ENGLISH V

UNIT 2
WHAT DOES ENGINEERING DO: SYSTEMS AND PROCESS.
WHO IS WHO IN ENGINEERING

This chapter has been designed to make engineering students aware of What
engineering do in relation to systems and process and also to make them familiar with
important engineers through the concept Who is Who in engineering.
As well as in Unit I, this chapter is developed through Modules. The first one is
Grammar, the second one, Oral communication which involves listening and speaking,
and the other one is Written communication which involves reading and writing.

UNIT II - MODULE I - GRAMMAR

ADJECTIVAL POSITION

Most adjectives in English are placed after a linking verb such as be, become, fell,
taste, smell, seem, get or before the noun they qualify.

Example: The tall man was the best athlete in the tournament.
The best athlete in the tournament was tall.

Some adjectives are always placed after the linking verb not before the noun they
qualify. For example: afraid, asleep, alive, awake.

Example:
I was awake the whole night.
A man hiding from the police, pretended to be dead, but when the policeman
said that he was dead, he was in panic and shouted; “I am alive, I am alive.
My mother was afraid of snakes.

Some adjectives known as classifying are not commonly found immediately after a
linking verb.

Example: People are afraid of an atomic explosion.

He is studying chemical engineering.
It is very common in technical writing to find a list of adjectives placed before a noun or
other type of modifiers. They are normally placed following an order.
The order advised is as follows:

ORDER OR PLACE OF MODIFIERS (BEFORE A NOUN) Noun

Articles
And Size, Age,
ordinal Description height, Temperature Shape Color Participle Origin Material
or length
cardinal
numbers
The brick building
The Peruvian brick building
The aged Peruvian brick building
The gray aged Peruvian brick building
The square gray aged Peruvian brick building
The hot square gray aged Peruvian brick building
The Tall hot square gray aged Peruvian brick building
The Ugly Tall hot square gray aged Peruvian brick building
The first Ugly Tall hot square gray aged Peruvian brick building

Exercises:

Based on the chart above, organize the following words and expressions in correct
sentences.

a) beautiful, women, those, first

b) meeting, important, the first, short
c) second, this, desk, small
d) young, little, weak, that, cat
e) historical, those, interesting, Chinese, walls
f) box, black, old, elongated, black.
g) summer, the, hottest, Australian
h) music, Shakira’s, modern, best, the
EXERCISE 2.

Find the adjectives and underline the words they modify.

a) In old ages, there were many important inventions.

b) Bell’s wonderful invention was the starting of communication.
c) Nowadays, there are many assembly-line products.
d) After the invention of the wheel, there was an imperative need for machine
tools.
e) Many engineer’s wonderful ideas have contributed to the progress of humanity.

EXERCISE 3.

Answer the following questions based on this passage.

In the nineteenth century, there were many important inventions. some of them are
not vey well known by people. For example not many people know that the first
shaving stick was invented at that time and that the first mousetrap was also invented
in that century by an American inventor. There are many other amazing inventions
which originated in this century.

How were the inventions made in the nineteenth century?

How many inventions were there in the 19th century?
Does everybody know about the inventions in the 19th century?
What was the nationality of the mousetrap’s inventor?
COMPOUND ADJECTIVES

Adjectives separated by a comma before a noun. mean that they are of equal quality:
excellent, thorough, informative report

Sometimes two or three nouns are hyphenated to form an adjective.

Example: This is a forty-five-dollar device.

She went through a slow-painful disease.
After a hard work, we deserve a well-earned rest.

EXERCISE 4

Answer the following questions based on the passage.

Last year, I decided to visit the old little town where I had spent my first four years of
primary school. When passing near that old brick house where I used to take my
classes, I could not resist the temptation of approaching to the window and looking
inside. In the middle of the room, where I used to sit, there was a black hair fat lady
vey similar to me, paying attention to her young thin teacher who was teaching
mathematics to her. All remembrances came to my mind again and I thought about my
primary school teacher to whom I owe most of the values I have now: responsibility,
devotion, patience, and tolerance. I wanted to go inside and tell everybody in the room
that I had been there and that that class had brought to my mind very beautiful and
touching reminders of my childhood. However, I thought that maybe nobody would
understand my feeling and maybe they could think I was getting crazy, so I left the
place, cried longing for the wonderful time I had had in that place and return to my
routine. A thought came to my mind, a thought taken from a song I like a lot “One
always come back to the old places where we loved life and then understand how
distant those loved things are.”
a) How was the town the author of the passage visited last year?
____________________________________________________

b) What has happened to the author of the passage in that town?

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c) How was he house where the school was located?

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d) How does the author describe the teacher?

____________________________________________________

e) What did the author of the passage remember looking at the class?
____________________________________________________

f) Is the author thankful to his/her primary school teacher?

____________________________________________________

g) What did the author of the passage want to do?

____________________________________________________

h) Why did the author of the passage repent from going inside the classroom?
____________________________________________________

i) Is it inferred from the passage that the author had a good time in his/her
primary school?
____________________________________________________

j) If the answer of i) is positive how do you support that answer?

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