Brick

__Bricks:__ Bricks may be made from clay, shale, soft slate, calcium silicate, concrete, or shaped from quarried stone.
 * What are they made of?

They are used for building and pavement.
 * What are they used for?

There are many types of brick such as: brick masonry, building brick, face brick, clinker brick, pressed brick, glazed brick, fire brick, cored brick, european brick, sand-lime brick, among others.
 * How many types of brick are there?

Brick laying is the laying of bricks one after another, layer upon layer until a desired height is reached. A composition of lime and sand called mortar is spread between each layer which hardens and bonds the bricks together to form a solid mass.
 * What is the meaning of //brick laying techniques//?

 __Reply to the podcast:__ The use of brick in construction and public spaces.
 * Describe 2 brick laying techniques
 * 1) Stretcher bond: Consisting of stretchers only in each course, the normal bond for walls of half brick thickness.
 * 2) Flemish bond: Consists of alternating headers and stretchers along each course with the headers centred on the stretchers above and below.
 * What are their advantages and disadvantages?
 * 1) Advantages: Brick is a flexible material, has no maintenance cost, it comes in an infinite range of colors and is fire-resistant
 * 2) <span style="color: #2c0707; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Disadvantages: Brick is heavy and it adds a lot of weight to the fundation, is weak in tension, is hard to cut and e xtreme weather may cause its degradation.

For millenniums, brick has been used in a smart way for the construction of houses, religious places, walls and everything you wanted to do. The properties of this material have allowed architects and builders to use it for interior and exterior constructions. Is usual to go out and see walls, sidewalks, buildings, pavement, and even benchs made of brick.

But with the development of technology, the new construction techniques and the appearing of stronger, lighter, and cheaper materials, brick is no longer the favorite for construction.

In my opinion, brick is one of the most felxible and versatile materials and it offers you thousands of options to decorate and construct. Brick gives beauty to any place or any construction and shouldn't be completely replaced for other materials. <span style="color: #941414; font-family: Georgia, serif;">

<span style="color: #b11b1b; font-family: Georgia, serif;"> a. Comparison and contrast
 * Worksheet 2. Find examples of the following rhetoric functions. Underline cue words.**
 * <span style="color: #b11b1b; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Brick __compares__ favorably with stone as a structural material

<span style="color: #941414; font-family: Georgia, serif;">b. Description
 * <span style="color: #b11b1b; font-family: Georgia, serif;">The unit __is__ too small, too light, and too irregular.

<span style="color: #941414; font-family: Georgia, serif;">c. Exemplification
 * <span style="color: #b11b1b; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Special shapes can be produced by molding to meet particular structural or expressive requirements (__for example__, wedge-shaped bricks are sometimes employed in arch construction and bricks with rounded faces in columns).

<span style="color: #941414; font-family: Georgia, serif;">d. Cause/Effect
 * <span style="color: #b11b1b; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Bricks may be used in construction only in conjunction with mortar, __since__ the unit is too small...
 * <span style="color: #b11b1b; font-family: Georgia, serif;">The versatility of the medium was expanded in ancient Rome __by__ improvements in the manufacture of both brick and mortar and __by__ new techniques of laying and bonding.

<span style="color: #941414; font-family: Georgia, serif;">e. Chronology <span style="color: #b11b1b; font-family: Georgia, serif;">
 * <span style="color: #b11b1b; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Brick which has been used __since the 4th millennium BC__.
 * <span style="color: #b11b1b; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Employed throughout the __Middle Ages__, brick grained greater popularity __from the 16th. century on__, particularly in northern Europe.
 * <span style="color: #b11b1b; font-family: Georgia, serif;">It is widely used in the __20th Century__.

Reply to the teacher (Just in case...) Piazza del Campo, in the heart of Siena, Italy, stands out as the greatest medieval square of Europe. Constructed between 1280 and 1350, this amazing square was paved in fishbone-patterned red brick with ten lines of travertine, wich divide the piazza into 9 sections that symbolize "The Council of Nine", responsible for the government of the medieval city. The use of brick in this famous, public square established uniformity in it and in the surrounding buildings. Brick has given durability and beauty to this place and therefore, this is a piece of architecture that brings out the advantages of using this construction material.