Vocabulary notes

to confine ограничивать

load нагрузка

bearing опорный; несущий

to mould формовать; отливать

resin смола; канифоль

rigid жесткий; устойчивый

to bend изгибать; сгибать

semi полу…(первая часть сложных слов)

dome купол; свод

overhang нависать; свешивать(ся)

to bond связывать; соединять; сцеплять

to eliminate устранять; исключать

contemporary современный

EXERCISES

I. Read the text and translate it. Discuss what you have learned from it.

II. Translate into Russian:

1. Plastics can be used in this case.

2. This engineer will not be able to find the suitable method.

3. Why do you want to reinforce the dome?

4. This material is to be used for structural purposes.

5. Why has he not been allowed to buy those prefabricated units?

6. These advantages are to be considered.

7. Such elements cannot have been used.

III. Get ready to retell the text and make reports on the use of modern plastics in industry.

Prestressed concrete structures structures

A structure is the part of a building that carries its weight, and for at least half of the world’s civil engineers, structures are most of civil engineering. We should also remember that anything built is a structure. (From an aero plane engineer’s point of view, an aero plane also is a structure.) A structure may be a dwelling house, or a pyramid in Egypt, or a dam built by beavers across a Canadian river. A building is a structure with a roof and much of civil engineering structural design is the design of building structures. The building as a whole is designed by an architect, particularly in a densely populated area. Every structural design includes the foundation design. The structural design itself includes two different tasks, the design of the structure, in which the sizes and locations of the main members are settled, and the analysis of this structure by mathematical or graphical methods or both, to work out how the loads pass through the structure with the particular members chosen. For a common structure, such as a building frame, many methods have been developed for analysis, so that the design and analysis will be relatively easy and may need to be performed only once or twice.

But for any unusual structure the tasks of design and analysis will have to be repeated many times until, after many calculations, a design has been found, that is, strong, stable and lasting. For the typical multi-storey structure in a city, whether it is to be used for offices or dwellings, the most important member which the engineer designs is the floor – for two reasons: it repeats all the way up the building, and it has the greatest effect on the dead load of the building.

Vocabulary notes

structure конструкция; сооружение; строение

to carry выдерживать

dwelling house жилой дом

dam дамба

dense плотный

load (dead, live) нагрузка (постоянная, переменная)

strong прочный

stable устойчивый

lasting длительный

EXERCISES

I. Find the English equivalents for the following Russian words:

здание; вес; строительный проект; по крайней мере; плотно заселённые территории; размер; расположение; относительно; один раз; дважды; расчёты; многоэтажная конструкция.

II. Name the part of speech of the following words:

building; structural; is designed; includes; mathematical; graphical; relatively; may; calculations; greatest.

III. Put up 5 questions to the text.

IV. Make up a summery of the text (using questions of ex. III).