TRANSCRIPTS
Transcripts
Unit 1, Lesson 1.2, Exercise B ≤1.1 Part 1
Welcome to the Engineering Faculty. I want to start by asking a simple question. What is engineering? That’s a very simple question, isn’t it? We all know the answer – don’t we? Let’s see.
We know that engineering is about machines.
But a bridge isn’t a machine and yet engineers build bridges. So let’s say it’s about making something. OK. If I take some eggs and sugar and flour and make a cake, is that engineering? Not really. It’s more fundamental, more basic than any of these things, in my view.
So, what is engineering? What is the intrinsic meaning of this word, a word we use every day and think we understand?
Unit 1, Lesson 1.2, Exercise C ≤1.2
Part 2 Many words have an intrinsic or basic meaning. We use the words in different situations and they have different surface meanings, but the basic meaning remains the same. Let me give you an example. We use the word collar in everyday English. It’s part of a shirt. But we also use the word collar in engineering. It is part of a machine. Is there any connection between these two words? Yes, there is. A shirt collar goes round the neck and it is on the upper end of the shirt, so a machine collar goes round part of the machine at the upper end.
Somehow, when we are learning our first language, we get a feeling for the basic meaning of words which helps us to understand the same word in a new context. When we are learning another language, it’s very important to find the basic meaning of a word because the direct translation in one context may not be the correct translation in another. For example, can you use the word in your language for hand in the context of a factory hand, meaning someone who works with his or her hands in a factory? Probably not.
Unit 1, Lesson 1.2, Exercise D ≤1.3
Part 3 So let me go back to my original question. What is engineering? We have mechanical engineering, civil engineering, petroleum engineering and
electrical engineering. There are elements of making things, assembling things, working with machines, designing things, in all of these branches of engineering. Ah, branch. That’s another word where we need to look for the basic meaning … But back to engineering. There is also an element of working with your hands in all the different branches, although now engineers often use computers as well as their hands. Working with your hands is called manual work, and the word manual also means a book of instructions in engineering, which shows the origins. Now there is a brand new field – genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is concerned with living things. Can we apply engineering to living things? Then you might hear someone using the word as a verb – to engineer. What is the connection? What is the basic or intrinsic meaning?
Unit 1, Lesson 1.2, Exercise E ≤1.4
Part 4 Let me suggest that the word change is a common factor. In engineering, there are elements of creation and invention, but you must use what is already there. For example, you take some metals and change them into a bridge. But you must follow the natural laws about the behaviour of metals, and you must be creative in the design. And of course, there must be a need for the bridge in the first place. You must be providing a better solution than existed before. A new bridge, for example, may make it possible to cross a valley quickly for the first time, or it may be wider or stronger than the previous bridge.
So, engineering requires creative thinking to solve a problem and produce something new or improve something. The first engineer was probably the person who invented the wheel. He … or she … used available resources – probably a large branch – the meaning in general English this time – and realized that the round shape moved across the ground more easily than a square shape.
You should now be able to see why people talk about genetic engineering. It involves changing the genes of living things to make something better, more useful. And what about the verb? When we ‘engineer’ something, we make it better by using machines.
So, the meaning of ‘engineering’ is ‘change to create something useful’; change for the better, we hope.
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