- •Contents
- •Module 1. Text 1: Materials that are used in the textile industry
- •Text 2: Textile fiber
- •Text 3: The main characteristic features of fibers
- •Text 4: The classification of fibers. Natural fibers and synthetic ones
- •Text 5: The types of textile fibers
- •Text 6: Natural plant fibers
- •Text 7: Cotton. The main properties of Cotton
- •Text 8: Particular climate conditions for cotton growing
- •Text 9: The history of Cotton
- •Text 10: Widespread usage of Cotton in the world
- •Text 11: The usage of Cotton. The stages of Cotton processing
- •Module 2. Text 1: Flax
- •Text 2: Why is flax the most expensive fiber in the textile industry
- •Text 3: The history of Flax
- •Text 4: The stages of processing of flax fibers
- •Task 5. Retell the text “Flax Harvesting”.
- •Text 5: The usage of linen in the manufacture of different goods
- •Module 3. Text 1: Natural animal fibers
- •Text 2: The properties of natural animal fibers
- •Text 3: Wool
- •Text 4: The properties of wool fibers. The ways of obtaining wool
- •Text 5: The history of wool
- •Text 6: Widespread usage of Wool in the clothes production
- •Module 4. Text 1: Silk
- •Text 2: The history of silk
- •Text 3: The properties of Silk
- •Text 4: Other fibers of animal origin
- •Text 5: The usage of silk fibers in the production of different goods
- •Supplementary reading chemical fibres
- •Check your progress
- •Conditional sentences
Text 7: Cotton. The main properties of Cotton
Task 1. Ask and answer these questions with your partner.
1) How are fibers classified?
2) What is fiber?
3) What natural fibers do you know?
4) What animal fibers do you know?
5) What plant fibers do you know?
Task 2. Read the text and translate it. Write down the words into your vocabularies (Fluffy, genus, staple, boll, cotton gin, strip, denim, robes, chambray, corduroy, seersucker, twill, crease).
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fibre is almost pure cellulose. Cotton is the most important fibre used in the textile industry. The cotton fiber is a soft substance growing around the cotton seed. When the seeds are ripening, their fibres spring out of the burst boll and are picked manually or mechanically. Having been picked, cotton is mechanically cleaned and separated from the seeds before it is subjected to further treatment. The fiber most often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile.
Although cultivated since antiquity, it was the invention of the cotton gin that so lowered the cost of production that led to its widespread use, and it is the most widely used natural fiber cloth in clothing today. Most cotton in the United States, Europe, and Australia is harvested mechanically, either by a cotton picker, a machine that removes the cotton from the boll without damaging the cotton plant, or by a cotton stripper, which strips the entire boll off the plant. Cotton continues to be picked by hand in developing countries. Cotton is used to make a number of textile products. These include terrycloth for highly absorbent bath towels and robes; denim for blue jeans; chambray, popularly used in the manufacture of blue work shirts (from which we get the term "blue-collar"); and corduroy, seersucker, and cotton twill. Socks, underwear, and most T-shirts are made from cotton. Bed sheets often are made from cotton. Cotton is used for shoe uppers, for household textiles and canvas and sailcloths which must be very strong though rather thin. Cotton is also used for radio insulation and wire insulation in the industrial electrical world and in many other branches of industry. Cotton also is used to make yarn used in crochet and knitting. The five leading exporters of cotton in 2011 are (1) the United States, (2) India, (3) Brazil, (4) Australia, and (5) Uzbekistan.
The chemical composition of cotton is as follows:
cellulose 91.00%; water 7.85%; protoplasm, pectins 0.55%;
waxes, fatty substances 0.40%; mineral salts 0.20%.
The strength of cotton fibers is relatively high but they are not very elastic, that is why cotton fabrics crease easily. Absorbing moisture of cotton fibers let them be easily dyed. As cotton fibers are good conductors of heat, cotton textiles have a cooling effect when worn in hot weather.
Being chemically cellulose, cotton linters are used in the manufacture of chemical fibers as well.
Task 3. Ask and answer.
1) Which vegetable fiber is the most important in the textile industry?
2) What is cotton?
3) How are cotton fibers picked?
4) Which are the leading cotton-cultivating countries?
5) Why does cotton take the leading place among the textiles?
6) What are the principal properties of cotton fibre?
7) What are the main uses of cotton?
8) What is the chemical composition of cotton?
9) How is cotton harvested?
10) What are cotton linters used in the manufacture of?
Task 4. Finish these sentences.
1) Cotton is a soft, fluffy…
2) The fiber most often is spun into…
3) Cotton is used for shoe uppers, …
4) Cotton also is used to make yarn…
5) As cotton fibers are good conductors of heat, …
Task 5. Open the brackets and write down these sentences in Past Simple.
Last year I (spend) my holiday in Ireland. 2) It (be) great. 3)I (travel) around by car with two friends and we (visit) lots of interesting places. 4) In the evenings we usually (go) to a pub. 5) One night we even (learn) some Irish dances. 6) We (be) very lucky with the weather. 7)It (not / rain) a lot. 8)But we (see) some beautiful rainbows. 9) Where (spend / you) your last holiday?10) That boy (break) my window. 11) I (drive) to work every day last year. 12) Laura (hit) that boy. 13) James (keep) the book about films. 14) We (meet) them at the same place every week. 15) You (put) that there. 16)We (sit) at the same desks. 17) An American (win) Wimbledon last year.