Unit 10bc Book

1. Introduction

In electrical engineering, safety is always an issue, as you could see in the previous unit. Although we have made great advancement in technology, human error will always be a problem. People simply make mistakes, either as a result of carelessness or insufficient willingness to follow safety guidelines. We have touched on this topic in Unit 10a. Unit 10bc is a follow-up unit which will first give you a chance to revise some material you have come across already and then focus on vocabulary and grammar necessary to describe situations that typically follow an electrical accident. Usually, there is an investigation and some speculations about the incident followed by giving recommendations and expressing regret. As usual, you will also have a chance to express your opinion.

Contents:

·         Revision: Electrical incident vocabulary:

·         Revision: Past Continuous tense vs. Past Simple tense:

·         Revision: Passive modals:

·         Past passive modals for speculation and regret:

·         The third conditional for talking about unreal situations in the past:

2. Warm-up: Vocabulary and Forum

Before you can participate in the forum in this Unit, it is necessary for you to check if you have enough vocabulary to discuss electrical hazards and electrical safety. Check that by doing this matching task first. If you think you need even more vocabulary, you can try completing these tasks: A, B, C, D. They give explanations of some electrical topics and phenomena. Now that you have some basic vocabulary on electrical hazards, you can take part in a forum discussing electrical hazards. First, look at these pictures illustrating the hazards. Choose at least two of them and describe the type of hazard. By specific in explaining what is wrong and what the safe practices should be. What could happen if the safe practices were not followed? Also, do not forget to respond to at least one contribution of a fellow student

3. Reading: An Accident

Now read about one electrical accident and complete the related reading-comprehension task.

4. Grammar Revision: Past Simple vs. Past Progressive/Continuous

Now it´s time to revise some necessary grammar before you start learning a new grammar point. First, decide whether you are going to use the Past Simple or the Past Progressive tense in this exercise. If you have problems choosing the correct tense, go back to Unit 10a and revise the grammar point there. Then, in this follow-up exercise, you need to decide not only between the Past Simple tense and the Past Progressive tense, but sometimes you will also need the past passive voice. If you have a hard time with this, revise the passive voice by reading this overview. Finally, practise passive modals in this task.

5. Grammar: Modal Verbs Used for Speculation and Criticism/Recommendation

So far, you have had a chance to read lots of sad stories about electrical hazards. Most of them have one thing in common: the investigation usually reveals the possible causes of the incident, criticizing some faulty procedures. This criticism may then be followed by some recommendations of what should be done to prevent a similar accident in the future. Take this sentence from one of the stories, for example:

• There were exposed conductors in the welding machine’s cables.

Imagine being in the shoes of the investigating officer. If there were no surviving witnesses and no CCTV cameras around, you cannot be a hundred percent sure about this statement prior to the end of the investigation. So before finishing the investigation, you would probably speculate like this:

• It is probable/possible that there were exposed conductors in the welding machine’s cables.

or, alternatively, you would say:

• There may/might/could have been exposed conductors in the welding machine’s cables.

That is: may or might or could for showing uncertainty and have been for showing the fact that you are speculating about the past, not the present.

How would that sentence change if there had been a CCTV camera around during the incident and if the investigation was completed?

Well, you would be more certain and you would say something like:

• It is certain that there were exposed conductors in the welding machine’s cables.

or, alternatively, you would say:

• There must/have to have been exposed conductors in the welding machine’s cables.

That is: must or have to for showing certainty and have been for showing the fact that you are speculating about the past, not the present.

You can also express the same meaning by using a negative sentence with can´t/couldn´t:

• The conductors can´t/couldn´t have been insulated in the welding machine´s cables (otherwise there hadn´t been any accident).

So, you would mean that this is not possible (or that this is impossible).

You can also use a similar pattern to show criticism and recommendation:

• All the conductors in the welding machine´s cables should have been insulated.

Which means the same as:

• All the conductors in the welding machine´s cables ought to have been insulated.

That is: by this sentence, you criticize something that should have been done in the past, but it wasn´t.

6. Grammar: The Third Conditional

Let´s now look again at the last sentences from the previous grammar section:

• All the conductors in the welding machine´s cables should have been insulated.

• = All the conductors in the welding machine´s cables ought to have been insulated.

7. Writing: Changing the Past

Think of some great inventions of the past. What would have happened if the inventions had not been invented? For example, what would have happened if Nicola Tesla had not invented the alternating current? Write at least eight sentences about similar inventors and their inventions. Submit your text as a Word or Open Office document here.

8. Word List

The key terms related to the topic of Unit 10abc can be found:

·       in the Excel format here.

·       in the interactive flash card format here. This format is particularly good for drilling the new vocabulary.

·       in a zip file here. This file is downloadable, so that after unpacking it, you can drill the new vocabulary on your desktop, laptop or any other portable device where you have a browser installed. The recommended one is Mozilla Firefox. Important: after unzipping the zip file, make sure to keep all the related files in the same directory at all times. Do not change any file names and do not transfer or delete anything.

Recommendation: Remember that the best way to learn new vocabulary is to see each new word in a context; that is, seeing it in the contexts provided in the tasks you complete in the unit.