London is a huge metropolitan area that is why public transport is vitally important for the city dwellers as well as tourists, for whom it might be quite confusing to get about London. Unlike Russian public transport, British transport system is reliable and quite cheap. However, due to the increase of car ownership, London traffic has become 3 times as heavy as it used to be and the length of the traffic jams increased dramatically. As a result, the problem of fatal car accidents appeared.Apart from taxies, there are 2 main methods of transport in London: the Underground and the buses. Buses are best for sightseeing, especially double-decker buses. However, they are rather slow, especially during the rush hour. On the traditional double-decker there were no doors and passengers leaped up and off the bus and conductor was moving about and collecting fares from the passengers. However, nowadays fares are given directly to the driver or to the machine. Moreover, London transport has recently introduced single-decker buses which are called "Red Arrows".London Underground, which is also called Tube, offers people more convenient, speedy and direct form of travel. The Underground was opened at the end of the 19th century, in 1884. Now there are more than 270 stations. You can recognize the Tube stations by the red and blue signs at the street level. There is no fixed fare, because it depends on the distance you travel. You can buy a ticket or a ticket-stub from a booking office clerk or from a machine. There are 8 different underground lines in the London Underground system. The travelers, who are not familiar with the Tube, should always consult the map.So, London transport system is rapid and fast, but sometimes it can be really confusing.
From ancient times people dreamed to depart to space unknown to them. For this purpose, a century after a century many scientists and not only, dreamed to make flight in a space. And only in the middle of the twentieth century there came an era of astronautics, having begun with start into a circumterraneous orbit of the first artificial satellite. It was only the first step. After that the astronautics started to develop unprecedented rates therefore in only some years in space the first live beings – dogs Belka and Strelka were sent already. The spacecraft with animals onboard safely returned to Earth. Both dogs felt perfectly. It from them left after herself numerous posterity. But weeds Belka and Strelka was only dress rehearsal of flight in space of the person. On April 12, 1961 the first person went to space. It was our compatriot – Yury Alekseevich Gagarin. The whole world remembered his words said by it before flight: let's roll ! Gagarinsky flight moved heaven and earth, gave hope to people on the future. Gagarin and his followers during rather short period of time turned a space into a usual workplace. New spaceships started to be created, to planets of solar system started automatic devices, into an orbit space stations were deduced, the person left in an outer space and visited the Moon.ПЕРЕВОД: С древних времён люди мечтали полететь в неизвестный им космос. С этой целью, век за веком многие учёные и не только, мечтали совершить полёт в космическое пространство. И только в середине двадцатого века наступила эра космонавтики, начавшись с запуска на околоземную орбиту первого искусственного спутника. Это был только первый шаг. После этого космонавтика начала развиваться невиданными темпами, в результате чего всего через несколько лет в космос были отправлены уже первые живые существа – собаки Белка и Стрелка. Космический аппарат с животными на борту благополучно вернулся на Землю. Обе собаки чувствовали себя прекрасно. Она из них оставила после себя многочисленное потомство. Но полет Белки и Стрелки был только генеральной репетицией полёта в космос человека. 12 апреля 1961 года в космос отправился первый человек. Это был наш соотечественник – Юрий Алексеевич Гагарин. Весь мир запомнил его слова, произнесённые им перед полётом: “Поехали”! Гагаринский полёт перевернул весь мир, дал надежду людям на будущее. Гагарин и его последователи в течение сравнительно короткого периода времени превратили космическое пространство в обычное рабочее место. Начали создаваться новые космические корабли, к планетам солнечной системы стартовали автоматические аппараты, на орбит выводились космические станции, человек вышел в открытый космос и побывал на Луне.
