7259

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b. Make up sentences explaining the causes of the delays in the schedule. Use the phrases in the box:

Example:

Excavation was delayed for two weeks due to the fact that he excavator broke down.

The excavator broke down which lead to a two-week delay in excavation. The broken excavator resulted in a two-week delay in excavation.

A two-week delay in excavation was a result of the broken excavator.

c. Show all the changes in the project schedule.

2. Write your report according to the following format:

A common structure for a formal report is:

Title

Terms of reference /Introduction

Main body (Findings)

Conclusions

Recommendations

Terms of reference /Introduction usually includes:

who asked for the report

why the report is being written

the purpose/ subject of the report

when it should be submitted by

The introduction to the report sometimes contains the Procedure

– where/how you got the information. Findings are the facts you discovered.

Conclusions are what you think about the facts and how you interpret them.

Recommendations are practical suggestions as to what should be done to solve the problem, remedy the situation, etc.

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Unit 3 New Technologies in Construction

“Building is really not a job for human beings in this day and age. When technology gives us the potential we should leave repetitive tasks to machines and free humans to perform creative work”

(B.Khoshnevis, an engineering professor at the University of Southern California)

Lead in What do you understand by the word “technology”? Can you give a definition?

The words in the box are used in Wikipedia to define the term “technology”. Organise them in the right way to restore the definition (it includes two sentences).

1. No doubt, conventional building technologies will hold their place at the market for long. Houses made of brick, wood, mass reinforced concrete and other materials are still popular. But it does not prevent progressive builders from moving forward...

There are many reasons why builders utilize modern technologies of construction. Can you name any of them?

2. You are going to listen to the interview with Mark Cooper, Senior Analyst of the National Audit Office, UK. This influential government body in the UK was commissioned to prepare a report about the use of modern methods in construction.

Make notes of the reasons for using modern methods listed in the report.

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3.Listen again and answer the following questions:

a.What are the advantages of using modern methods of construction in comparison with the traditional ones?

b.What changes do new methods make to:

the number of workforce on the construction site?

the period of construction?

the quality of houses?

the cost of construction?

c. How much money is it planned to invest into construction with the use of modern methods?

BUILDING TECHNOLOGIES OF THE THIRD MILLENIUM Activity 21. You are going to read an extract from the article “Houses built by

robot?!”

Look through the first paragraph and at the pictures. How does this robot work?

Houses built by robot?!

By this time next year, a California scientist Behrokh Khoshnevis hopes to build a 500-square-foot "house" almost entirely by robot. If his experiment is successful, his next goal is to "print out" a complete one-story, 2,000-square- foot home in a single day with hardly any on-site help from human beings.

nozzle – сопло, насадка

trowel – мастерок

filler material (concrete) is being squirted (выдавливается)

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2. Read the second paragraph of the article and check whether your ideas were right? What Russian equivalent would you use for the name of the technology described?

With federal funding, Behrokh Khoshnevis, a professor of industrial and systems engineering at USC (University of Southern California), has devised a machine that takes its instructions from an architect's computerized drawings and then squirts successive layers of concrete, one on top of the other, to build vertical walls and domed roofs. The technology based on this principle is called Contour Crafting. The chief advantages of the Contour Crafting process over existing technologies are the superior surface finish that is realized and the greatly enhanced speed of fabrication.

The computer-guided nozzle squeezes out a line of wet concrete like toothpaste being deposited on a toothbrush, according to a report from the NewScientist.com News Service. Then a pair of trowels attached to the nozzle shape the concrete as the robot repeats the pouring as many times as is necessary to achieve the programmed height. Khoshnevis' "Contour Crafter" can work around the clock, with no need for breaks. It needs only power and a constant feed of semi-liquid building materials.

3. Various applications

The potential for this technology is immense in terms of the possible applications including (but not limited to) emergency shelters, low-income housing and even for building extra-terrestrial habitats.

Why is this technology applied for the three types of housing? (Under what circumstances and where?)

Could you think of any other possible applications? (military housing)

4. What are the advantages of “Contour Crafting” technology?

Fill in the boxes, then read the paragraph and compare your answers Advantages

Dr Khoshnevis believes that, “Contour Crafting construction projects will be extremely accelerated. This rapid construction minimises the financing costs of construction projects that typically take six months or longer to complete. While the costs of manual labour will be significantly reduced,

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a)to win many brilliants

b)to be very successful in something

c)to be able to count very well

IV. to be in for a paradigm shift means:

a)to be ready to press the key on a computer

b)to be ready to move from one place to another

c)to be ready for radical changes

Universally speaking, the basic parameters to judge any technology should be its overall serviceability in practical terms and its ability to propel the human race forward. Contour Crafting, in the long-term, has the potential to score brilliantly on both these accounts. So, the construction industry is in for a paradigm shift.

domed nozzle deposited soil trowels robot pouring contour power labour resources exposure airborne procedures exploitation robotic propel score

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2.Certain key words are used to speak about Contour Crafting. Complete the key words below and match them to the suitable word in the right

3. Match the following words and phrases to make complete expressions from the article. Translate them into Russian. You will find it easier if you match columns 2 and 3 first. The first one has been done for you as an example: to build a 500-square-foot house

4.Use the key words and the expressions from above to make up a summary of the article.

Useful language can help you.

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-What is the main advantage of it in comparison with other building technologies?

-What do the following figures refer to?

IZODOM TECHNOLOGY

The new building technology known among builders as ICF or Insulated Concrete Form construction spreads over. And it's inevitable because in third millennium one should build faster, more economical, more durable and with higher quality.

__________________________________

I. The suggested ICF construction method is the most modern and is one of innovating building technologies. Now ICF is even used to build houses up to 50 meters high (up to 16 floors).So, what we are talking about is the building technology of permanent EPS shuttering. The principle of this technology is as simple as ABC: hollow insulation forms (made of EPS) are put together like baby bricks and then are filled in with foam concrete. Foam concrete is hardening and the insulation forms are not removed improving thermal efficiency of the building.

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Simple analysis of this table will convince you that heating costs for ICF house decrease 3 times as compared with warm brick house.

III Another advantage of ICF technology is light wall weight: 100 kg / sq. m. against 1500 kg /sq. m. of a brick wall with just 50 sm. thickness. This allows to considerably reduce expenses on basement construction and also to build up additional floors above old buildings where basements cannot bear extra load inevitable when conventional building technologies are used.

IV One more advantage of the offered technology is 10 % gain of interior space due to small wall thickness with the external building size remaining the same. Very important advantage of ICF technology is the short construction period. Practice shows that ICF walling gives 10 times reduction of construction period in comparison with traditional construction methods. This in its turn reduces the time of construction investment return. Besides we have immense reduction of transportation costs, also conduit application works (plumbing, heating, wiring, etc.) become easier.