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OFFICIAL37 Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

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Modern Architecture In The United States
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At the end of the nineteenth century, there were basically two kinds of buildings in the United States. On one hand were the buildings produced for the wealthy or for civic purposes, which tended to echo the architecture of the past and to use traditional styles of ornamentation. On the other hand were purely utilitarian structures, such as factories and grain elevators, which employed modern materials such as steel girders and plate glass in an undisguised and unadorned manner. Such buildings, however, were viewed in a category separate from "fine" architecture, and in fact were often designed by engineers and builders rather than architects. The development of modern architecture might in large part be seen as an adaptation of this sort of functional building and its pervasive application for daily use. Indeed, in this influential book Toward a New Architecture, the Swiss architect Le Corbusier illustrated his text with photographs of American factories and grain storage silos, as well as ships, airplanes, and other industrial objects. Nonetheless, modern architects did not simply employ these new materials in a strictly practical fashion—they consciously exploited their aesthetic possibilities. For example, glass could be used to open up walls and eliminate their stone and brick masonry because large spaces could now be spanned with steel beams.

The fundamental premise of modern architecture was that the appearance of the building should exhibit the nature of its materials and forms of physical support. This often led to effects that looked odd from a traditional standpoint but that became hallmarks of modern architecture for precisely this reason. For example, in traditional architecture, stone or brick walls served a structural role, but in a steel-beam building the walls were essentially hung from the internal skeleton of steel beams, which meant that walls and corners no longer needed to be solid but could be opened up in unexpected ways. At the Fagus shoe factory in Germany, for example, German architect Walter Gropius placed glass walls in the corners, effectively breaking open the box of traditional architecture and creating a new sense of light and openness. Similarly, steel beams could be used to construct balconies that projected out from the building without any support beneath them. These dramatic balconies quickly became a signature of modern architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright's most dramatic residence, Fallingwater, has balconies that thrust far out over a stream in a way that seems to defy gravity.

The ways in which new technology transformed architectural design are dramatically illustrated through the evolution of the high-rise office building. After ten or twelve stories, masonry construction reaches a maximum possible height, since it runs into difficulties of compression and of inadequate lateral strength to combat wind shear. Steel construction, on the other hand, can support a building of 50 or 100 stories without difficulty. Such buildings were so different from any previous form of architecture that they quickly acquired a new name—the skyscraper.

From the standpoint of real estate developers, the purpose of skyscrapers was to increase rental space in valuable urban locations. But to create usable high-rise buildings, a number of technical challenges needed to be solved. One problem was getting people to the upper floors, since after five or six stories it becomes exhausting to climb stairs. Updated and electrified versions of the freight elevator that had been introduced by Elisha Graves Otis in 1853 (several decades before skyscraper construction) solved this problem. Another issue was fire safety. The metal supporting buildings became soft when exposed to fire and collapsed relatively quickly. (They could melt at 2700 Fahrenheit, whereas major fires achieve temperatures of 3000degrees). However, when the metal is encased in fire-retardant materials, its vulnerability to fire is much decreased. In Chicago, a system was developed for surrounding the metal components with hollow tiles made from brick-like terra-cotta. Such tiles are impervious to fire. The terra-cotta tiles were used both to encase the supporting members and as flooring. A structure built with steel beams protected by terra-cotta tiles was still three times lighter than a comparably sized building that used masonry construction, so the weight of the tiles was not a problem.

6.Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

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正确答案:C
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【题目翻译】下面哪句话最能表达文章中突出显示的句子中的基本信息?错误的选择会以重要的方式改变意义,或者遗漏重要的信息。 A:钢梁的结构作用使人们可以悬挂石墙或砖墙,而不是像传统建筑那样使用它们作为支撑。 B:在传统建筑中,开放墙壁和墙角并不重要,所以在钢梁建筑设计之前,墙壁和墙角都是实心的。 C:在钢梁建筑中,梁提供了结构支撑,所以在传统建筑中,墙和转角可以以不可能的方式打开。 D:在钢梁建筑中,墙壁基本上是挂在钢梁的内部骨架上的,这意味着不需要石头和砖砌。 【判定题型】:根据题目问法,题目要求选择和高亮句意思逻辑都最为接近的句子,故判断本题为句子简化题。 【句子分析】本题先找到高亮的地方:For example, in traditional architecture, stone or brick walls served a structural role, but in a steel-beam building the walls were essentially hung from the internal skeleton of steel beams, which meant that walls and corners no longer needed to be solid but could be opened up in unexpected ways. 这句话主干的大致意思是:传统建筑中是石头和砖块的墙充当了支撑结构,但是在钢条支撑的建筑里,墙是由内部的钢结构撑起来的,这意味着墙壁和墙角再也不需要一定坚固,可以以一些出人意料的方式打开。 【选项分析】 选项A说钢架可以支撑起石头和砖块,不让它们作为传统结构中的支撑物,这句话是正确的,但缺少了原句后半句which meant that这一重要结构,错误; 选项B说开放的墙壁墙角是不重要的,这个原文里没有提到; 选项C是本句的同义转述,正确;选择C。 选项D后半句说石头和砖块再也不需要了,应该是坚固的墙角墙壁不需要了。

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