Audio

Hörverständnis und korrekte Aussprache sind neben einem umfangreichen Wortschatz und sicherer Grammatik die Grundlagen für ein erfolgreiches Englisch. Daher bieten wir Ihnen hier Hörproben zu ausgewählten Artikeln aus engine, vorgelesen von Muttersprachlern. Die Audio-Dateien zum Anhören, Mitlesen und Nachsprechen können Sie sich hier herunterladen.

(Dezember 2011)

CAD turns 50. In 1962, Ivan E. Sutherland programmed Sketchpad, the first drawing software. In a time when computers filled rooms he had to come up with a whole bunch of new concepts to make it work: windows, graphical user interface, pointer device and object-oriented programming.

(September 2011)

Although 'entrepreneur' is a business expression in wide use today, what exactly does it mean? Does it mean the same thing to everyone? Are people born entrepreneurs? Or do they learn to become one while at university?

(Juni 2011)

Who was the first one to circumnavigate the world in a car? The answer should be common knowledge for us engineers, but strangely enough it has fallen into oblivion. The year was 1927, the car an Adler Standard 6, and the driver a young woman: Clärenore Stinnes. This is her story.

(März 2011)

For 200 years now Bell Rock, the oldest offshore lighthouse in the world, has been lighting the way off the Scottish coast. Its construction on a submerged reef has been called one of the seven wonders of the industrial world and started the career of Robert Stevenson, whose family produced 97 lighthouses and one poet.

(Dezember 2010)

Circumnavigating the globe with solar power seems to be a Swiss pastime. Currently, a solar-powered catamaran sailing under the Swiss flag is attempting to find a sunny course across the oceans – with a little help from German technology between the sun and the sea.

(September 2010)

He is probably the most versatile and at the same time least known aeronautical pioneer: Enrico Forlanini excelled in not just one but three aeronautical fields. This is the story of the man who built the first engine- powered helicopter, manufactured dirigibles and invented the hydrofoil boat.

(Juni 2010)

Konrad Who? This is many people’s response when they hear the name Konrad Zuse. Rather strange given the fact that they usually sit next to one of his inventions, a freely programmable calculating machine with fl oating-point arithmetic based on the binary system - or computer for short. The inventor of the computer would have been 100 years old this year.

(März 2010)

Some people start a company and want to stay small. Skilled craftspeople may be happy making astrolabes for a specialist clientele, for example, or making custom-made furniture. Others want their furniture to be available all over the world and be a household name, as is the case with IKEA. But how do you get from being an individual to a global player?

(Dezember 2009)

Every engineer knows and loves those classic illustrations of over-complicated machinery which employ many steps to perform a simple action like pushing a button or delivering a slice of toast. The names of their creators have become household names - except for Germany.

(Juni 2009)

Everyone wants to enjoy their job and, given the percentage of our lives spent at work, it is important that we do so. But what makes work enjoyable? And how can you make sure that your staff or colleagues give their best, and get the best from their work.

(März 2009)

Neumayer III will be Germany's first research station in the Antarctica which is built on top of the ice. To stay there in spite of massive annual snow and ice deposits, engineers had to come up with a design that took inspiration from a cold man in the snow.

(Dezember 2008)

Communicating takes up a great deal of our lives, both privately and at work. For most people that means speaking or writing. However, what many people forget is that a large part of communication is body language and the message that gives may be more powerful than the spoken words.

(September 2008)

It was only forty years ago when some artists swapped brushes and canvases for video cameras and recorders. Quickly embracing the possibilities of the new medium, they created a whole new form of
art. The Laboratory for Antique Video Systems tries to preserve these precious early recordings.

(Juni 2008)

Bullying is not just something that occurs in the school playground, nor is it restricted to children. In the work place it causes human suffering and economic loss. Unfortunately, too often companies fail to recognise the problem or have no policy to deal with it..

(März 2008)

The telegraph has been dubbed the ‘Victorian Internet’, but the
pneumatic tube was definitely its Web 2.0. Starting in the mid 19th
century many major cities built extensive networks of pneumatic tubes for the quick delivery of telegrams and letters. As outdated as this technology might seem, it was once synonymous for speed – and could be in the future.

(Dezember 2007)

Just as some business people seem natural presenters, others appear to be born socialisers. Everyone is comfortable speaking to them; they are likeable, witty, informative, and always have something to talk about. But the art of small talk can be learned like most other business tasks.

(September 2007)

Who comes first, the customers or the employees? Some believe that if the employees are happy, then customers are happy. Others say that if you have happy customers, you have happy workers. Whichever way you think, customer care should be a major consideration for every business. The bottom line – profitability – depends on keeping your customers happy.

(März 2007)

The idea of a cellular mobile phone service is 60 years old, but it took decades to make it possible and decades more to make it commonplace. Technical issues as well as the regulatory authorities slowed the development of one of the most underestimated technologies.

(Dezember 2006)

Proof that basic research is by no means confined to ivory towers, but can indeed be useful in solving burning issues of practical relevance, has recently been provided by Markus Antonietti, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam. He has developed a process with which biomass can easily be converted into valuable raw materials.

(September 2006)

Project Management has been around for a long time - well over 50 years in fact - and originated in the US with defence projects. Some of the methods and models used today date back to that time but are they of use for all projects? If not, what is needed to manage a project?

(Juni 2006)

Living among sharks, pretending you’re one of them! At the tender age of seven, that was the dream of Fabien Cousteau, the grandson of the famous underwater cinematographer Jacques Cousteau. 30 years later, the dream came true: concealed in an artificial shark, Cousteau was able to swim safely with a group of the fascinating predators.

(März 2006)

Mobile phones and computers are the Swiss army knives of the digital age. You can use them for almost everything. Can you? Most of us are happy when we manage to make a simple call or write an SMS. But it isn’t the machine that’s so complicated, it’s the clumsy operating system that makes them unusable. Interface designer Boris Müller and his students are trying to bring man and machine a little bit closer.

(Dezember 2005)

Quality has always been a key word in German business practice, particularly in the manufacturing and engineering sector. But, where does it begin and where does it end? And is it only the quality department who is responsible?

(September 2005)

Window-cleaning is a job most people hate, and a not-infrequent cause of accidents. Service robots don’t have this problem. They carry out this unpopular task without a word of complaint.

(Juni 2005)

Die Great Eastern war bei ihrem Stapellauf 1858 bei weitem das größte Schiff ihrer Zeit. Doch der Geniestreich des Ingenieurs
Isambard Kingdom Brunel war vom Pech verfolgt, und konnte erst bei der Verlegung des ersten Transatlantikkabels seine Größe zeigen.

(März 2005)

What do trees know about mechanics? Quite a lot, says Claus Mattheck, professor of biomechanics and tree lover. By looking closely at how things grow, he develops optimization methods for automotive parts, deploys cartoon characters in his teaching and thinks that the answer to life, the Universe and a lot of technical problems might be 45.

(Dezember 2004)

Why “Managing Germans”? After all, this is a magazine for German engineers, some of whom are managers. So, logically, we should be looking at the process of Germans managing other nationalities. The fact is, however, to really understand how cultures work, we have to explore how we are a product of our own.

(September 2004)

When you build a canal you usually end up with different water levels. For the restoration of the Forth & Clyde and the Union Canals, British Waterworks looked for something more sophisticated than locks or boat lifts to bridge the gap: A Ferris Wheel for boats.

(Juni 2004)

With companies looking for ways to cut costs, andas new products like voice recognition programmes reduce the need to write in the traditional sense, managers at ever higher levels will be expected to handle their own written communication. Emailing is becoming a major part of this.Last yea,r 31 billion emails were sent daily. But how do emails differ from traditional letters?

(Januar 2004)

For centuries mankind has used glass as a storage container. From ancient Roman vials down to mother's preserving jar. Today, the amorphous and versatile material is even used to store nuclear waste - for centuries to come.

(Dezember 2003)

There is no better place for a World Solar Challenge than the Stuart Highway across the Australian desert - 3000 kilometres of unforgiving sun. Perfect conditions for the Formula 1 of solar cars. A race so unusual that winning doesn't always mean passing the finishing line first.

(September 2003)

Quite a few everyday items can contain traces of uranium and radium, especially when they date from the beginning of the last century. But don't worry, you don't have to wear a radiation protection suit next time you stroll around the flea market.

(Juni 2003)

The race to the moon dominated manned space flight during the decade of the 1960's. Yet, during the late 1950's and early 1960's, the U.S. government sponsored a project that could possibly have sent expeditions to Mars and Saturn. This feat could conceivably have been accomplished during the same period of time as Apollo, and possibly for about the same amount of money.