Week 6
Text: Conductors and insulators
Grammar: The functions of the infinitive in the sentence
Listening and discussion: Texts “Ancient era”, “Renaissance era”, “Modern era”
I. Read the text
CONDUCTORS AND INSULATORS
All substances have some ability of conducting the electric current, however, they differ greatly in the ease with which the current can pass through them. Solid metals conduct electricity with ease while non-metals do not allow it to flow freely. Thus, there are conductors and insulators.
What do the terms "conductors" and "insulators" mean?
This difference is expressed by what is called electrical conductivity of the body. It depends upon the atomic constitution of the body. Substances through which electricity is easily transmitted are called conductors. Any material that strongly resists the electric current flow is known as an insulator.
Conductance, that is the conductor’s ability of passing electric charges, depends on the four factors: the size of the wire used, its length and temperature as well as the kind of material to be employed.
A large conductor will carry the current more readily than a thinner one. To flow through a short conductor is certainly easier for the current than through a long one in spite of their being made of similar material. Hence, the longer the wire, the greater is its opposition that is resistance, to the passage of current.
There is a great difference in the conducting ability of various substances. Almost all metals are good electric current conductors. The best conductors are silver, copper, gold and aluminum. Nevertheless, copper carries the current more freely than iron; and silver, in its turn, is a better conductor than copper. Copper is the most widely used conductor. The electrically operated devices are connected to the wall socket by copper wires.
A material which resists the flow of the electric current is called an insulator. The higher the opposition is, the better the insulator is. There are many kinds of insulation used to cover the wires. The kind used depends upon the purposes the wire or cord is meant for. The insulating materials generally used to cover the wires are rubber, asbestos, glass, plastics and others. The best insulators are oil, rubber and glass.
Rubber covered with cotton, or rubber alone is the insulating material usually used to cover desk lamp cords and radio cords.
Glass is the insulator to be often seen on the poles that carry the telephone wires in city streets. Glass insulator strings are usually suspended from the towers of high voltage transmission lines. One of the most important insulators of all, however, is air. That is why power transmission line wires are bare wires depending on air to keep the current from leaking off.
Conducting materials are by no means the only materials to play an important part in electrical engineering. There must certainly be a conductor that is a path, along which electricity is to travel and there must be insulators keeping it from leaking off the conductor.
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II. Give the Russian and Kazakh equivalents for the words and word combinations below:
1) conductors;
2) insulators;
3) transmit;
4) resistance;
5) passage of current;
6) socket;
7) to connect to;
8) cord;
9) high voltage transmission line;
10) leak off.
III. State questions to the underlined words:
1) Solid metals conduct electricity with ease.
2) Conductance depends on the four factors.
3) There are many kinds of insulation used to cover the wires.
4) Insulators keep electricity from leaking off the conductor.
5) Conductors play an important role in electrical engineering.
IV. Say whether these sentences are true or false:
1) Electrical conductivity of a body depends upon its atomic constitution.
2) There is no difference in the conducting ability of various substances.
3) The longer the wire is the weaker its opposition is.
4) The kind of the insulating material depends upon the purpose it is meant for.
5) Conductors are substances through which electricity is easily transmitted.
6) Insulators do not allow the electric current to flow freely.
VI. Talk on the conducting ability of various substances and their appliance in electrical engineering.
VI. Grammar:
The functions of the infinitive in the sentence
The infinitive can be used in different syntactic functions. A single infinitive occurs but seldom: in most cases we find an infinitive phrase, i.e. an infinitive with one or several accompanying words.
1. The infinitive as a subject.
To doubt, under the circumstances, is almost to insult. (Ch..Bronte)
Сомневаться при таких обстоятельствах — это почти означает нанести
оскорбление.
То acquire knowledge and to acquire it unceasingly, is the first duty of the artist. (Thurston)
Приобретать знания, и приобретать их непрерывно — вот первый долг
художника.
Even to think of it gave him ineffable torture. (Bennett)
Одна мысль об этом причиняла ему невыразимые страдания.
То be recognized, greeted by some local personage afforded her a joy which was very great. (Cronin)
Когда ее узнавал и приветствовал какой-нибудь видный местный
житель, она испытывала большую радость.
From these examples we can see that the infinitive as a subject can be rendered in Russian by an infinitive, by a noun, or by a clause.
Though the infinitive as the subject sometimes precedes the predicate, cases when it follows the predicate are far more common; with the infinitive in the latter position, the sentence opens with the introductory it, which serves as an introductory subject. The introductory it is not translated into Russian.
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It is useless to discuss the question. (Eliot)
Бесполезно обсуждать этот вопрос.
It was pleasant to be driving a car again. (Braine)
Было приятно снова вести машину.
2. The infinitive as a preidicative.
My intention is to get into parliament. (Trollope)
Моя цель — пройти в парламент.
The infinitive can also be used as part of a predicative.
The abode of Mrs. Betty was not easy to find. (Dickens)
Жилище миссис Бетти было нелегко найти.
3. The infinitive as part of a compound verbal predicate.
(a) With modal verbs, modal expressions, and verbs expressing modality the infinitive forms part of a compound verbal modal predicate.
We must not leave him by himself any longer. (Dickens)
The train was to leave at midnight. (Hemingway)
...I intend to lead a better life in the future. (Wilde)
(b) With verbs denoting the beginning, duration, or end of an action the infinitive forms part of a compound verbal aspect predicate.
Imprisonment began to tell upon him. (Dickens)
Before daylight it started to drizzle. (Hemingway)
Clare continued to observe her. (Hardy)
... they gradually ceased to talk. (Twain)
Exercise 1. State the function of the infinitive and Infinitive Constructions. Translate into Russian.
1. It was then an easy matter for me to go to Paul's room and make an appropriate signal to Kitty, and she turned back, up the street to disappear round the corner into Church Square. (Clark) 2. She made a curious, fumbling gesture towards me, as if to convey a sort of affection. (Hansford Johnson) 3. It was charming to see him play with the two children. (Maugham) 4. To tell you the truth, Mr. Butler, I did not want Aileen to leave your home at all. (Dreiser) 5. I happen to know that he was supposed to come to the wedding. (Salinger) 6. Gertrude gave a long soft exhalation. It made the young man smile at her again; and this smile made her blush a little. To take refuge from blushing she asked him if, after his long walk, he was not hungry and thirsty. (James) 7. Charles Lomax's exertions are much more likely to decrease his income than to increase it. (Shaw) 8. Your shortest way will be to follow the boulevard, and cross the park... but it is too late and too dark for a woman to go through the park alone. (Ch. Brontë) 9. In spite of herself the colour fled from her cheeks instantly, only to come back in a hot, defiant wave. (Dreiser) 10. They hardly expect him to recover consciousness; it was a terrible knock.
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Exercise 2. Point out the Objective-with-the-Iniinitive and the Subjective Infinitive Constructions. Translate into Russian.
1. Never once had she been seen to cry. (Mansfield) 2. It was the first time he had ever seen her weep. (Buck) 3. He didn't mean this to be a long meeting. (Snow) 4. There was a rumour that at last they were likely to be married, (Snow) 5.... without remonstrance she suffered me to have my own way. (Ch. Brontë) 6. Irving proved to be a long, sallow-faced butler chap, solemn as an undertaker. (Priestley) 7. Mr. Worthing is sure to be back soon. (Wilde) 8. I came to get someone to tell me the truth. (Hansford Johnson) 9. I'll have Bertha bring you breakfast. (Stone) 10. Unfortunately, at this moment he chances to catch sight of Judith's face. (Shaw) 11. I have never known Hector Rose behave like this. (Snow) 12. His "office" turned out to be in one of the back streets close by Olympia. (Snow) 13, Conrad pulled out a chair and made her sit down. (Greene) 14. He... looked at his watch, rang the bell, and ordered the vehicle to be brought round immediately. (Eliot) 15. Paul felt his heart lift as at a great victory. (Cronin) 16.... people took an oath, a pledge, when they were married, and that was supposed to hold them together. (Lindsay) 17. You make me think of spring flowers... (Braine) 18. At thirteen he began to read books that were said to be evil. (Saroyan)
19.Young men of this class never do anything for themselves that they can get other people to do for them. (James) 20. He said he wouldn't suffer a word to be uttered to him in his uncle's disparagement. (E. Brontë) 21. She doesn't seem to want to do anything I suggest. (Dreiser) 22. Cecily and Gwendolen are perfectly certain to be extremely great friends. (Wilde) 23. He heard the town clock strike twelve. (Faulkner) 24. Nearly a year ago, I chanced to tell him our legend of the nun... (Ch. Brontë) 25. Harriet, pale and trembling... suffered her to go on uninterrupted. (Dickens) 26. "You will not allow this base newspaper slander to shorten your stay here, Mr. Winkle?" said Mrs. Pott, smiling through the traces of her tears. (Dickens) 27. He turned out to have no feeling whatsoever for his nephew. (Snow) 28. I don't like him to be so long alone. (Hansford Johnson)
VII. Listening and discussion:
Texts “Ancient era”, “Renaissance era”, “Modern era”
Ancient era
The Pharos of Alexandria, the pyramids in Egypt, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Acropolis and the Parthenon in Greece, the Roman aqueducts, Via Appia and the Colosseum, Teotihuacán and the cities and pyramids of the Mayan, Inca and Aztec Empires, the Great Wall of China, among many others, stand as a testament to the ingenuity and skill of the ancient civil and military engineers. The earliest civil engineer known by name is Imhotep. As one of the officials of the Pharaoh, Djosèr, he probably designed and supervised the construction of the Pyramid of Djoser (the Step Pyramid) at Saqqara in Egypt around 2630-2611 BC. He may also have been responsible for the first known use of columns in architecture. Ancient Greece developed machines in both the civilian and military domains.
The Antikythera mechanism, the first known mechanical computer, and the mechanical inventions of Archimedes are examples of early mechanical engineering. Some of Archimedes' inventions as well as the Antikythera mechanism required sophisticated knowledge of differential gearing or epicyclic gearing, two key principles in machine theory that helped design the gear trains of the Industrial revolution, and are still widely used today in diverse fields such as robotics and automotive engineering. Chinese, Greek and Roman armies employed complex military machines and inventions such as artillery which was developed by the Greeks around the 4th century B.C. the trireme, the ballista and the catapult. In the Middle Ages, the Trebuchet was developed.
Renaissance era
The first electrical engineer is considered to be William Gilbert, with his 1600 publication of De Magnete, who was the originator of the term "electricity". The first steam engine was built in 1698 by mechanical engineer Thomas Savery. The development of this device gave rise to the industrial revolution in the coming decades, allowing for the beginnings of mass production. With the rise of engineering as a profession in the eighteenth century, the term became more narrowly applied to fields in which mathematics and science were applied to these ends. Similarly, in addition to military and civil engineering the fields then known as the mechanic arts became incorporated into engineering.
Modern era
The International Space Station represents a modern engineering challenge from many disciplines. Electrical engineering can trace its origins in the experiments of Alessandro Volta in the 1800s, the experiments of Michael Faraday, Georg Ohm and others and the invention of the electric motor in 1872. The work of James Maxwell and Heinrich Hertz in the late 19th century gave rise to the field of Electronics. The later inventions of the vacuum tube and the transistor further accelerated the development of electronics to such an extent that electrical and electronics engineers currently outnumber their colleagues of any other Engineering specialty.
The inventions of Thomas Savery and the Scottish engineer James Watt gave rise to modern Mechanical Engineering. The development of specialized machines and their maintenance tools during the industrial revolution led to the rapid growth of Mechanical Engineering both in its birthplace Britain and abroad. Chemical Engineering, like its counterpart Mechanical Engineering, developed in the nineteenth century during the Industrial Revolution. Industrial scale manufacturing demanded new materials and new processes and by 1880 the need for large scale production of chemicals was such that a new industry was created, dedicated to the development and large scale manufacturing of chemicals in new industrial plants. The role of the chemical engineer was the design of these chemical plants and processes.
Aeronautical Engineering deals with aircraft design while Aerospace Engineering is a more modern term that expands the reach envelope of the discipline by including spacecraft design. Its origins can be traced back to the aviation pioneers around the turn of the century from the 19th century to the 20th although the work of Sir George Cayley has recently been dated as being from the last decade of the 18th century. Early knowledge of aeronautical engineering was largely empirical with some concepts and skills imported from other branches of engineering.