Exercise 3. Read and translate text A. For both the Romans and us, the cement itself is too costly to make entire buildings, sidewalks, or other constructions from it alone

Text A. VAULTS (Part II)

For both the Romans and us, the cement itself is too costly to make entire buildings, sidewalks, or other constructions from it alone. Even the mortar used between bricks and stone is stretched by adding sand; and in making concrete, gravel and sand are mixed in as the aggregate.

Since the mid-nine­teenth century, iron or steel rods have been placed in the formwork for modern con­crete wherever tensile forces will occur. Formwork is one of the cost disadvan­tages of concrete. As first mixed, concrete is a thick viscous material and must be con­tained in forms, or molds, until it has cured and dried; the formwork (called shuttering in England) is like the centering used for arch construction. In large structures, both in Roman times and now, this means the construction of substantial and expensive wooden structures, significant in them­selves, which are then destroyed once the concrete has cured sufficiently for the forms to be removed.

Domes, particularly of the size of the Pan­theon in Rome, are powerfully evocative spaces, but they require circular plans, mak­ing it difficult to add adjacent spaces. This problem became acute by the fourth cen­tury A.D., but the solution devised by Byzan­tine architects was to place the dome over a square plan below. What made this possible was the curved triangle-shaped spherical segment called a pendentive.

Imag­ine a square over which you wish to place a dome. First cover the square with a larger hemisphere, which just touches the corners of the square. Then slice downward along the sides of the square so that looking down on the cut hemisphere you see a square. Then, just at the top of the semicircles now forming the sides, slice off the top par­allel to the square on the bottom. The resulting form has a circular shape at the top while at the bottom it is a square. The four curved segments that remain are the pendentives, making the transition from the square plan below to the circular plan above. An excellent example of the use of pendentives is found in the church of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), Istanbul, Turkey, 532-37. designed by Isidores of Miletos and Anthemios of Tralles. As with the Pantheon in Rome, the space enclosed is huge; here the dome is 107 feet (32.6 meters) across, but with the extended half-domes below and the barrel-vaulted spaces beyond, the total clear distance from one end of the church to the other is more than 250 feet (76.2 meters).

Exercise 4. Translate the words:

sidewalks, construction, structure, mortar, gravel, sand, aggregate, shuttering, enclose, cure, dry, curve, occur.

Exercise 5. Choose the right translation from A to B:

A: significant, sufficient, mix, contain, destroy, devise, place, remain, remove, touch, aggregate.

B: касаться, достаточный, заполнитель, изобретать, удалять, разрушать, содержать, размещать, смешивать, оставаться, удалять.

Exercise 6. Are these meanings correct or incorrect? Correct the mistakes:

structure – структура

construction – строение

mortar – бетон

concrete – кирпич

vault – арка

brick – песок

tensile force – сила при растяжении

formwork – форма

result in – воздействовать

result from – являться причиной

Exercise 7. Translate the following word combinations:

mid-nineteenth century, tensile forces, thick viscous material, arch construction, wooden structures, circular plans, adjacent spaces, square plan, curved triangle-shaped spherical segment, corners of the square, result from, result in, excellent example, the space enclosed, the extended half-domes, barrel-vaulted spaces, total clear distance.