The great history of tower bridge

(02:05)

PRE-LISTENING

1. What is a bridge?

2. Why do people build bridges?

3. Where is the Tower Bridge situated?

4. Study the following words and phrases:

“contractor”, “jubilee”, “to celebrate”, “centenary”.

WHILE-LISTENING

Watch the video-track and answer the following questions:

5. What river does this bridge cross?

6. When was it built?

7. Are people allowed to visit towers?

8. What can people do there?

9. How long was the Tower Bridge under construction?

10. How many contractors were involved into the process of construction?

11. How many workers took part in the construction?

12. What are the interesting facts about the Tower Bridge? Complete the following table:

1977
	The Tower Bridge was opened to the public for the first time.
1993
	The Tower Bridge celebrates 35 years of welcoming visitors to its exhibition.

POST-LISTENING

13. Find any other information about the Tower Bridge and get ready to tell about it to your partner.

THE NEW YORK CITY’S BROOKLYN BRIDGE

(02:40)

PRE-LISTENING

1. What is a bridge?

2. Why do people build bridges?

3. What types of bridges do you know?

4. What are the main dimensions of a bridge?

5. Study the following words and phrases:

“to span”, “capacity”, “vehicle”, “to cycle”, “to designate”, “landmark”, “inhabitant”.

WHILE-LISTENING

Watch the video-track and answer the following questions:

6. Where is the bridge situated?

7. What type of bridge is it?

8. What is its span?

9. What river does it span?

10. What does it connect?

11. What is its capacity?

12. What do tourists like to do?

13. What can be found near the bridge?

14. When was it constructed?

15. When was the bridge designated to be a National Historic landmark?

16. How many people live in New York?

17. How many tourists visit New York each Year?

18. How long has New York been the centre of commerce and finance?

19. Which site is recommended to visit if you plan to visit New York?

POST-LISTENING

20. Which facts about the bridge did you find the most interesting? Do you know any other interesting facts about the bridge? Would you like to visit New York and have a chance to walk through the Brooklyn Bridge?

TACOMA BRIDGE

(04:06)

PRE-LISTENING

1. What is a bridge?

2. Why do people build bridges?

3. Who takes part in bridge construction?

4. Who is responsible for scientific and accurate calculations? Who is responsible for accurate technological process of construction?

5. Study the following words and phrases:

“girder”, “inevitable”, “to abandon”, “to perish”.

WHILE-LISTENING

Watch the whole video quickly and answer the following question:

6. What is shown in the track? (collapse of the Tacoma Bridge)

Watch, listen, read and answer the following questions:

00:00 – 00:26

7. What are the dimensions of the Tacoma Bridge?

8. How long was it under construction?

9. How long was it used?

00:27 – 00:42

10. What were the girders made of?

11. How tall were the girders?

00:43 – 02:43

12. What is shown in this part?

13. When did the first vibration happen?

14. What was the wind speed?

15. Who went on the bridge to have a look what was happening?

16. Could the collapse be avoided?

02:44 - end

17. Was the car empty when the collapse happened?

18. What happened to the remains of the bridge after the collapse?

POST-LISTENING

19. Why do you think the collapse happened?

20. What should be done to avoid bridge collapses?

THE BIGGEST SUSPENSION BRIDGE

(04:30)

PRE-LISTENING

1. What is a bridge?

2. Why do people build bridges?

3. What types of bridges do you know?

4. Study the following words and phrases:

“to span/spanning”, “to block”, “a rope”, “a deck”,

“a chain”, “to suspend”, “to level”, “anchor”, “to blast”, “frame”.

WHILE-LISTENING

Watch the video-track a part by part and answer the following questions:

00:00 – 00:19

5. When did people begin thinking of travelling from Wales to Ireland?

6. What task was Tomas Telford given?

7. How old was Tomas Telford?

00:20 – 00:34

8. Fill in the gaps in the following text with the words you hear:

For the (1) __________ he arrived at man eye, Telford had a (2) __________ as one of the finest (3) __________ engineers in (4) __________ , be given this huge (5) __________ to (6) __________ the main coaching route between Britain and (7) __________ .

00:35 – 01:00

9. What type of bridge was originally planned to be built?

10. Why did Telford give up the idea of an arch bridge?

01:01 – 02:09

11. What was used to travel across river in ancient times?

12. What are the people shown in the track?

13. What do they want to do?

02:10 – 02:56

14. What process is shown in this part?

15. What is the aim of towers?

16. What should the bridge towers be made of?

03:05 – 03:48

17. How long is the tunnel that was blasted in order to anchor chains of the bridge?

18. What is found at the end of the tunnel?

19. How long are the bolts that join the chains with the frame?

03:49 - end

20. What did the new bridge help to do?

21. How long is the deck of the bridge?

22. How old is the bridge?

23. What is the capacity of the bridge?

POST-LISTENING

24. Summarize the information of the track and be ready to tell about the bridge to your partner.

25. Make a small text about the process of construction of a suspension bridge.

6. THE CLIFFTON SUSPENSION BRIDGE 1

(05:00)

THE CLIFFTON SUSPENSION BRIDGE 2

(05:00)

PRE-LISTENING

1. What is a ‘suspension’ bridge?

2. Do you know where the Clifton Suspension Bridge is situated?

WHILE-LISTENING

Watch the two video-tracks (video 1 and video 2) and do the following tasks:

3. Are the following statements true (T) or false (F)?

a	The idea of the bridge appeared over 150 years ago.	T	F
b	The designer of the bridge was young.	T	F
c	The idea and the design of the bridge belonged to one and the same person.	T	F
d	The bridge was constructed in 1843.	T	F
e	The designer of the bridge liked it after the completion.	T	F
f	The tower of the bridge is the memorial to Brunel.	T	F
g	Over 30 years passed after the construction was finished.	T	F
h	Nobody was injured during the construction.	T	F
i	The capacity of the bridge is more than ten thousand vehicles a year.	T	F
j	Only one text gives information about the age of Brunel.	T	F
k	The bridge is still in use.	T	F
l	The construction of the bridge was stopped because of the Brunel’s death.	T	F
m	Brunel’s original design of the bridge was a little bit modified after his death.	T	F

4. Which text (1 or 2 or both) …?

a	gives information about the person who introduced the idea of construction?
b	mentions the river that the bridge spans?
c	mentions the place the bridge is located?
d	gives information about the age of Brunel?
e	gives the date of the beginning of the construction?
f	mentions the organization which decided to make a memorial to Brunel?
g	mentions animals?
h	gives information about tragedies during the construction?
i	gives information about capacity of the bridge.

5. Complete the following table:

the Clifton Suspension Bridge

a	Name of a person who introduced the idea of the bridge construction.
b	The year of introduction of the idea of the bridge construction.
c	Name of the designer of the bridge.
d	Type of the bridge.
e	Place of construction.
f	River that the bridge spans.
g	Year of the beginning of the construction.
h	Year of the end of the construction.
i	Capacity of the bridge.

POST-LISTENING

6. Make a small text about the process of construction of a suspension bridge.

7. Summarize the information and be ready to speak about the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

ANCIENT STRUCTURES

Part I

1. Do you know the word ‘ancient’? What does it mean? What ancient structures built all over the world do you know? Read the following text and choose the best title (A, B, C)

A	Good jobs and good pay
B	Ancient engineering
C	The rulers of China and Egypt

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA was built across northern China to protect the population. Before the third century BC there were lots of smaller walls and these were joined together to make one long, defensive wall. The work was done by enormous gangs of forced labourers and many of them died doing the work. The wall is over 2000km long, 3.5m high, and 4.5m wide at the top. It is made of earth covered with stone. THE EGYPTIAN PYRAMIDS are a famous symbol of ancient Egypt. The stone structures were usually tombs for pharaohs. The pyramids have square bases with sloping sides which meet at an apex. The first pyramid was built in about 2600 BC and is over 140m high. One of the biggest pyramids is made of enormous stone blocks which weigh up to 200 tonnes each. It is estimated that 20-25,000 people worked for 20 years to build each pyramid. * (the text is from: “Engineering” Workshop by Lindsey White, OUP; Unit 21, pg.24, ex.2)

2. Read the text again and find the English equivalents to the following expressions:

- … для защиты населения …

- … были соединены вместе …

- … защитная стена …

- … длиной более … километров …

- … высотой … метров …

- … шириной … метров …

- … это сделано из …

- … знаменитый символ …

- … каменные сооружения …

- … квадратная основа …

- … сходящиеся в вершине стороны …