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Read the following text and fill in the gaps with the words from the box below.
| bridges constructed structure stones languages Design material |
A bridge is a (1) __________ built to span a valley, road, body of water, or other physical obstacle, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle. (2) __________ of a bridge depends on the function of a bridge, the nature of the terrain (= place, territory) where the bridge is (3)__________ , the (4) __________ used to make it and the funds (= money) available to build it.
The Oxford English Dictionary tells us that the origin of the word bridge comes from an Old English word ‘brycg’, of the same meaning, derived from a hypothetical Proto-Germanic root ‘brugjō’. There are cognates in other Germanic (5) __________ (for instance ‘brücke’ in German, ‘brug’ in Dutch, ‘brú’ in Icelandic, ‘brúgv’ in Faroese or ‘bro’ in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish).
The first (6) __________ appeared in ancient times. They were made by nature itself — for example, a log fallen across a river or (7) __________ in the water. The first bridges made by humans were constructed with the help of wooden logs which served as girders, stones, long bamboo sticks or other harvested fibers which were woven together to form a connective rope.
One of the oldest arch bridges, The Arkadiko Bridge, is one of four Mycenaean arch bridges and part of a former network of roads in the Peloponnese, in Greece. Dating to the Greek Bronze Age (13th century BC), the bridge is still in existence and use.
| designed commercial type builders presented built cement engineering |
The greatest bridge (8) __________ of antiquity were the ancient Romans. The Romans built arch bridges and aqueducts that could stand in conditions that would damage or destroy earlier designs. Some stand today. An example is the Alcántara Bridge, built over the river Tagus, in Spain. The Romans also used (9) __________ for construction. One type of cement, called pozzolana, consisted of water, lime, sand, and volcanic rock.
The use of stronger bridges using plaited bamboo and iron chain was visible in India by about the 4th century. A number of bridges, both for military and (10) __________ purposes, were constructed by the Mughal administration in India.
The oldest surviving stone bridge in China is the Zhaozhou Bridge, (11) __________ from 595 to 605 AD during the Sui Dynasty. This bridge is also historically significant as it is the world's oldest stone segmental arch bridge.
Rope bridges, a simple (12) __________ of suspension bridge, were used by the Inca civilization in the Andes mountains of South America, just prior to European colonization in the 1500s.
During the 18th century there were many innovations in the design of timber bridges (= made of wood). The first book on bridge (13) __________ was written by Hubert Gautier in 1716. With the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, truss systems of wrought iron were developed for larger bridges. In 1927 welding pioneer Stefan Bryła (14) __________ the first welded road bridge in the world which was later built across the river Słudwia Maurzyce near Łowicz, Poland in 1929. In 1995, the American Welding Society (15) __________ the Historic Welded Structure Award for the bridge to Poland.
Read the text again. Are the following statements true (T) or false (F):
| A lot of factors influence the design of a bridge. | T | F | |
| The word ‘bridge’ has similar roots in Germanic languages. | T | F | |
| Different kinds of natural objects were used to make first bridges. | T | F | |
| There are no ancient bridges that are still in use. | T | F | |
| Ancient Greeks were the first to use cement. | T | F | |
| A reward was given to a European country for the bridge construction by a famous organization from the USA. | T | F |
TYPES OF BRIDGES