MODERN ENGINEERING

Engineering is a profession and activity of designing, maintaining and repairing electrical or mechanical equipment. Modern engineering is one of the fastest growing, important and prestigious occupations. It is concerned with the design, improvement and installation of integrated systems and various types of equipment. So it involves drawing upon specialized knowledge, skills in the mathematical and physical sciences together with the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design, to specify, predict, and evaluate the results to be obtained from the work of such systems and machinery. Three trends are evident which reflect the broadening scope of engineering. The first is a shift from controlling or helping to control what exists to the task of designing improvements or innovations. The second trend is the use of engineering in a more creative role in support of dynamic management. The third trend lies in the increasing development of factual solutions based on an increased ability to measure, understand and manipulate whole systems.

We live in the age of rapid engineering progress and modernizing equipment. Machines are either improved or replaced. The production of the latest type of automated lines and automatic machines, remote-control and electronic devices is being accelerated. That’s why an engineer has to become a real master of the machine, not only a man maintaining and repairing it but very often he becomes a designer and an inventor. Many engineers have enriched modern technology with many outstanding achievements which enable to solve various complex problems. Engineers require specialized knowledge and intensive preparation with continued study after leaving the university, they have to be technically competent and operate with responsibility for the result of his labour. It must be mentioned also that advances in the field of computers and microelectronics have a very strong impact on the engineer in the modern industry.

Exercise 4. Match the words with the opposite meaning.

Exercise 5. Find the equivalents to the following words and phrases.

Непрерывное обучение, требуются специальные знания, ответственность за результаты своего труда, компетентен в области техники, интенсивная подготовка, конструирование, обслуживание и ремонт, электро- и механическое оборудование, целая система, расширяющийся масштаб, отражать, обогащать, иметь сильное влияние, управлять/умело обращаться

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Exercise 6. Translate the sentences from Russian into English using information from the text.

1. Сочетание научного исследования и инженерного дизайна помогает создавать новое или совершенствовать уже существующее оборудование.

2. Профессия инженера связана с созданием приборов, систем и структур с целью удовлетворения нужд потребителя.

3. Множество техников устанавливают и обслуживают оборудование, обычно под руководством инженеров.

4. Таким образом, инженеры применяют научные знания для модернизации оборудования в пищевой промышленности.

5. Инженеры разрешают практические проблемы, используя свои знания и умения в процессе принятия решений.

Exercise 7. N., a student of the Technological faculty, has visited an exhibition “Advances in Machinery Engineering” and now he is telling his friend about it. Read the dialogue, translate and then make your own dialogue on the similar situation with your friend.

A.: Hi, Nick! Glad to see you. Where have you been? I was looking for you the whole day yesterday.

N.: You know, our lessons had been finished by three o’clock yesterday and I decided to visit the exhibition.

A.: What exhibition? I haven’t heard about it.

N.: I saw an announcement in the local newspaper some days ago. It is held in the Exhibition Hall and is devoted to advances in machinery engineering.

A.: That sounds interesting. It’s impossible to imagine any plant, factory or workshop today that is not equipped with up-to-date machines and devices. Were there any new types of machine tools at the Exhibition?

N.: Oh, definitely, the latest developments in the design of machine tools were well represented there. And as far as I know, some of these types will have been put into operation by the end of the next year.

A.: And what impressed you most of all at the Exhibition? Were there any multi-purpose machine tools?

N.: Well, you know, there was one fantastic machine known as the “machining centre”. This machine performs about a hundred different operations simultaneously. So, you see, I’ve got a lot of useful information necessary for me as a future engineer. This exhibition will work three days more and I advise you to visit it.

A.: Thank you for information. I’ll do it with pleasure.

TEXT 2

Exercise 1.Read and learn the words:

Exercise 2.Read the text and give the arguments in favour of using machinery instead of manual work: