Lesson 1 Independence Day Education and learning Reading: Good study habits Writing: Education in Japan and England: a comparison Teaching Notes Lesson Function 1

 
F. Ask your partner the questions in E.
From the history of concrete 
Mass or plain concrete dates from very early days. It was employed by the 
Egyptians, Romans and Greeks in the construction of aqueducts and bridges, in the 
construction of roads and town walls. Romans used it even in under-water 
structures some of which have survived till our time. A large part of the Great 
Chinese Wall (the 3rd century before our era) was also built of concrete. 
The concrete remains of the foundations of buildings built several thousand years 
ago have been found in Mexico. As cement was not known in those times, concrete 
was made of clay and later of gypsum and lime. Nowadays concrete is made in up-
to-date machinery with very care! 
Regulation of the proportion of the mix. 
The idea of strengthening concrete by a network of small iron rods was developed 
in the 19th century, and ferro-concrete was introduced into engineering practice. 
Study the following text and then give it a title: 
Concrete - unlike many building materials - is equally a framing and an enclosing 
material. It can be used to construct a skeleton; it can also be used to construct a 
complete weathertight shell of floor, walls and roof. In this respect it is one of the 
few total building materials. 

---

It is hardly surprising that for a long time reinforced concrete was treated in a 
similar manner to a steel frame, clad in some other material. 
Steel needs protection from the external elements and from internal fire; concrete 
needs neither of these. Steel was a construction material of parts connected 
together; concrete could be handled to produce a monolithic structure including 
enclosing surfaces. 
The present stage of evolution shows an appreciation of concrete as a total 
material.