II. Choose the right synonym.

1. The dome may be regarded as the three dimensional counterpart of the arch.

a) received b) considered c) chosen

2. Simple domed huts can still be found throughout the world.

a) towers b) small cabins c) skyscrapers

3. The full development of the potential of the truly freestanding dome owed much to Roman concrete.

a) was indebted b) showed c) meant

4. He achieved it by means of numerous related devices:

a) details b) contrivances c) sciences

5. The diameter of the dome of Florence Cathedral slightly exceeded

a) rose b) excelled c) resembled

Exercises

I. Suggest the Russian equivalents

• The tree-dimensional counterpart of the arch;

• at every level;

• the first completely manmade spatial enclosure;

• a wide variety of materials;

• throughout the word;

• bedded rings;

• not completely freestanding;

• in the circumstances of the time;

• was constrained to follow;

• nevertheless;

• slightly exceeded;

• without any centering;

II. Put the verbs in brackets into appropriate form in the following sentences.

1. In its true form, a vertical arch (rotate) around a vertical axis and sweeps out, at every level, a continuous circular horizontal ring.

2. Simple domed huts can still (find) throughout the world.

3. These tombs (depend) for their stability on the earth piled against them outside.

4. The later Western development (initiate) by an achievement that probably exceeded that of Hadrian’s architect of the Pantheon dome.

5. His idea was to construct it, as if it (be) a circular dome of the same internal diameter as the diagonals of the octagon

III. Make some sentences of your own with these expressions.

may be regarded as ….

to owe to …

to succeed in …

IV. Fill the gaps with the words from the text.

1. Loads can be … both along the meridian lines of the vertical arches and … the horizontal rings.

2. Simple domed …, constructed from a wide … of materials, can still be found throughout … .

3. The great tombs at Mycenae were not completely … .

4. The full … of the potential of the truly freestanding dome … much to Roman … .

5. A diameter slightly … that of the Pantheon dome.

6. Brunelleschi succeeded in completing it without … .

7. Florence Cathedral features the first Renaissance … dome.

Lesson 4

Floor system

Warming-up

1. What floor system were used in construction?

2. What floor system is widespread nowadays?

Read the text and say what facts mentioned in it you have never heard before.

The continuous slab constitutes a self-contained floor system, through it may be desirable for non-structural reasons to add a separate top surface and separate ceiling below. Before the development of the reinforced concrete slab, the nearest equivalents were the floor composed of beams of timber or stone set immediately alongside one another, and the floor provided buy a more or less solid fill above a brick or concrete vault. The first of these involved a very extravagant use of material and hence expenditure of effort, so it usually gave way to a more differentiated form with increasing skill in construction. The second was more efficient, inherently strong, and fireproof, and continued to be used for these reasons until supplanted by the reinforced-concrete slab. But it had the drawbacks of greater overall depth than alternative forms, and of greater weight plus the generations of outward thrusts, so that stronger walls were called for.

The alternative to these forms was always some composite system, with beams as the principal spanning and load-bearing elements. In the commonest of these systems, still widely used, light timber beams span at short intervals between opposite walls and are covered by boards or twigs and rammed earth.

Today the usual floor system , apart from intermediate floors within single dwelling, is the reinforced-concrete slab with or without projecting beams. For very heavy loading and wide spans, a girl of beams within a bay may be used to stiffen and strengthen the slab without requiring it to be of great thickness throughout. In all cases, the slab has a great advantage over the earlier systems because it is a good horizontal diaphragm, binding the walls or columns together and distributing and side loads between them.