UNIT I

TRANSPORTATION

A. Vocabularies about Means of Transportation

(1) caravan (2) jeep (3) ferry

(4) scooter (5) train (6) helicopter

(7) pick-up truck (8) bus (9) motor boat

(10) van (11) plane (12) bicycle

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 (13) ship (14) motorcycle (15)taxi/cab (AmE)

(16) subway (17) car (18) jet

(Adapted from: http://www.englishwsheets.com/transports.html)

B. Useful Terms about Transportation

• Traffic jam - a long line of vehicles on a road that cannot move

or can only move very slowly.
• Bumper to bumper traffic – when cars are traveling so close
together that their bumper bars are almost touching
• Hold ups - a situation that stops something from happening or
making progress
• Road rage - violence and angry behavior by car drivers towards
other car drivers
• Rush hour / Peak hour - the time of day when the roads, buses,
trains etc are most full, because people are travelling to or from
work
• Run out of (gas /petrol) – “I ran out of petrol on the highway
and had to wait for 1 hour until help arrived”
• Pull over – “I was driving too fast and the police signaled for
me to pull over”
• Pull out – “the car pulled out right in front of me and I almost
hit it”

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• Run over – “I am so upset because this morning I ran over a cat
on my way to work”
• Catcha bus/train – “I am going to catch a bus to work today”
• Drive a car – “I am going to drive my car to the service station”
• Ride a bike/motorbike – “I am going to ride my bike to the
shops”
• Geta plane/taxi – “I am going to get a plane to London”
• To get on a bus/bicycle/motorbike/train - "Are you going to get
on this bus or the next one?"
• To get off a bus/bicycle/motorbike/train - "We will be getting
off the train at the next stop"
• To wait for the bus/train/taxi - "I have been waiting for the bus
for 40 minutes, I hope it comes soon!"
• To get in the car/taxi - "Watch you don't bump your head as
you get in the taxi"
• To get out of the car/taxi - "You will need to get out of the car,
there are too many people in it"
• A journey means the trip between the start and end.
"My journey to campus takes twenty minutes."
• A commute (to commute) means the journey to work
"He commutes to work by train and tube."
"His commute takes him half an hour."
• Bus route means the journey the bus does
"The bus route follows London Road as far as the cinema, then
turns left."
• A bus lane means special part of the road only for buses
"Don't drive in the bus lane!"
• Traffic jam means when there are too many cars, buses etc and
everything goes slowly – or stops. "I'm in a traffic jam – I'll be
late for work."
• Abus stop means where the bus stops for people to get on or
get off (also tram stop)
• Arailway station means where you get on or off a train (also
tube station)
• Asingle or a return (ticket) means a bus, train or air ticket to
go only (single) or to go and come back (return)

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 • Aone-day return (for the train) means when you go and come
back the same day
• Atravel card means a card where you can make multiple
journeys in one day, for example on the London tube
• A season ticket means a train ticket where you can go by train
every day for a month, or a year

Useful Means of Transportation Expressions

TRAVELLING TRAVELLING TRAVELLING TRAVELLING
BY RAIL BY BUS BY AIR BY SEA
station bus terminal airport port
train bus aircraft ship
catch / get on catch/get get on / board embark
get off on/board get off / disembark disembark
platform get off departure gate quay / dock
passenger train departure gate passenger jet / liner
journey coach / bus airplane voyage
depart / leave journey flight sail
arrive depart / leave take off dock
engine arrive land bridge
engine driver driver's seat cockpit captain
corridor / aisle bus driver pilot gangway
aisle aisle
(Adapted from: http://www.english-at-home.com/transport-vocabulary/)

C. Asking and Giving Information

Conversation 1
Tyra : I need to go to Las Vegas for a meeting. Can you
tell me if I can get a bus?
John : That sounds awesome! Well, you can easily find a
bus from the interstate.
Tyra : How often do you ride the bus?
John : I’ve used it three times.
Tyra : Any idea when the bus leaves?
John : I think it leaves at 7.30 AM. But let’s check. Maybe
you can call them.
Tyra : Okay. I will call them and find out.

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Conversation 2
John : Excuse me. I need to go to Land Street. Can you tell
me which train to take?
Terry : Land Street? Isn't that near Smith's Library?
John : Yes, that's right. Smith's Library is right nearby.
Terry : You can take the Green line, and get down at
Browning Street.
John : How can I get Land Street?
Terry : From there, you may take a cab
John : How far is it from Browning Street?
Terry : About 2 KMs I think. You could walk too.
John : The weather is nice today. I might walk. Thank you
for your information.
Terry : No problem. It's a pleasure to help you.
(Adapted from: http://twominenglish.com/287-)

Conversation 3
Anne : How do you get to campus?
John : I usually take the motorcycle.
Anne : How long does it take?
John : It takes about 20 minutes.
Anne : Why don’t you take the public transportation? Is
there any in your town?
John : There are some kinds of public transportation to
campus but I don’t like them.
Anne : Why don’t you like?
John : It takes longer time to get everywhere by public bus
and it isn’t comfortable at all. In addition, the ticket
price is so expensive, the bus overly frequent stop,
and it only has short routes.
Anne : Really?
John : My country hasn’t got a well-functioning public
transportation system so the average number of
public transport users has decreased rapidly.
Anne : What do majority people use to go to work or school
in your town?

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 John : They prefer to ride their private vehicles.
Anne : If most of the people ride their own vehicles, it
means that there are so many private vehicles
operate daily. Does it cause traffic congestion?
John : Of course. Fixing Indonesian public transportation
is badly needed now.

Conversation 4
Winnie : Alright, John. I'll see you at 6.30 at the Central
Station.
John : Okay, I'll be there Winnie, but can't we make it a bit
later? What about 7?
Winnie : I’ll take the 6 PM subway train so I'll get there by
6.30.
John : Why don't you take a bus instead?
Winnie : I don't like traveling on buses, John. The subway is
faster and safer.
John : You're right about that. Okay, see you at 7
tomorrow.

Conversation 5
Tyra : I need to get to Westport St. this evening. Does a
bus go there from Newtown?
Winnie : Well, I don't think so. It's a small street at the other
end of town.
Tyra : Can you tell me how should I get there?
Winnie : I think you'll need to change the bus at West banks.
Tyra : Change the bus? That's going to take me so much
time. Isn't there a better way?
Winnie : You could always go by car, or take the subway.
Tyra : Is there a subway stop at Westport?
Winnie : No, but there's one at West banks and you can get a
bus from there.
Tyra : Oh God….public transportation is always
complicated.

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D. Grammar Focus
There are a number of formulas used when asking for
information in English. Here are other expressions you can use
to ask for information:
• Could you tell me the problems of long-distance travelling in
our country?
• Do you know how to prevent traffic accident?
• I'd like to know the transportation changing in the last few
decades.
• Could you find out the causes of congestion in cities?
• Could anyone tell me about the way to encourage greener
methods of transportation?
• Can you tell me about the problem of transportation in rural
areas?
• Will you tell me about parking problems in your country,
please?
Here are some expressions you can use to give information:
• Preventing traffic accident can be done by driving our car
carefully.
• The growth of the car is faster than the capacity of the road in
the last few decades.
• Too many people do not use public transportation causes
congestion in cities.
• Could anyone tell me about the way to encourage greener
methods of transportation?
• It’s very difficult to find public transportation at night in rural
areas.
• Our country has a hard problem in having large space for
parking area.

E. Activities
A. Discuss the following questions with your partner and tell
your friends about the result of your discussion. The question
could be:
➢ What means of transportation do you use mostly in your
daily life?

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 ➢ What are the advantages of it?
➢ Do you find any weakness?

B. Ask learners if they’ve ever had problems when they were

travelling. What can go wrong? Choose your partner to
prepare the role play in pairs. You cantake one of the
cards, A or B. If you take A card, your partner must take B
card. Tutor will give you time to think about what you
want to say, and to ask you for any language you may
need. Tutor could then ask a few volunteers to do their role
play for the whole class.

The Role Cards:

➢ At The Airport

(A) You work in the check-in at Heathrow Airport.

Today all the flights are cancelled because all of the
pilots are on strike. You have to explain to the
passengers that there will be no flights for at least
threedays.
(B) You reserved your flights 6 months ago to travel to
Australia for your best friend’s wedding. You arrive
at the airport early and go to the check-in. You are
very excited and you only have two weeks off work
so you plan to arrive just the day before the wedding
and then.

➢ At The Train Station

(A) You work for British Rail. You arrived at work this
morning and your boss told you that all trains are
cancelled today because of important engineering
work on the tracks.You have to tell the passengers the
news!

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 (B) You arrive at Paddington train station in the center of
London.You have paid a lot of money for a ticket to
Edinburgh where you have a friend waiting for you.
Your friend doesn’t have a mobile phone and will be
waiting for you at the station.
(C) Make a group of learners who come from the same
city. Ask them to discuss about the traffic and
transportation problem that are typical of their city and
how to solve the problems. After discussing that topic
in group, ask one of the group members to share the
result of the discussion.
(D) Discuss in a group of four about the means of
transportation mentioned by the tutor. Mention the
strengths and weakness of each vehicle. For example: the
class consists of 20 learners. So there will be 5 groups in
your class. Group A is asked to discuss about taxi, group
B will talk aboutdokar or horse-drawn cart, group C can
explore many things aboutojek and the rest two groups
can discuss about train and plane. After some minutes,
ask group A to go to the front and invite all participants
to ask for information about taxi (pay attention to the
expression in asking for and giving information). They
may ask as many as possible to group A. It can be
practiced by group B, C, and so on.

Check out these videos to learn more about this material :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gz_64x854E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGRYhHduX8o