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Measuring The following unit deals with measurements, introduces commonly known measuring instruments and shows how these instruments can be used.
Exact measuring units Introducing the situation One day Tobias, a German exchange student, talks to an English trainee in the workshop about metric and imperial measures.
TOBIAS
Now, here they talk about inches. Yesterday in the weather forecast the lady also talked about six inches of rain. At school I heard about the differences between the metric system used in Germany and the imperial system you still use over here. But to be honest I didn’t pay much attention. Can you tell what exactly the differences are!
TRAINEE Sure, one inch is about 25,4 mm. TOBIAS
Do you still use these imperial units a lot?
TRAINEE Oh, yes, in everyday life everybody talks about inches, feet, pints, and Fahrenheit. If you talk about the height of a person, you say he is six feet two. In a pub you’ll get a pint of beer and our temperature today is 66.2 degrees Fahrenheit. I can copy the most important imperial measures for you. TOBIAS
Thanks. That would be nice
Activity 1
Understanding the text
Answer the following questions. 1. What did Tobias hear about at school? 2. Why was Tobias reminded of it? 3. What other examples of imperial units does the trainee mention? 4. Could you find some other examples?
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