XII. A. You need to buy some cars for your company fleet and you are deciding whether to buy petrol- or diesel-powered models. First say whether you think these statements are true or false.

1. Diesel cars are generally cheaper to buy than petrol-driven cars.

2. Petrol-driven cars are more expensive to run than diesels.

3. Fewer people bought diesels in the past than now.

4. Over a car’s lifetime, a diesel model will cost less money to run than a petrol-driven one.

5. The performance of petrol-driven cars is better.

6. Pollution from diesel cars is worse.

B. Now read the article and find out the writer’s opinion of diesel.

THE DIESEL ROUTE

In the past, diesel cars had a reputation for being noisier and more sluggish (медленный) than their petrol-driven counterparts. But times have changed and more and more people are discovering that the modern diesel can match the performance of a petrol-driven model. Not only are diesels much more economical to run, but the exhaust from the latest diesel engines is as clean as that from a car with a catalytic converter (нейтрализатор) running on lead-free (неэтилированный) petrol.

According to David Knight, managing director of PHH All-Star, Britain’s largest fleet management company, the time has come for managers to change to diesel. “They’ll be unable to deny the benefits and financial savings of an all-diesel fleet”, he says. Data collected by PHH on the running costs of 120,000 company cars show that petrol-engined cars used 37 % more fuel than diesels, so over the lifetime of the vehicles the diesels worked out far cheaper.

XIII. Look at the table. You are deciding between three different diesels for your company fleet. Work with a partner. Study this information from the table and ask and answer questions about cars.

a) Which car is the cheapest? And which is the most expensive?

b) Which car depreciates fastest? Decide which car to buy and why?

Make	Model	Fuel	List price	Diesel whole-life differential cost
Audi Audi	100D 2.5 100 2.6	diesel petrol	£23,211 £20,460	The diesel is £1,032.65 cheaper
Citroën XM Citroën XM	Turbo 2.1 Turbo 2.0	diesel petrol	£23,035 £22,365	The diesel is £1,411.56 cheaper
Rover Rover	800 2.5 800 2.0	diesel petrol	£18,595 £18,395	The diesel is £1,655.94 cheaper

XIV. Here are some ways of comparing things. Study the examples.

Car A uses	much	значительно	more / less petrol than car B.
	far	намного
Car B	a lot		faster / slower than car A.
	rather
	slightly	незначительно

The Same

Car A uses the same amount of petrol as car B.

Car B uses as much petrol as car B.

Both car A and car B do 18 miles to the gallon.

Car A and car B bothdo 18 miles to the gallon.

Neither car A nor car B is very economical.

Similar

Car A’s design is similar to car B’s.

Car A’s bonnet looks very like B’s.

Car A and car B have similar styling at the back.

Different

Car A’s headlamps are not at all like car B’s.

Car B’s engine design is different from car A’s.

Car A doesn’t use as / so much petrol as car B.

Car A is very / rather / quite different from car B.

XV. Study the graphs. Work with your partner.

A

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

0

. Ask and answer questions about the number of people killed in traffic accidents in Russia in 1995 – 2000, in Kemerovo and compare the figures.