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СИБИРСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ ПУТЕЙ СООБЩЕНИЯ

Е.С. БЫКАДОРОВА, С.А. ВЕСЕЛОВА

English for Builders and Architects

Английский язык для строителей и архитекторов

Практикум для самостоятельной работы студентов строительных специальностей

НОВОСИБИРСК

2013

Foreword. Введение

Всоответствии с учебной программой дисциплин по направлению подготовки 270800 «Строительство» практикум для самостоятельной работы студентов строительных специальностей направлен на формирование у студентов первого и второго курсов общекультурных и профессиональных компетенций.

Являясь неотъемлемой частью учебного пособия «Английский язык для строителей и архитекторов. English for Builders and Architects», практикум для самостоятельной работы направлен на овладение студентами терминологии в области строительства.

Комплексный подход, представленный в практикуме, определяет структуру и логику предъявления содержательной учебной информации. Базовые тексты сопровождаются заданиями, направленными на максимально полное их понимание.

Впрактикуме для самостоятельной работы задания представлены системно и наглядно от «простого к сложному»; предлагается достаточно заданий на отработку вокабуляра, орфографии, произношения, стилистики, сочетаемости слов; в зависимости от целевой установки студентам предлагается просмотровое, ознакомительное, изучающее и поисковое чтение, ориентирующее студентов на выполнение профессионально-ориентированных заданий; материалы отражают современные разработки в строительных технологиях.

Практикум ориентирован на студентов 1 и 2 курсов строительных специальностей СГУПСа. Предлагается использовать с учебным пособием «English for Builders and Architects. Англий-

ский язык для строителей и архитекторов».

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“An architect knows something about everything. An engineer knows everything about one thing.” Matthew Frederick (architect)

Unit 1

THE CONSTRUCTION-RELATED ENGINEERING

PROFESSION

(§1) The design and construction industry represents a huge chunk of the world economy. The practice of architecture is centuries old, but this profession did not become recognized until the mid-1800s as the Industrial Revolution unfolded. Before that time, and in the decades that followed, carpenters and masons not only built structures for their clients but served as quasi-designers as well. The era of the Master Builder flourished in the early twentieth century; skilled contractors employing crews of laborers, carpenters, bricklayers, plumbers, and other trades offered clients the benefit of not only their construction experience but their ability to customize past projects to fit the new owner’s requirements.

(§2) The practice of architecture has changed dramatically since those early days. Eighty years ago, a visit to an architect’s office would reveal rows of aspiring architects hunched over their drawing boards preparing hand-drawn designs, erasers at hand, moving T-squares and plastic triangles to form the shape of their structure. Today, the pens and pencils, T-squares, triangles, and erasers have been replaced by powerful computers and specialized software programs. The only noise emanating from those work stations are the mouse clicks and printers from which these intricate designs flow.

(§3) Increasingly advanced software allows an architect to produce a complete list of all of the materials required for the project simultaneously with the progression of the design itself. Architects using other types of computer software can produce threedimensional images to be viewed by their engineers and clients. By adding a time sequence – the fourth dimension – the client can actually see the virtual building being constructed from the ground up before the first shovel of earth is uncovered. This innovation, called building information modeling (BIM), which is now offered by large

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architectural firms, will undoubtedly become mainstream, and new innovations will continue to amaze potential clients.

(§4) Civil engineering is the second oldest engineering discipline, the first being military engineering. Civil engineers deal with site and soils analysis and are engaged by the structural engineer to design a building’s foundation and underground utilities such as storm water sewer and electrical services from their existing location to the structure and any paved areas on the building site.

(§5) The range of engineering specializations ranges across a wide spectrum of activities from mining engineering to outer-space engineering, but in the design and construction industries, six categories prevail: civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, environmental, and materials engineering. These various engineering disciplines, each contributing to specific components of the building, interact with one another and the architect throughout the design and into the construction phase of the project.

(§6) This profession has subdisciplines, such as environmental engineering, geotechnical engineering, water resources engineering, coastal engineering, materials engineering, and surveying. In consultation with the mechanical and electrical engineers, the civil engineer will design the size, location, and composition of all incoming underground utilities: storm water sewer, sanitary sewer, and gas and electric and their connections to existing offsite mains.

Assignments:

1Present phonetic reading of §3, 6.

2Explain the expressions in bold from the text and make up sentences of your own. Use English-English dictionaries to help you.

3Suggest the Russian equivalents:

Crews of laborers; T-squares, triangles, and erasers; employee; dramatically; mainstream; (building) site; customer; paved areas;

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building information modeling; surveying; materials engineering; construction experience; decade; size, location, and composition.

4Give the English equivalents:

Водопроводчик; чертежный угольник; эскиз, нарисованный от руки; военно-инженерное дело; поддисциплина; коллектор для коммунально-бытовых и промышленных сточных вод; каменщик по кладке кирпича; информационная модель здания; занятие, ремесло.

5Read the text again and answer the questions that follow (1–7):

1.How old is the practice of architecture?

2.What have the pens and pencils, T-squares, triangles, and erasers been replaced by?

3.What is the first oldest engineering discipline?

4.Who does civil engineer deal with?

5.What is the role of architecture in the construction process?

6.Which innovation is becoming the mainstream in construction industry?

7.What peculiarities does BIM offer?

6Give a literary translation of §1, 2, 6.

7What is your impression of the information given in the text? Express your ideas in 3–4 sentences.

8In a paragraph of 70–100 words, and using your own words, as far as possible, summarize what the text tells us about the history of civil engineering.

9Find and present additional information about BIM.

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WORD LIST

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“Any design decision should be justified in at least two ways.” Matthew Frederick (architect)

Unit 2

Figure 2.1. Saint-Sophia Cathedral, Kiev

EARLY CHRISTIAN and BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE

Read the text:

(§1) The art characteristic of the developed Byzantine Empire can be traced back to the period just before the reign of Justinian, c. AD 500. The style had enormous influence on both East and West. Early Byzantine art may to some extent be regarded as Roman art transformed under influence of the East. It reached a high point in the 6th century, rose again for a short time to new heights during the 11th and 12th centuries and still survives among Greek or orthodox communities.

(§2) The dominant Byzantine art was architecture. As in Early Christian times, the two chief types of church were basilican and the vaulted centralized church with its separate components gathered under a central dome. Of the latter type, the chief examples are SS Sergius and Bachus (526, Constantinople), San Vitaly (526–547, Ravenna).

(§3) The outstanding example of a basilica which combined the longitudinal qualities of the basilica with the centralized volume of the martyrion was the church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) in Constantinople. It was constructed in a short span of five years (532– 537) during the reign of Justinian. Hagia Sophia is without a clear

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antecedent in the architecture of late antiquity, yet it must be accounted as culminating several centuries of experimentation toward the realization of a unified space of monumental dimensions. Throughout the history of Byzantine religious architecture, the centrally planned structure continued in favor.

(§4) Brick was the main material used for the construction of Byzantine churches. It was covered externally with plaster and internally with thin marble and mosaics above. Byzantine decoration was flat and incised in contrast to the bold modeling of western surfaces.

(§5) The historian Procopius wrote of the great church: “Through the harmony of its measurements it is distinguished by the indescribable beauty”.

(§6) By the 9th century, the Byzantine style was wide spread throughout the countries of the Near East and Eastern Europe, where the Greek and Orthodox religion was followed and was beginning to appear in Russia (the Cathedral of St Sophia in Kiev, Fig. 2.1). These Byzantine churches followed the plan of a Greek cross, that is, a central domed space with four short square arms (evolved c. 7th century). This form of church eventually became almost universal, focusing in the brilliantly lit central space dissolved mystically into the dark screens and galleries in the arms of the cross.

(§7) Examples are to be seen in the small Metropolitan Cathedral in Athens and at churches in Daphni, Salonica, and Stiris.

(§8) Secular architecture in the Byzantine Empire has left fewer traces. Foremost among these are the ruins of the 5th-century walls of the city of Constantinople, consisting of an outer and an inner wall, each originally studded with 96 towers. Some of these can still be seen.

Assignments:

1Present phonetic reading of §§ 3, 6.

2Explain the expressions in bold from the text and make up sentences of your own.Use English-English dictionaries to help you.

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