The English of Cadaster

Georgeta Ra

Andreea Varga

The English of Cadaster

Editura MIRTON Timioara - 2008

Refereni tiinifici:
Conf. univ. dr. Reghina DASCL Universitatea de Vest Timioara Conf. univ. dr. Cosmin Alin POPESCU U.S.A.M.V.B. Timioara Lector univ. dr. Codrua GOA Universitatea de Vest Timioara

Tehnoredactare computerizat: Georgeta Ra Andreea Varga

Table of Contents
Table of Contents Foreword Unit 1 - Cadaster Unit 2 - Real Estate. Definition and Etymology Unit 3 - Real Estate Terminology Outside the U.S. Unit 4 - Real Estate in the Business Sector Unit 5 - Residential Real Estate (I) Unit 6 - Residential Real Estate (II) Unit 7 - Real Estate Market Value Unit 8 - Mortgages in Real Estate Unit 9 - Ownership Unit 10 - Property Tax Unit 11 - County Unit 12 - Parish Unit 13 - Riding Unit 14 - Hundred Unit 15 - Section Unit 16 - Lot (I) Unit 17 - Lot (II) Unit 18 - Lot (III) Unit 19 - City Block Unit 20 - Surveying Unit 21 - Surveying Techniques Unit 22 - Cadastral Land Surveyor (I) Unit 23 - Cadastral Land Surveyor (II) Unit 24 - Surveying as a Career Bibliography 5 7 9 15 21 27 33 39 45 51 57 63 69 75 81 87 93 99 105 111 117 123 129 135 141 147 153

Foreword
This practical course of English is intended for advanced students whose major is Cadastral Land Survey. It contains the most important elements necessary to the acquisition of English in the field of cadaster. The course contains 24 themes adapted to the study of the most important aspects of cadaster: cadaster, real estate (definition and etymology, terminology outside the U.S., real estate in the business sector, residential real estate, real estate market value, and mortgages in real estate), economic issues (ownership and property tax), land divisions (county, parish, riding, hundred, section, lot, and city block), surveying (surveying techniques), cadastral land surveyor, and surveying as a career. The themes are presented mainly with the help of conventional texts meant to improve the students knowledge of English. Each lesson contains lexical and grammatical exercises meant to facilitate the consolidation of proper language skills (oral comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing) and the acquisition of a rich vocabulary necessary for both oral communication and understanding reference literature in the English of cadaster. The authors

Unit 1 Cadastre
A cadastre (also spelled cadaster) is a comprehensive register of the real property of a country commonly including details of the ownership, the tenure, the precise location (some can include GPS coordinates), the dimensions (and area), the cultivations if rural and the value of individual parcels of land. The word came into English by way of French and Italian, variously attributed to the Late Latin capitastrum register of the poll tax, and the Greek katastikhon list, register. It gives rise to the adjective cadastral, used in public administration primarily for ownership and taxation purposes. The terminology used for cadastral divisions may include counties, parishes, ridings, hundreds, sections, lots, blocks and city blocks. Cadastral surveys are used to document land ownership by the production of documents, diagrams, sketches, plans (plats in USA), charts, and maps. They were originally used to ensure reliable facts for land valuation and taxation (for example, early Englands Domesday Book). Napoleon established a comprehensive cadastral system for France, a fore-runner of most modern versions. Cadastral survey information is often a base element in Geographic/Land Information systems used to assess and manage land and built infrastructure. Such systems are also employed on a variety of other tasks (for example, to track long-term changes over time for geological or ecological studies, where land tenure is a significant part of the scenario). A cadastral map is a map showing the boundaries and ownership of land parcels. Some cadastral maps show additional details (e.g., survey district names, unique identifying numbers for parcels, Certificate of Title numbers, positions of existing structures, section and/or lot numbers and their respective areas, adjoining and adjacent street names, selected boundary dimensions and references to prior maps). In most countries legal systems have developed around the original administrative systems and use the cadastre as a
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means of defining the dimensions and location of land parcels described in legal documentation. This leads to the use of the cadastre as a fundamental source of data in disputes and lawsuits between landowners. (After Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopaedia)

Vocabulary
assess (v.) = a evalua block = corp de case, cvartal built infrastructure = infrastructura construit by way of = prin intermediul cadastral survey = ridicare cadastral chart = hart; diagram, schem, schi city block = cvartal comprehensive = explicativ() county = comitat, jude, inut document (v.) = a dovedi ensure (v.) = a asigura establish (v.) = a institui for taxation purpose = cu scopul de a impozita fore-runner = predecesor give rise to (v.) = a da natere la GPS (Global Positioning System) = Sistem de Poziionare Global hundred = district land ownership = proprietate asupra pmntului land taxation = impozit pe pmnt land tenure = drept de proprietate a terenului land valuation = evaluare a pmntului location = amplasare long-term change = schimbare pe termen lung manage (v.) = a administra map = hart ownership = proprietate parish = comun; parohie poll tax = capitaie, impozit pe cap de locuitor primarily = n primul rnd real property = proprietate mobiliar reliable = demn de ncredere riding = seciune administrativ a unui comitat (de exemplu, York) scenario = scenariu
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spell (v.) = a ortografia task = sarcin tenure = drept de posesiune; posesiune, stpnire track (v.) = a depista, a lua urma

Exercises
1. Answer the following. What is a cadaster? What kind of details does it include? How did the word cadaster come into English? What is the adjective cadastral used in public administration primarily for? What may the terminology used for cadastral divisions include? What are cadastral surveys used to? What were cadastral surveys originally used to? What did Napoleon establish? What are Geographic Information Systems used to? What are they also employed on? What is a cadastral map? What do some cadastral maps show? In what way do administrative systems use cadaster? What role does cadaster play in disputes and lawsuits between landowners?

2. Match the following nouns with their definitions. 1. area 2. cultivation 3. dimension 4. location 5. a. a measure of spatial extent, especially width, height, or length b. a place where something is or could be located; a site c. a roughly bounded part of the space on a surface; a region d. an amount, as of goods, services, or money, considered to be a fair and suitable equivalent for something else; a fair price or return e. the act, fact, or condition of holding something in
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ones possession, as real estate or an office; occupation; a period during which something is held 6. tenure f. the state of being cultivated 7. value g. the state or fact of being an owner 3. Fill in the following nouns denoting extents of space, especially on a surface, bearing in mind the differences between them. ownership Area - a roughly bounded part of the space on a surface; a region Belt - a tract, frequently but not always longer than it is wide, that is distinguished from others in a single stated respect District - a subdivision for administrative purposes; a less specific area with respect to such features as its use Locality - an area with vague or undefined limits Region - a roughly bounded part of the space on a surface; an area Zone - an area that encircles, as on a map; an area with strictly defined, often arbitrarily set boundaries a blighted urban a polar a congressional a recreation a demilitarized a residential a dialect spoken over a large a rural a financial a snow a nuclear-free a tropical a pain in the abdominal the Corn the Torrid 4. Fill in the blanks with one of the nouns bellow. cadaster - encroachment feddans GPS land mapping Survey The Egyptian Authority is responsible for Egypts national cadaster. Included in the are approximately 7.5 million feddans of agricultural land. In 1923, the government mandated the institution a registration system. Since then, Egyptian Survey Authority has only been able to register 53 percent of those lands. Increasing urbanization, growing on government land and the need to reclaim
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desert land have made completion of the agriculture cadaster a national priority. In response to this priority, Egyptian Survey Authority has developed a plan to register 3.1 million additional by $l December 2005. Fundamental to the accomplishment of the National Agricultural Cadaster Plan is the use of , total stations with magnetic data recorders, digital and GIS technology. 5. Fill in the gaps with the appropriate article (definite, indefinite, zero). Since with a few valuable exceptions what we know about women is derived primarily through the viewpoint of male authors, who wrote about and for other men, understanding Byzantine women is to some extent inseparable from understanding Byzantine society as whole. unique role of women was to bear children to ensure continuation of family. They were excluded from public fields of politics, war and church that rewarded and engaged men. Women from non-lite backgrounds enter historical record only when they are prominent at court or acquire wealth and influence. Male authors praise women for traditional qualities of patience, silence, beauty, modesty and fertility. Yet women shared same perceptions and engagement with their society and social institutions as men. They engaged in imperial intrigue and family networking, inherited and managed wealth, founded monasteries, traded in marketplace, bought and sold land and paid taxes. 6. Identify the compound nouns and derived nouns in the following text. Understanding any aspect of the lives of Byzantine women is complex because Byzantine women can only be seen through their representations in the surviving literature, law and art. Since the writers of tax registers are among the most artless of all conceivable writers, their testimony is important, however terse. The officials who compiled tax registers focused on the task of recording who owed what tax on which piece of land. They used any means necessary to define a given individual precisely: surnames, place names, nicknames and relationships to other individuals. At times the author of the Cadaster of Thebes used a womans prominence and name recognition as a means of identifying men who were less easily
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known in their own right. Widows are frequently listed as taxpayers. Some women owned many small plots of land. Some owned watermills. Some owned land they inherited from their husbands. Thus one of the positions open to women was that of property owner. 7. Put the text above into Romanian. 8. Match the following. 1. Im certain its him. 2. Its possibly not him. 3. I reasonably expect it to be him. 4. Im certain its not him. 5. Its possibly him, but Im really not certain. 6. I logically deduce its him. 7. Its possibly not him, but Im really not certain. 8. I logically deduce its not him. 9. I reasonably expect it not to be him. 10. Its possibly him. a. That cant be him. b. That must be him. c. That shouldnt be him. d. That should be him. e. That wont be him. f. That mightnt be him. g. That will be him. h. That may not be him. i. That might be him. j. That may be him.

9. Put the following sentences in the right order, paying attention to the adjectives. A chocolate cake lovely home- made big A digital tiny Japanese camera video A striped cotton red and green jacket dinner cottage old stone rustic A holiday funny old English little A lady

Lets Laugh!
A husband and wife were driving down a country lane on their way to visit some friends. They came to a muddy patch in the road and the car became bogged. After a few minutes of trying to get the car out by themselves, they saw a young farmer coming down the lane, driving some oxen before him. The farmer stopped when he saw the couple in trouble and offered to pull the car out of the mud for $50. The
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husband accepted and minutes later the car was free. The farmer turned to the husband and said, You know, youre the tenth car Ive helped out of the mud today. The husband looks around at the fields incredulously and asks the farmer, When do you have time to plough your land? At night? No, the young farmer replied seriously, Night is when I put the water in the hole.

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