The different kinds of trains
There are different kinds of trains: passenger trains, mail trains and goods trains. Mail trains carry mail, or post, that is letters, parcels, newspapers and magazines.
Goods trains carry goods. Passenger trains carry passengers. Mail trains and passenger trains are usually combined: they have carriages for passengers and a special carriage or two for mail.
Passenger trains can be slow or fast. A slow train stops at every station. Fast trains have few stops: they stop only at every large station. So we can call these trains respectively stopping trains and non-stopping trains.
There are local trains and long-distance trains. Local trains connect points situated not far away from each other, say, a hundred or two-three hundred kilometers.
By a long-distance train you can travel very far - for thousands of kilometers. If you live in a large city, like St. Petersburg or Moscow, you can go to the suburbs of the city by a suburban train.
Sometimes, when traveling a long distance, you have to change trains (or make a change), that is get off one train and board another, if there is no through train to the place of your destination.
When you are traveling a long distance, it is very convenient to go by an overnight train. Overnight trains have sleeping accommodation: they usually have “corridor cars”, i.e. carriages with separate compartments (they are called sleeping cars, or sleepers).
In each compartment there are two lower and two upper berths, on which you can sleep like in bed. Trains which run by day are called day coaches. You cannot sleep in these trains: they have only sitting accommodation: very comfortable soft armchairs.
Answer the following questions:
1. What are passenger trains, goods trains and mail trains?
2. What is the difference between slow and fast trains?
3. What is a non-stopping train? Does it mean that it never stops?
4. What places can you get to by a local train? By a long-distance train?
5. Why do you sometimes have to change trains (make a change) while travelling?
6. What is an overnight train?
7. What accommodation do you get on an overnight train?
8. How many people can travel in one compartment?
9. Which do you prefer: a lower berth or an upper berth? Why?
10. When did you last travel by railroad?

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