Text b. Walls

A very important part of any structure is a wall. Walls may be constructed in different forms. The walls include windows and doors, heads and sills, stanchion* casings and inner lining panels. The doors and windows provide for controlled passage of environmental factors and people through the wall line. The aluminum heads, sills and windows are fixed from inside the building. After this, the 900 mm and 1.800 mm wide exterior doors are installed. These doors are aluminum framed and pre-glazed or hardwood framed and glazing is done on site. All walls are also designed to provide resistance to passage of fire for some defined period of time, such as a one-hour wall. The function of resisting fire fulfills stanchions. The stanchions are enclosed in casings.

That's why any engineer must know all methods of constructing walls for buildings. Of cause walls are made of various materials to serve several functions. The wails are divided into interior and exterior walls. The exterior walls protect the building interior from external environmental effects such as heat and cold, sunlight, ultraviolet radiation, rain, sound, while containing desirable interior environmental conditions. The exterior walls arc made up of brick cladding, wall planks. The wall planks are designed to be weatherproof and to support the outer cladding. The wall planks and floor units are fixed only while the steel frame is being erected. The concrete floor units are capable of carrying a load of up to 5 kN/ sq m**. Finally, the internal' sills and lining panels are installed. The lining panels are capable of being removed to give access to the services. The lining panels and the internal sills are cavity for heating and electrical services.

* – stanchion – опора, стойка, колонна

** – kN/sq m – кН/кв. м

Exercise 11. Translate the words:

решетка, мачта, центральный ствол со стояками инженерных сетей, башнеподобная конструкция, прикреплять, верхняя часть, доставлять, уровень, зона, кабель, стрела (крана).

Exercise 12. Note in the texts of this unit:

1. Passive Voice

2. Noun-groups

3. Modal verbs

4. ed-forms

Unit 11

Exercise 1. Translate the following:

either…or…, both…and…, most, with, the same, by, nearly, within, for, due to, compared to, following, but, by, about, provided, in case, a series of, until.

Exercise 2. Words to be remembered:

agora – агора

production – производство

pottery – (керамическое) гончарное изделие

metalwork – металлическая конструкция

pitched roof – покатая крыша

pitch (v., n.) – устанавливать, уклон ската крыши

unit – единица, секция

internal – внутренний

chamber – камера, помещение, комната

line (v.) – облицовывать

exedra – экседра, гостиная, зал, ротонда

stoa – портик, стоа (крытая колоннада)

Exercise 3. Read and translate text A.

Text a. Domestic architecture

Since most civic and commercial business was transacted in the open air in the agora, the private houses of the Greeks generally were small until the fourth century B.C., when Greek culture entered a new phase called Hellenistic. Artisans'* houses discovered west of the Athenian acropolis show how the plans were adapted to the irregular street pattern. In such artisans homes there might be a room set aside for the production of pottery or metalwork. Aside from this the house consisted of a small court open to the sky, with a series of rooms opening on to it. Of one storey, these houses usually had roofs pitched inward toward the central open court In Priene because of the regular blocks, the houses were rectangles. Typically these had an exedra to the south of a central court, sheltered from the sun and winds, and a megaron** or «oikos», the major public room.