Fiche de révision : India and Its Railways

📋 Plan du Cours

1. India and Its Colonial Heritage
2. The Maharajas’ Express
3. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway
4. The Bullet Train Project
5. Railway Vocabulary
6. English Grammar and Pronunciation

📖 1. India and Its Colonial Heritage

★ À maîtriser

• The course studies:
  • India’s colonial heritage
  • Indian trains
  • railway stations and their renovation
  • reading and watching strategies

Compléments

• Yoga was born in India more than 5000 years ago as a spiritual, mental and physical practice.

💡 Astuce mémo

Colonial rule → railways shaping Indian history and memory

📖 2. The Maharajas’ Express

🔑 Notions clés & Définitions

• Maharajas’ Express : A fast and luxurious Indian train that travels from Delhi to Mumbai.

★ À maîtriser

• The Maharajas’ Express is named after the Maharajas because of its luxurious and prestigious style, and its passengers are treated like maharajas.

• The train offers:

  • spacious suites
  • precious cars named after precious gems
  • personal-valet service
  • breathtaking landscapes

Compléments

• A short three-night journey on the Maharajas’ Express costs a minimum of about 5,300 $.

💡 Astuce mémo

A luxurious train crossing India from Delhi to Mumbai

📖 3. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

🔑 Notions clés & Définitions

• Darjeeling Himalayan Railway : The first mountain railway in India.

★ À maîtriser

• 🔄 The railway’s history follows these stages:

  1. The British built the railway.
  2. It climbs to Darjeeling.
  3. It follows a very narrow and twisting track.
  4. It becomes part of the identity of the hills.

• The railway is:

  • a cultural icon
  • an engineering milestone
  • a vital tourism anchor

Compléments

• The British used the mountains as a second home away from the stress of colonial domination during the summer.

💡 Astuce mémo

British construction → mountain route → cultural identity → tourism

📖 4. The Bullet Train Project

★ À maîtriser

• The Bullet train project is a collaboration between India and Japan to build India’s first bullet-train line.

• The train will carry 750 passengers from Ahmedabad to central Mumbai in three hours instead of eight hours and will reach 320 km/h.

• India plans to invest 900 billion dollars and Japan 100 billion dollars, with 0.1 % interest to be paid during the next 50 years.

Compléments

• The Bullet train was supposed to enter service in 2023.

💡 Astuce mémo

8 hours by train versus 3 hours by bullet train

📖 5. Railway Vocabulary

★ À maîtriser

• The vocabulary includes these contrasts:

  • common or public = personal or individual
  • evident or obvious = mysterious or secret
  • ordinary or simple = extravagant or fancy
  • simple or ordinary = sophisticated

• Railway vocabulary includes:

  • railway
  • an indelible part
  • track
  • improbably narrow
  • twisting
  • bullet train
  • cut travel time down
  • average speed
  • top speed
  • to carry

Compléments

• The vocabulary also includes: specific or uncertain = eclectic, realistic or possible = incredible or extraordinary, humble = majestic or magnificent, misery or cheap = luxury or opulence, small or narrow = spacious, similar = unusual or different, precious gems, imperfect or wrong = impeccable or perfect, old = modern or contemporary, amenities

💡 Astuce mémo

Ordinary versus extravagant, narrow versus spacious

📖 6. English Grammar and Pronunciation

★ À maîtriser

• The present simple uses do or does, adds -s in the third-person singular, and describes habits, repeated actions, permanent situations and events that happen one after another.

• The past simple uses the base verb with -ed or the second form of an irregular verb, and uses did for questions and negatives about finished past actions or past habits.

• The future simple uses will plus the base verb for certain future events, immediate decisions, offers, promises and warnings.

• The adjective order is:

  • quantity
  • opinion
  • size
  • age
  • form
  • colour
  • origin
  • material

Compléments

• The final -s is pronounced /s/ in works, /z/ in explains and /ɪz/ in watches.

💡 Astuce mémo

Present → past → future

📊 Tableaux de synthèse

Comparaison des trois chemins de fer