Tasks for the text:
1) Read and translate the text (in the written form)
2) Answer the questions in the written form (according to the text):
- How does the language show the importance of some actions and phenomena for the people who speak it?
- Why is knowledge of foreign languages important for Civil engineers?
- What characteristics are necessary for engineers nowadays?
3) Make up the sentences in Indefinite (3 sentences), Continuous (3 sentences) and Perfect (3 sentences) forms, using words in bold from the text and time phrases which justify the usage of the verb form. (Total: 9 sentences)
The words: issue, persuade, solution, transmitting, involves, facility, environment, enhance, behaviour, attitudes.
4) Put the following sentences into negative (1 sentence) and interrogative (4 sentences) forms
1. The importance of language has gone well beyond the study of foreign languages.
2. The study of language involves both grammar and vocabulary, both of which can be applied to learning a foreign language.
3. Understanding a foreign language, like the Tzeltal language of the Maya in Mexico, which has twenty-five words for the idea “carry,” provided perspective to how important carrying was to the Mayan society.
4. Foreign language studies can also enhance understanding of other cultures and business relations with foreign businesses.
5) Write a short essay (150 - 200 words) on the topic:
Civil Engineer of the 21st Century
Test 2 Version 5
Text
While an understanding of the fine arts can be personally rewarding, it can also improve an engineer’s ability to design effectively. The fine arts include sculpture, painting, drawing, architecture, literature, drama, music, and dance. Understanding the strategies applied to creating art can be applied to the design of both structures and engineering products that are aesthetically pleasing, yet functional. Knowledge of the arts can develop a person’s creative ability, which is necessary to produce innovative solutions to societal problems that occur in a rapidly changing technological society. An appreciation of the arts also enhances communication skills and enables an engineer to provide the public with infrastructure that goes beyond functionality. An engineer may view art solely as an attempt to capture reality (e.g., a bowl of fruit or a mountain landscape) into a simplified two-dimensional representation on canvas.
An appreciation of art can expand one’s thinking beyond a narrow utilitarian viewpoint and encourage adopting broader thinking that values emotions and feelings. These characteristics of a painting are similar to those that design engineers use. A design engineer’s building is more than just lines, shapes, materials, and patterns. A course in art appreciation has emphasized the following characteristics of a piece of art:
• Balance: A sense of visual symmetry for the sectors of the art piece.
• Proportion: An artist uses proportions of objects in a picture to control the feelings of the viewer by placing emphasis on certain objects within the art piece. An unrealistic proportion may be used for emphasis and seem to be injudicious by the rational viewer, but it may be the artist’s way of invoking the viewer’s thoughts and feelings.
• Variety: Variations in color, shading, and object shapes can add variety to art, which can invoke feelings in the viewer.
• Unity: While variety is important to keep the artwork from being mundane, unity is necessary to ensure that the artwork as a whole is seen as a single idea or concept.