VII. Read and translate the text

The construction by French engineers of the 500-foot cast in situ concrete arch near Caracas in Venezuela was one of the boldest and most spectacular exploits in bridge engineering. It has been said of the way this bridge was built that " if the builder knew enough about the behavior of such a structure he would not dare to undertake it. Yet if he didn't know his business exceptionally well he couldn't complete it".

The crown of the arch is 220 feet above the gorge below. The normal way of building up falsework trestles from the bottom of the gorge would have been extremely costly and slow. The quarter spans on each side were concreted out from the abutments on centering. Each side was supported by six temporary steel rope guys, anchored back to the massive vertical end piers also rising from the abutments. Between the quarter spans thus built remained a gap of half the span.

To complete this gap, the engineers hit on a daring solution never attempted before: they built the centering for the gap on the floor of the gorge 220 feet below the bridge. It was 265 feet long by 75 feet wide and weighed 250 tons. Four winches on the two ends of the completed quarter spans let down steel ropes or " falls" to be attached to the four corners of the 250-ton falsework structure below. After eight hours of cautious and steady lifting, the center arch falsework was eased into place and secured. In the concreting that followed, the engineers worked with great care symmetrically from the center outward to avoid any movements and sway. When the concrete had set, the false work was lowered back to the floor of the gorge.

VIII. Read the text about the New Orleans Bridge and fill in the given phrases:

at great speed a reinforced concrete cap

was completed a prestressed concrete deck

the total weight consists of

were erected assembly line

Over windswept Lake Pontchartrain there runs a bridge 2 4 miles long. A white concrete ribbon vanishing into the distance, it stands a tribute to the imagination and skill of the bridge

builder. The bridge____________ (1) in 1956; amazingly, itiook only 15 months to build. This

required mass production and____________(2) both in design and in construction.

Some figures will show the magnitude of the work: _______________(3) of the structure is

600 000 tons. The bridge_______________ (4) 2215 identical bents, parts of which were precast

on shore and barged out onto the lake where they____________(5). Each bent is like a huge

football goal and comprises 2 large cylindrical prestressed concrete piles, on top of which there

rests_____________(6). Finally, spanning between caps is a____________(7). The casting yard

occupied 40 acres; it was a marvel of mechanization. Every detail was worked out beforehand, and the job was done_______________(8).