Text 2: Textile fiber

Task 1. What is a textile fiber? Read the text and see if you were right.

Fiber (also spelled fibre) is a class of materials that are continuous filaments or are in discrete elongated pieces, similar to lengths of thread. Human uses for fibers are diverse. They can be spun into filaments, string, or rope, used as a component of composite materials, or matted into sheets to make products such as paper or felt. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. Synthetic fibers can often be produced very cheaply and in large amounts compared to natural fibers, but for clothing natural fibers can give some benefits, such as comfort, over their synthetic counterparts.

A unit in which many complicated textile structures are built up is said to be textile fiber. Natural fibers include those produced by plants, animals, and geological processes. They are biodegradable over time. They can be classified according to their origin:

• Vegetable fibers are generally based on arrangements of cellulose: examples include cotton, hemp, jute, flax, ramie, sisal.

• Wood fiber, distinguished from vegetable fiber, is from tree sources. Forms include groundwood, thermomechanical pulp.

• Animal fibers consist largely of particular proteins. Instances are silkworm silk, spider silk, sinew, catgut, wool, sea silk and hair such as cashmere, mohair and angora, fur such as sheepskin, rabbit, mink, fox, beaver, etc.

• Mineral fibers include the asbestos group. Asbestos is the only naturally occurring long mineral fiber.

Synthetic generally come from synthetic materials such as petrochemicals but some types of synthetic fibers are manufactured from natural cellulose, including rayon, modal, and Lyocell. Fiberglass, made from specific glass, and optical fiber, made from purified natural quartz, are also man-made fibers that come from natural raw materials, silica fiber, made from sodium silicate (water glass) and basalt fiber made from melted basalt. Cellulose fibers are a subset of man-made fibers, regenerated from natural cellulose. The cellulose comes from various sources. Modal is made from beech trees, bamboo fiber is a cellulose fiber made from bamboo, seacell is made from seaweed, etc. Polymer fibers are a subset of man-made fibers, which are based on synthetic chemicals rather than arising from natural materials by a purely physical process.

Task 2. Identify if these sentences are true  or false .

1) The meaning of the words “fiber” and “fibre” is quite different.

2) People don’t often use natural and synthetic fibers.

3) Synthetic fibers can often be produced very expensively and in large amounts compared to natural fibers.

4) Natural fibers include those produced by plants, animals, and geological processes.

5) Examples of wood fibers are cotton, hemp, jute, flax, ramie, sisal.

6) Mineral fibers include the petroleum group.

7) Modal is the synthetic fiber made from beech trees.

8) Animal fibers consist largely of particular proteins.

9) Fiberglass is made from specific optical metal.

10) Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials.

Task 3. Find the proper English equivalent in the text.

1) штучне волокно; 2) волокна неозначеної довжини; 3) подібні до довжини нитки; 4) різноманітні; 5) відповідники; 6) деякі переваги; 7) з різноманітних джерел; 8) зроблений з водоростей; 9) суто фізичний процес; 10) відповідно до походження; 11) існуючий; 12) бобер; 13) норка; 14) віскоза; 15) відрізнятись (від); 16) нафтохімікати; 17) кропива; 18) коноплі; 19) сировина; 20) одиниця.

Task 4. Prepare 10 questions for your groupmates in written form using the information in the text. Ask and answer with your groupmates.

Task 5. Retell the text “textile fiber”.