the 17-km point of the railway, just past the bridge over the small Duroma River, 3________They try to come here at least once during the short polar summer. Plain tables with awnings, benches, and shashlik are the same as anywhere. But on the horizon there are six enormous striped dishes for deep-space communications.
At the point 45 km from Dudinka, 30 meters to the right of the railway, there is a natural spring, it is noticeable from afar, since a large Old Believer's cross stands nearby. Many drivers stop here to take some water, 4__________
MONUMENT TO RAILROADERS
Not far from the Alykel airport, where the Dudinka-Noritsk motorway comes closest to the railway, there is a GR № 274 locomotive near the wooden bridge over the Ambarnaya River. Nowadays, such locomotives are seen only in old newsreels. This small steam locomotive is a reminder of the time around February of 1937, when the very first train traveled along the original 14-Km narrow-gauge railway. A temporary railway connected the wharf on the Norilka River with the building site of the plant. When a search for a locomotive for the memorial began in 1995, it turned out that none remained here, all having been used as scrap metal. 5_________It was transported here by sea, and was used to create a symbolic and original monument to the first railroaders.
Glossary
- Federal motorway - федеральная автомагистраль.
- police checkpoint - контрольно-пропускной пункт
- narrow-gauge railway - узкоколейная железная дорога.
- cargo - груз
- Arctic branch - полярный филиал предприятия.
- equipment-snowplows - снегоуборочная техника.
- snow-retaining shields - снегозадерживающие экраны, щиты.
- ferroconcrete - железобетон
- partridge - куропатка
- polar fox - песец
- awning - навес, тент
- deep-space communications - дальняя космическая связь
- newsreel - кинохроника
- wharf - пристань, причал.
- scrap metal - металлолом.
COMPREHENSION
Scan the text for answers to the following questions.
1. How is Dudinka connected with Norilsk?
2. Why was the railway from Dudinka to Norilsk important?
3. Who was Mikhail Potapov?
4. Where do people like spending the summer weekend?
5. How does the monument to the first railroaders look like?
1. The sentences below have been removed from the text. Decide which sentence goes in each of the numbered gaps in the text. There is one sentence which you don't have to use.
- Read the text once to make sure that you have a good general idea of what it is about.
- Look at the sentences that have been removed and try to get an idea of the subject of each one.
- Look at each gap in the text in turn, at the sentence before it and the sentence after it.
- Decide on one sentence for each gap.
A) Which is believed to have magical powers and tastes really great.
B) They made it possible to blow the snow off the railway to prevent snowdrifts.
C) This is the northernmost railway in the world.
D) It is mainly used for taking out the products of the Norilsk mining and metallurgical company.
E) A twin-brother was found somewhere near Odessa.
F) Is a favorite picnic site for people from Dudinka.
2. Match the adjectives with the nouns. Some of adjectives can be used more than once.
federal narrow-gauge polar wooden deep-space temporary Arctic wide gauge
- communication
- railway
- foxes
- motorway
- bridge
- branch
3. Complete the following phrases with the correct prepositions: on, from, at, by, in, with, to. The first one has been done as an example.
1) at least;
2) were invented : the sb;
3) : the point;
4) to connect : sb/sth;
5) : some places;
6) : the horizon;
7) the railway from Dudinka : Norilsk;
8) far:sb/sth.
Keys to the exercises:
Warm-up activities
a) True
b) False
c) True
1. 1-c, 2-b, 3-f, 4-a, 5-e.
2.
1. deep-space communication
2. narrow-gauge, wide gauge, temporary railway
3. polar foxes
4. federal motorway
5. wooden bridge
6. Arctic branch
3.
2) were invented by sb;
3) at the point;
4) to connect with sb/sth;
5) in some places;
6) on the horizon;
7) the railway from Dudinka to Norilsk;
8) far from sb/sth.
Использованная литература.
1. Michel Strogoff, Pierre-Christian Brochet. Guidebook TAIMYR. // "Avant-Garde" Publishers, Moscow, 2004.