II. Master the Active Vocabulary:

rudder – руль

to steer – править рулем

conveyance – перевозка, транспортировка

hinge – шарнир, крюк

hydrodynamic – гидродинамический

tiller – румпель

helmsman – рулевой, кормчий

pushrod – толкатель клапана

hydraulics – гидравлика

oar – весло

outboard – за бортом

inboard – внутри судна

cockpit – кубрик

III. Answer the following questions:

1. What is a rudder?

2. How does a rudder operate?

3. What are rudders used for?

4. What links rudders to steering wheels?

5. When were the first oars documented?

6. Were stern – mounted oars quite common in Roman river navigation?

7. What are outboard and inboard rudders?

IV. Ask as many questions as possible to the following questions:

1. A rudder operates by redirecting the fluid past the hull.

2. An early example of an oar mounted on the stern is found in the Egyptian tomb of Menna.

3. On Arab ships – the rudder was controlled by two lines, each attached to a crosspiece mounted on the rudder head perpendicular to the plane of the rudder blade.

4. Outboard rudders are hung on the stern.

5. Some sailors use rudder post and mast placement to define the difference between a ketch and a yawl.

6. As the size of ships and the height of the free boards increased, quarter rudders replaced by the sturdier stern – mounted rudders with pintle and gudgeon attachment.

V. Insert the missing words using the text:

1. A rudder is a … used to steer a ship, boat, submarine or other … that move through a fluid.

2. In basic form, a rudder is a … … or sheet of material attached with … to the craft’s stern.

3. In larger …, cables, pushrods and hydraulics may be used to link rudders to … ….

4. An early example of an … mounted on the stern is found in the Egyptian tomb of …

5. Outboard rudders are hung on the …

6. … are defined as having the mizzen mast forward of the rudder post.

VI. Use the following words and word combinations in the sentences of your own:

To steer a ship, to move through a fluid, a flat sheet, to minimize hydrodynamic drag, to act as a lever arm, to link a rudder to a steering wheel, remnants of actual boats, beneath the hull, deck level, to define the difference between a ketch and a yawl.

VII. Read and translate the text “Chinese rudders.”

One of the world's oldest known depiction of a stern-mounted rudder can be seen on a 2 ft. long tomb pottery model of a Chinese junk dating from the 1st century CE, during the Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD). It was discovered in Guangzhou in an archeological excavation carried out by the Guangdong Provincial Museum and Academia Sinica of Taiwan in 1958.

Chinese rudders were not supported by pintle-and-gudgeon as in the Western tradition; rather, they were attached to the hull by means of wooden jaws or sockets, while typically larger ones were suspended from above by a rope tackle system so that they could be raised or lowered into the water. Also, many junks incorporated "fenestrated rudders" (rudders with holes in them, allowing for better control), an innovation adopted in the West in 1901 to increase the maneuverability of torpedo boats. Detailed descriptions of Chinese junks during the Middle Ages are known from various travelers to China, such as Ibn Battuta of Tangier, Morocco and Marco Polo of Venice, Italy.