1. Warming up:

   1. What kinds of metals do you know?

   2. What comes to your mind if you see or hear the word “metal”?

2. Look through the text and say what facts about metals you have not mentioned.

M etals are materials most widely used in industry because of their properties. The study of the production and properties of metals is known as metallurgy.

The separation between the atoms in metals is small, so most metals are dense. The atoms are arranged regularly and can slide over each other. That is why metals are malleable (can be deformed and bent without fracture) and ductile (can be drawn into wire). Metals vary greatly in their properties. For example, lead is soft and can be bent by hand, while iron can only be worked by hammering at red heat.

The regular arrangement of atoms in metals gives them a crystalline structure. Irregular crystals are called grains. The properties of the metals depend on the size, shape, and composition of these grains. In general, a metal with small grains will be harder and stronger than one with coarse grains.

Heat treatment such as quenching, tempering, or annealing controls the nature of the grains and their size in the metal. Small amounts of other metals (less than one per cent) are often added to a pure metal. This is called alloying and it changes the grain structure and properties of metals.

All metals can be formed by drawing, rolling, hammering and extrusion, but some require hot-working. Metals can be worked using machine-tools such as lathe, milling machine, shaper and grinder.

The ways of working a metal depend on its properties. Many metals can be melted and cast in moulds, but special conditions are required for metals that react with air.

3. Read the text attentively and answer the following questions:

   1. What are metals and what do we call metallurgy?

   2. Why are most metals dense?

   3. Why are metals malleable?

   4. What is malleability?

   5. What are grains?

   6. What is alloying?

   7. What do the properties of metals depend on?

   8. What changes the size of grains in metals?

   9. What are the main processes of metal forming?

   10. How are metals worked?

4. Read the text again and find the following words and word combinations:

свойства металлов, расстояние между атомами, правильное расположение, сильно отличаются по своим свойствам, кристаллическая структура, размер зерен, закалка, отжиг, волочение, прокатка, ковка, экструзия, горячая обработка, плавка и отливка в формы, способы обработки металлов.

5. Make a plan of the text.

6. Retell the text according to your plan.

Iron & steel

1. Warming up:

What things you know are made of iron or steel?

2. Look through the following text and give Russian equivalents to the underlined words, word combinations and terms.

The refining of iron and steel has had a tremendous effect on modern society. Cars, tractors, bridges, trains (and their rails), tools, skyscrapers, guns, ships – even the common steel can – all depend on iron and steel.

Iron is an incredibly useful substance for several reasons. It is extremely strong. By heating it, iron is relatively easy to bend and shape using simple tools. Unlike wood, iron can handle heat, so you can build things like engines from it. Unlike most substances, you can magnetize iron, making it useful in the creation of electric motors and generators.

Iron is plentiful – 5 percent of the Earth's crust is iron, and in some areas it concentrates in ores that contain as much as 70 per cent iron. Iron can be created relatively easily with tools that were available to primitive societies.

T he only real problem with iron and steel is rust. But you can control rust with paint, galvanizing, chrome plating.

To make iron, you start with iron ore. Iron ore is simply rock that happens to contain a high concentration of iron. All of the iron ores contain iron combined with oxygen. To make iron from iron ore, you need to eliminate the oxygen to create pure iron.

The most primitive facility used to refine iron from iron ore is called a bloomery. The more advanced way to smelt iron is in a blast furnace. A blast furnace is charged with iron ore, charcoal or coke (coke is charcoal made from coal) and limestone (CaCO₃). Huge quantities of air blast in at the bottom of the furnace. The calcium in the limestone combines with the silicates to form slag. At the bottom of the blast furnace, liquid iron collects along with a layer of slag on top. Periodically, you let the liquid iron flow out and cool. The liquid iron typically flows into a channel and indentations in a bed of sand. Once it cools, this metal is known as pig iron.

Pig iron contains 4 percent to 5 percent carbon and is so hard and brittle that it is almost useless. You do one of two things with pig iron: you melt it, mix it with slag and hammer it to eliminate most of the carbon (down to 0.3 percent) and create wrought iron. When you heat wrought iron, it is malleable, bendable, weldable and very easy to work with.

Steel is iron that has most of the impurities removed. Impurities like silica, phosphorous and sulphur weaken steel tremendously, so they must be eliminated. The advantage of steel over iron is greatly improved strength. The open hearth furnace is one way to create steel from pig iron. Another way to create steel from pig iron is the Bessemer process. Most modern steel plants use what's called a basic oxygen furnace to create steel.

A variety of metals might be alloyed with the steel at this point to create different properties. For example, the addition of 10 percent to 30 percent chromium creates stainless steel, which is very resistant to rust.

3. Read the text attentively and answer the following questions:

1. Why is iron an incredibly useful substance?

2. What is the only real problem with iron?

3. How can we cope with the problem?

4. Why has refining of iron and steel had tremendous effect on modern society?

5. What substances are used to refine iron?

6. Why is pig iron almost useless?

7. What can we do with this kind of iron?

8. What is steel?

9. What processes and facilities are used to make steel?

   4. Complete the sentences:

1. Pig iron is almost useless because…

2. Wrought iron is very easy to work with when…

3. You can control rust with …

4. Greatly improved strength…

5. Iron is an incredibly useful substance…

5. Describe the process of iron and steel manufacturing using the following words and expressions:

start with; iron combined with oxygen; to eliminate; pure iron; to smelt; to charge; blast furnace; charcoal; limestone; combine with; at the bottom of; to collect; on top; periodically; once.

6. Retell the text using the following expressions:

The text draws attention….; It describes…; According to the text…; In addition, …; It is important to say that…; Special attention is paid to…; Owing to…; It’s important to say that…; For example…; and Incredibly; Extremely; Tremendous…