7.4 Ответь на вопросы:

1. What does building refer to?

2. What needs do buildings serve?

3. What types of buildings are mentioned in the text?

4. What is the reason for high ground prices?

5. What are the advantages of multi-storeyed buildings?

7.5 Прочитай и письменно переведи текст skyscrapers:

A building many storeys high was first called a skyscraper in the 1880s in the United States. They were developed in the last part of the 19th century as a result of technological advancement and the social conditions at that time. They are now often referred to as high-rise buildings. The city of New York set the skyscraper pattern. Because the ground beneath the city streets is rock, it is solid enough to take the heaviest loads without subsiding as softer earth would do, and therefore it is well suited to bearing the weight of tall buildings.

Architects and civil engineers all over the United States were experimenting, especially with steel which was much lighter than iron. These tall buildings were required so that millions of people might be able to live and work in a comparatively small area. If skyscrapers are built the population of a whole town can live on quite a small plot of land. This is useful where land is expensive.

Skyscrapers have certain disadvantages. If they are built in a street of ordinary width, where the people who work in them come pouring out at the end of the day, the street will be overcrowded. Moreover, a skyscraper throws a long shadow, thereby keeping the sun from a great many people at certain hours. Two skyscrapers built near one another would be apt to trap the fumes of petrol in the space between them. To overcome these difficulties a scheme called zoning was introduced in the United States in the 1930s, whereby skyscrapers had to be set a certain distance from other buildings, depending on their height. Modern skyscrapers are usually built with open spaces, pedestrian precincts, or shopping centres at street levels to make the surroundings more attractive.

7.6 Определи верны или нет высказывания:

1. Skyscrapers were developed in the 20th century as a result of technological advancement.

2. The ground beneath the city of New York is not solid enough to bear the weight of skyscrapers.

3. American architects were experimenting with steel rather than iron.

4. High-rise buildings were required for those people who wanted to live and work in a big area.

5. Skyscrapers are useful where land is not cheap.

6. The streets in which skyscrapers are built may be overcrowded at the end of the day.

7. High-rise buildings do not have any disadvantages.

8. Skyscrapers can hardly make the surroundings attractive.

7.7 Прочитай и письменно переведи текст roman concrete:

During the Roman Empire, Roman concrete was made from quicklime, pozzolana, and an aggregate of pumice. Concrete, as the Romans knew it, was in effect a new and revolutionary material. Laid in the shape of arches, vaults and domes, it quickly hardened into a rigid mass, free from many of the internal thrusts and strains which trouble the builders of similar structures in stone or brick.

Modern structural concrete differs from Roman concrete in two important details. First, its mix consistency is fluid and homogeneous, allowing it to be poured into forms rather than requiring hand-layering together with the placement of aggregate, which, in Roman practice, often consisted of rubble. Second, integral reinforcing steel gives modern concrete assemblies great strength in tension, whereas Roman concrete could depend only upon the strength of the concrete bonding to resist tension.

The widespread use of concrete in many Roman structures has ensured that many survive to the present day. The Baths of Caracalla in Rome are just one example of the longevity of concrete, which allowed the Romans to build this and similar structures across the Roman Empire. Many Roman aqueducts and Roman bridges have masonry cladding to a concrete core, a technique they used in structures such as the Pantheon, the dome of which is concrete.

The secret of concrete was lost for 13 centuries until 1756, when the British engineer John Smeaton pioneered the use of hydraulic lime in concrete, using pebbles and powdered brick as aggregate. Portland cement was first used in concrete in the early 1840s.