Text 12. Plan of the Modern British Town

It is easy to distinguish from one another the market-town, the country town, the industrial town because the main work carried on in each of them is so different. But in any town all these tasks are being carried on, each by at least a few people. Every town has some banks and some offices, some workshops and some police stations, some dealers in local produce.

Most British towns have long histories. They have seen many changes in the way people live and the ways they make a living. And all these changes have brought about changes in the streets and buildings of the town itself.

In every town one can find sections where old buildings have been torn down and replaced by new ones. There are also other sections where the old buildings still stand but are used today for quite new purposes.

In many towns there is some old part which has stood for the main roads leading into the town from the country winding streets and its tiny shops.

The town centre has probably changed more than any other part of the town. It was always the meeting-place for the main roads leading into the town from the country round. But these roads have now become the busiest and most important streets, so they have had to be widened and straightened to carry the traffic. The old narrow streets and the shops which bordered them have all vanished.

In the central area will be found the commercial centre of the town with its banks, insurance offices and business houses, the offices of the local newspaper and the principal theatres and cinemas. As the town grows its centre also swells and pushes out the other quarters of the town.

In most cases the town centre was already established when the first railway was built, so the town station and the tracks leading to it lie just outside the centre. But railways and industries in most towns developed about the same time and each helped in the growth of the other.

Where the town has continued to grow in recent years and has extended its old industry, or developed a new one, the more modern factories will be found still further from the town centre. They are very different from those of the older and more central industrial area.

The new residential districts are between the main roads and away from the factories. Each has its own shopping centre and often its own cinema and playing fields as well. The coming of the motor-bus and the motor­car has made it possible for the residential part of the town to spread far out into the country into suburbs.

The general use of electricity has enabled the industries to move out too.

 

Text 13. The Practice of Town Planning

Before attempting to describe the processes of modern Planning in practice it is necessary to inquire with some precision what are its main objects and in what direction it is leading.

The main objects of modern Planning are: Beauty, Health and Convenience. There can be little doubt that beauty should stand first as it is the quality which must run through the whole in order to lift sanitation and engineering to the level of civic design and the dignity of city life. It is of course quite understandable that for strategic reasons the word beauty was hidden under the forbidding chill of «amenity» and placed second in order. If town planning is to be complete and to avoid lopsidedness a just equipoise must be attained between these three.

Nor will beauty without health do. In many of the old towns and villages which we most heartily admire picturesque beauty is to be found, but at the expense of health. There is a gloomy grandeur about the grime of Manchester or the pall of smoke over lower Sheffield, which is comparable to the eruption of a volcano or the burst of a thunderclap, and is thoroughly typical of the strength of these cities. But though smoke may produce wonderful sunsets, we can safely say that beauty which is the cause of a higher death-rate is wrong and must be blown away by the planner at the cost of artistic obloquy or commercial grumbling.

Some of the nineteenth-century Continental Town planning was too much concerned with boulevards and public places and too little with the living conditions behind the fine facades. Conditions as to air space and light were below the English level; and yet the dreariness of our externals has produced more drab urban conditions, and even tended to affect the interior of the houses. One of the chief advantages of the lower density in modern suburban planning has been the possibility of introducing beauty, which here stands for the preservation of trees and greenery, an improved type of domestic architecture, the avoiding of monotony and the planning of the whole site to group houses together, so that besides being indi­vidually pleasing they may make attractive compositions. This aspect of beauty is so modest and so comparatively easy to be got that it should not terrify the most hardened philistine.

Beauty and health stand condemned if they prevent commercial Convenience; and it will be realized that convenience is the most clearly demonstrable of town planning advantages.

Town planning, in a word, intends to make the city in every way a more convenient place to work in, aiming at designing and remodelling its business quarters, manu­facturing districts, railway facilities and water front.

Supplement II

СИТУАТИВНІ МАТЕРІАЛИ ІЗ АКАДЕМІЧНОГО ТА ПРОФЕСІЙНОГО СЕРЕДОВИЩА СТУДЕНТІВ

My Native Town

1. Study the following words and phrases:

to be located	розташовуватись
a tributary	притока
to mention	згадувати
manuscript	рукопис
anniversary	річниця
to destroy	руйнувати
amber	бурштин
building and facing stone	будівельний та лицювальний камінь
chalk	крейда
peat	торф
fieldspar	польовий шпат
tuf	туф
ancient	стародавній
former	колишній
to house	розміщувати
to be associated with	пов'язаний з
unfading pages	невмирущі сторінки
victim	жертва
to tower	височіти
to be immortalized	бути увічненим
to bear	носити
headquarter	загін
to wage	вести
regiment	полк
to unveil	урочисто відкривати
suburbs	передмістя
rebellion army	повстанська армія
plaque	меморіальна дощечка
bonded fabric	неткані матеріали
factory for high voltage equipment	завод високовольтного обладнання
mineral fertilizers works	завод з виробництва міндобрив
spare parts for tractors works	завод тракторних запчастин
high precision instruments	інструменти високої точності
furniture	меблі
foodstuff	продукти харчування
consumer goods	товари широкого вжитку
varied	різноманітний
puppet-show	ляльковий театр
movie-theatre	кінотеатр
fine arts school	художня школа
wide network of children's day care centres	широка мережа дошкільних установ
health facilities	лікувальні заклади
drug store	аптека
swimming pool	плавальний басейн
steadily	постійно
rapidly	швидко
expand	розширяти
to welcome	радо приймати

 

Listen to the text. Try to understand what it is about. Read the text and then answer the questions after it. Say what new information you have learnt and what you are familiar with.

RIVNE.

Rivne Region is situated in the north-west of Ukraine. The area is 20.1 thousand sq.km. 624 deposits of minerals, in particular basalt, amber, building and facing stone, chalk, kaolin, feldspar, peat, tuf and sands can be found in Rivne Region. Sources of mineral water can be found in Ostroh, Spepan’, Korets and Zhobryn (Chervona Kalyna).

Rivne is the administrative, economic, educational and cultural centre of the region. It is located in the Western Ukraine on the banks of the Ustye river, a tributary to the Goryn river. The population of Rivne is about 300 thousand residents.

Rivne was first mentioned in manuscripts dating back to 1283. During the centuries Rivne was often destroyed by invaders and burned; that's why there are only a few ancient architectural monuments there. Among them of attention is a building of a former gymnasium, where from 1866 to 1874, an outstanding writer, V.G.Korolenko studied. Today the building houses the regional museum. The heroic past of our city is described in numerous books. It was here, in Rivne region, in the village of Pliasheva, near Berestechko, that the Cossack regiments, led by B.Khmelnitsky, M.Kryvonis, t.Bogun and D.Nechaj battled the enemy during the liberation war of 1648-54, being waged by the Ukrainian people against Polish domination. A magnificent monument to the heroes of Berestechko was unveiled on June 16, 1991.

Rivne is associated with the names of many prominent people – writers, scholars, statesmen, military leaders, who lived or stayed here in different times. Leonid Kravchuk, the first president of independent Ukraine (1991-1994), was bornin the village of Velyky Zhytyn, not far from Rivne.

In 1846 Rivne was visited by T.Shevchenko, who was touring the land as a member of Kyiv Archeographic Committee. The town was visited by the great Ukrainian poetess Lesya Ukrainka. In above mentioned Rivne gymnasium, where Korolenko studied, history was taught by M.Kostomarov, Ukrainian historian, ethnographer and writer. A.Kuprin, V.Dokuchayev – these and many other prominent people are connected with Rivne. Rivne Region gave us the Peresopnytsia Gospal, the Ostroh Bible, Grammar by Melentij Smotrytskyi and Ostroh edition of “ABC book” by Ivan Fedorov.

The city has a lot of historical places and monuments, associated with the period of the Civil War and Great Patriotic War of 1941-45. In the city park there is the grave of the Hero of the Civil War Oleko Dundich. The monument to the victims of fascism towers over Byla street. Rivne wrote unfading pages into the history of partisan movement in Ukraine. The feat of our soldiers is immortalized in the Monument on the Victory Square. N. Prikhodko, P.Mirjushchenko Streets are named in the honor of war heroes.

Nowadays the streets of the city bear the names of outstanding and prominent people, such as prince K.Ostrozky, who founded Ostroh Academy; famous Ukrainian historians M.Hrushevsky, M.Dragomanov, M.Kostomarov; world known Ukrainian and foreign writers and poets: T.Shevchenko, I.Franko, L.Ukrainka, M.Kotsyubynsky, A.Pushkin, W.Shakespeare; world famous composers M.Lysenko and P.Tchaikovsky, opera singer S.Krushelnytska, Ukrainian artists Nill Khasevich; the heroes of the national liberation movement and Ukrainian rebellion army R.Shukhevich, C.Savur, S.Bandera and others.

Today Rivne is a developing industrial centre, whose output is known not only in Ukraine, but in many countries abroad. The industry of the region is represented by electricity production, mineral fertilizers, bonded fabric, woodwork, building materials, glass-ware, high-voltage equipment, high-precision instruments, furniture, consumer goods and broad assortment of foodstuff.

The city has general educational schools, lyceums, gymnasiums, technical schools, music and fine arts schools, a wide network of children’s day care centers. Today National University of Water Management and Nature Resources Use, National University of Ostroh Academy and Rivne State Humanitarian University annually admit thousands of young people eager to acquire knowledge. They are training skilled specialists for national economy, education and culture. Besides there appeared some private and commercial higher educational establishments in Rivne.

Rich and varied is the cultural life of our city. The residents of Rivne have the Regional Music and Drama Theatre, named after M.Ostrovsky, Puppet-show, the philharmonic society, movie-theatres, many libraries and numerous museums.

The city possesses a well developed network of health facilities: twelve hospitals, nine policlinics, the Regional Diagnostic and Treatment Centre.

Thousands of local residents go in for physical culture and sports. There is the Avangard stadium, housing twenty five thousand, the motor-cycle track, sport grounds and swimming pools.

The city is steadily and rapidly expanding its borders. New residential districts, where hundreds of families have moved into their new apartments, have grown up in the suburbs. At their disposal are stores, drug stores, cafes and other service establishments. Rivnenshchyna is actively developing tourism in all of its varieties, including green and cultural tourism.

Rivne is called a city of spring and flowers. The people have created the picturesque parks and fountains. The hospitable city welcomes its guests.

 

3. Having read the text try to formulate answers to the following questions:

1. What deposits of minerals can be found in Rivne Region? 2. Where is Rivne located? 3. Rivne is the administrative, economic and cultural centre of the region, isn't it? 4. What is the population of Rivne? 5. When is the first written mention of the city dated? 6. Are there any ancient architectural monuments in Rivne? 7. What outstranding writer studied in Rivne gymnasium? 8. What are historical places and monuments of the city associated with? 9. What was Rivne during the Great Patriotic War? 10. What monuments can one find in Rivne? 11. Whose names do the streets of the city bear now? 12. Rivne is a developing industrial centre, isn't it? 13. What industrial enterprises are there in Rivne? 14. What do they produce? 15. Are there any threatres in Rivne? 16. What universities are there in our city? 17. Whom do they train? 18. Does the city possess a well developed network of health facilities? 19. What recreational and sport facilities are available for residents of our city? 20. What places of interest can you show to a person who would like to go sightseeing in your city?