http://www.jniosh.go.jp/icpro/jicosh-old/english/cases/cases/case82.html

THIS UNIT’S QUOTE: “Even the clearest water appears opaque at great depth.” – Anonymous

THEORY: Grammar review: Patterns of technical descriptions. Temporal clauses. Reduced temporal clauses. Developing skills

RECOMMENDED SITES:

• Acronym Finder (http://www.acronymfinder.com/)
• English for Special Purposes: Business, Corporations, Law, Economics, Management and Marketing (http://www.salzburgseminar.org/ASC/csacl/progs/esp/links.htm)
• Human Anatomy Online (http://www.innerbody.com/htm/body.html)
• Online Technical Writing: Technical Description (http://www.io.com/~hcexres/textbook/desc.html)
• Recommendations for Writing Effective Technical Descriptions (www.kristisiegel.com/EffectiveTechnicalDescriptions.doc)
• The Internet Acronym Server (http://silmaril.ie/cgi-bin/uncgi/acronyms)
• WorkSafe BC: Construction Safety Series (http://www.worksafebc.com/publications/health_and_safety/by_topic/assets/pdf/safety_series_ladders.pdf)

TASKS

1. Write down a possible abstract for the text. Next, provide at least six key-words (both in English and in Spanish).
2. Your glossary on Construction Engineering / Quantity Surveyor should be enlarged in 30-50 new entries. By the end of this week you should already have 120-200 terms.
3. Beam may be rendered into Spanish as “viga”. What other construction materials can you think of? Make a bilingual list and add it to you glossary.
4. Grammar exercises: make sentences out of the text contents using “when...”, “at the same time”, “after”, “before”.
5. Grammar review: locate text’s examples of prefixes, suffixes and compound nouns, if any.
6. Grammar review: Infinitive vs. Gerund after action verbs. Is there any difference in meaning between: the victim tried to free the bucket and the victim tried freeing the bucket? Provide other examples from the text together with your answer.
7. Grammar review: Is there any difference between loose [lu:s] and lose [lu:z]?
8. Watch the following Metacafe video-clip: «40$ USB Spy Telescope» (http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1091833/40_usb_spy_telescope/) and then answer the questions below:
   1. What did you understand, roughly?
   2. Generally speaking, what sort of audio text is it: tone, type of presentation, formal or informal, target audience (is it a cheap or expensive product/presentation), etc. Why? Give out reasons or textual clues to support your contention.
   3. Lexicon: try to spot as many technical terms as possible (four items minimum).
   4. What aspects or curiosities/particularities caught on your attention? Why? What kind of video is it? What is its purpose or finality? (humorous, tutorial, essay, scientific or entertainment, professional, “home-baked”/”do-it-yourself” (DIY) (ASAP)
9. Describe a site accident in a similar way. You may arrange your report by using connectors and link words (“first”, “then”, “therefore”, “after –ing”, “before –ing”, “which”, “whose”...)

http://www.pioneertelephonecoop.com/~mchumor/construction_hardware.html