Unit 3 Towers

Text A

Towers ⃰

A tower is a tall structure, usually taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are generally built to take advantage of their height, and can stand alone on the ground, or as part of a larger structure or device such as a fortified building or as an integral part of a bridge * ^[1] , the term also denoting a raised structure on a ship or other vehicle. In history, simple towers like lighthouses, bell towers, clock towers, signal towers and minarets were used to communicate information over greater distances.

Towers can also be used to support bridges, and can reach heights that rival some of the tallest buildings above water. Their use is most prevalent in suspension bridges and cable-stayed bridges. The use of the pylon, a simple tower structure, has also helped to build railroad bridges, mass-transit systems, and harbors. Control towers are used to give visibility to help direct aviation traffic. Towers have been used by mankind since prehistoric times.

The Chinese used towers as integrated elements of the Great Wall of China ^[2] in 210 BC during the Qin Dynasty. Towers were also an important element of castles. Another well - known tower is the Leaning Tower of Pisa ^[3] in Pisa, Italy built from 1173 until 1372. The Himalayan Towers ^[4] are stone towers located chiefly in Tibet built approximately XIV to XV century.

A modern type of tower, the skyscraper ^[5], has a steel framework from which curtain walls are suspended, rather than load-bearing walls of conventional construction. The steel frame enables to erect buildings taller than ones having load-bearing walls of reinforced concrete. However, sometimes skyscrapers can have curtain walls that mimick conventional walls and a small surface area of windows. Skyscrapers are often not classified as towers, although most have the same design and structure of towers. The tower throughout history has provided its users with an advantage in surveying defensive positions and obtaining a better view of the surrounding areas, including battlefields. They were installed on defensive walls. Today, strategic-use towers ^[6] are still used at prisons, military camps, and defensive perimeters. By using gravity to move objects or substances downward, a tower can be used to store items or liquids like a storage silo or a water tower ^[7].

Notes:

*See the Pictures in the Visual Appendix to Unit 3 corresponding to the reference numbers.

Questions:

1. What kind of structure is a tower?

2. What is a general advantage of such structures?

3. Which towers were intended to communicate information over greater distances?

4. Where are towers used to support construction elements?

5. What was the application of the control towers?

6. Were towers never used in castles?

7. Which tower is well known all over the world and is a tourist attraction?

8. Are skyscrapers classified as towers?

9. What is the difference between a skyscraper and a building of conventional construction?

10. Where are strategic towers used?

Exercise 1

Find the Russian translations from section B for the English words and word groups in section A:

A by a significant margin; height; visibility; cable-stayed bridges; pylon; mass-transit systems; integrated elements; steel framework; skyscraper; curtain walls; load-bearing walls; of conventional construction; suspension bridges; mimick; surveying defensive positions; storage silo; take advantage; reinforced concrete; to erect buildings;

B небоскреб; подражать; воспользоваться преимуществом; несущие стены; высота; висячие мосты; вантовые мосты; системы общественного транспорта; стальной каркас; возводить здания; железобетон; обзорные оборонные сооружения; силосная башня; в значительной степени; обзорность; пилон; подвесные стены; обычной конструкции;

Exercise 2

Read the text and find the terms associated with types of towers and their functions.

Exercise 3

Find in the text the English equivalent of the following Russian verbs:

обозначать; сообщать, передавать; поддерживать; достигать; подвешивать; воздвигать; классифицировать; обозревать; получать; окружать; устанавливать; передвигать, перемещать; хранить.

Exercise 4

Study the table showing the forms of infinitives:

	Active Voice	Passive Voice
Simple Infinitive	to work	to be worked
Continuous Infinitive	to be working	-------------------
Perfect Infinitive	to have worked	to have been worked
Perfect – Continuous Infinitive	to have been working

Now, write down all forms of the Infinitive for the following verbs:

take, fortify, denote, communicate, use, build, integrate, know, suspend, bear, survey, reinforce, classify, provide.

Exercise 5

Find all the Infinitives in the text and define their functions in the sentence.

Exercise 6

Translate the following sentences paying attention to the infinitives and determine their function in the sentence.

1. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design and construction of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that have as their principal purpose, human occupancy, or use. 

2. The Romans made extensive use of the arch to distribute thrust more evenly.

3. We expect the builders to show good results.

4. The construction of the factory is believed to finish at the end of this year.

5. The usual design technique is to check the footing stresses in order to assure the adequate thickness.

6. To make a joint watertight certain materials should be used.

7. Galvanised steel bolts are used to connect the wall panel to the roof beam above.

8. To keep the masonry everywhere in compression is the main object of the structural design.

9. Wooden structures are then destroyed once the concrete has cured sufficiently for the forms to be removed.

10. We know the building technique to be an important branch of modern construction.

11. Walking round St. Petersburg, it is impossible not to wonder at the sheer wealth and variety of architecture created in only 300 years.

12. In contrast to the drab tower blocks of the outskirts, almost none of the buildings in the historical centre can be described as utilitarian.

Exercise 7

Make up your own sentences using the following infinitives as adverbial modifiers of purpose:

Models:

1. To reduce the cost of construction, the engineers used the cheapest building materials.

2. In order to reduce the cost of construction, the engineers used the cheapest building materials.

3. The engineers used the cheapest building materials to reduce the cost of construction

reduce the cost of construction; take advantage of the material`s properties; economize; to make the project feasible; to facilitate the implementation of the plan, become an architect.

Exercise 8

Study the following table and find in the text comparative and superlative degree of the adjectives:

Nominative degree	Comparative degree	Superlative degree
tall	taller	the tallest
significant	more significant	most significant

Exercise 9

Translate the following sentences paying attention at the comparative and superlative degree of the adjectives:

1. The gallery is a less prominent feature of the interior than in earlier churches.

2. Perhaps, the finest of all such doors is the South porch at Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire.

3. One of the most characteristic interiors at Salisbury is the Lady Chapel at the extreme east end, which is a miniature hall church.

4. Le Corbusier's post-war buildings rejected his earlier industrial forms and utilized vernacular materials, brute concrete and articulated structure.

5. Eiffel Tower, the tallest structure in the world until the Empire State Building was built about 40 years later, had several antecedents.

6. A column may be much larger than structurally necessary simply to reassure us that it is indeed big enough for the job.

7. The oldest monuments constructed about 6.000 years ago are the colossal pyramids of Egyptian.

Text B