Agree or disagree with the statements.

1. Building construction is relatively new form of human activity.

2. First dwellings were at first very simple and perhaps lasted only a few days or months.

3. Natural materials are clay, stone, and timber.

4. One of the trends involves the control over the exterior environment of buildings.

5. Building construction is developing from the powerful machinery towards human muscle power.

6. The design process for buildings consists of research establishments, officials and manufacturers of building products.

11. Match the beginnings of the sentences (1– 7) to their ends (a– h) using the information from the text.

1. The design process consists of …

2. The construction process includes …

3. The distinction between architecture and building appeared when …

4. The interior environment of buildings involve …

5. A designer is a person who …

6. Contractors are persons or companies who …

7. The duties of consultants include …

a) research establishments, official institutions and designers.

b) manufacturers, craftsmen, contractors and consultants.

c) the increasing durability of the materials, buildings of greater height and span, the control over the interior environment and the change in energy available to the construction.

d) structures began to have symbolic as well as functional value.

e) regulation of air temperature, light and sound levels, humidity, etc.

f) determines user needs and designs a building to meet those needs.

g) employ and coordinate the work of the craftsmen.

h) construction management, quality control, and insurance.

Answer the questions to the text.

1. What is building construction?

2. Why did it appear?

3. What marked the distinction between architecture and construction?

4. How many tendencies are there in the history of building? What are they?

5. What natural building materials do you know? Synthetic ones?

6. What made possible the erection of high and long buildings?

7. What does the control over interior environment imply?

8. How has the construction methods been changing in the course of time?

9. What constitutes the design process?

10. What does the construction process include?

A) Make up the right sentences according to the model.

Model:Igloos were built of icy bricks by Eskimos.

I. igloo 1. timber a) Indians

II. wigwam 2. brick b) Europeans

III. hut 3. fabric c) Sumerians

IV. log cabin 4. icy bricks d) Beduins

V. ziggurat 5. leaves and branches e) early people

VI. tent 6. animal hides f) Eskimos

b) Suggest other early dwellings and building materials they were built of.

UNIT 2