15篇文章贯通六级词汇Unit12-Part1

[00:00.00]UNIT12

[00:13.55]The American Dream

[00:15.84]The dream to construct a building

[00:19.89]to house everyone and everything

[00:21.97]connected with world trade

[00:23.94]began in the early 1960's.

[00:27.34]After much deliberation，

[00:29.41]Minoru Yamasaki was commissioned

[00:33.13]over more than a dozen other architects

[00:35.98]to work with the firm of Emery Roth

[00:39.04]and Sons to design this massive edifice 1.

[00:42.11]His task was evident:

[00:45.05]the building must have

[00:46.92]twelve million square feet of floor space

[00:49.98]on a sixteen acre parcel of land,

[00:52.93]accommodate the new facilities

[00:55.12]for the Hudson tubes and subway connections,

[00:57.97]and be done within the 500 million dollar budget.

[01:02.12]The relatively 2 small site

[01:04.86]combined with the vast space

[01:07.05]needs meant that

[01:08.36]the only way to go was up.

[01:10.44]The development would dwarf 3 its neighbors

[01:14.16]and change the New York landscape

[01:16.13]and skyline at the bottom of Manhattan.

[01:19.52]In order to accommodate

[01:23.13]the nine million square feet of office space,

[01:26.09]Yamasaki made the decision

[01:28.16]that a two?tower development would be best.

[01:31.33]This would serve the dual 4 purpose

[01:34.18]of giving sufficient office area

[01:36.81]on each floor and allowing a manageable structural 5 system

[01:40.74]while taking advantage of the superb views.

[01:43.92]The twin towers would be 110 floors each,

[01:48.73]rising to a height of 1,353 feet (412 meters).

[01:56.06]From the observation decks

[01:59.23]at the tops of the towers

[02:00.76]it would be possible to see 45 miles

[02:03.94]in every direction.

[02:05.69]When asked why he designed two 110-storey buildings

[02:11.49]instead of one 220-storey building,

[02:15.21]he replied, flippantly, “

[02:17.28]I didn?t want to lose the human touch.”

[02:20.35]The first act in the construction process

[02:25.05]was the excavation 6.

[02:26.48]The 1.2 million cubic yards of earth

[02:30.63]and rock that were removed

[02:32.49]were used to create 23 acres of fill

[02:35.55]in the Hudson River adjacent to the W.T.C. site.

[02:40.37]This landfill project was subsequently developed

[02:45.29]as Battery Park. The excavation,

[02:48.79]besides providing the foundation

[02:50.98]for this enormous construction,

[02:52.95]would house parking garages,

[02:55.14]subway terminals and tubes,

[02:57.54]and shopping concourses.

[02:59.08]Yamasaki believed that

[03:02.91]all buildings must be strong

[03:04.66]in the context of being dominant 7.

[03:07.17]He felt that each building should

[03:10.24]“be a monument to the virility 8 of our society”.

[03:14.07]The structural system,

[03:17.24]while possessing this strength,

[03:19.31]is also impressively simple.

[03:21.94]The 208-foot front wall

[03:25.34]is essentially 9 a pre-assembled steel web,

[03:28.61]with columns on 39?inch centers,

[03:31.68]providing the wind bracing 10 necessary

[03:34.41]for a building of this height,

[03:35.94]allowing the central core

[03:38.35]to take only the gravity loads.

[03:40.65]This very light,

[03:42.84]economical configuration 11 would result in

[03:46.01]keeping the wind bracing

[03:47.54]in the most efficient place,

[03:49.18]the outside shell of the building.

[03:51.70]In this way, the wind force

[03:54.87]would not be transferred

[03:56.62]through the floor membrane 12 to the core.

[03:58.92]Thirty?three inch deep floors

[04:02.31]made of prefabricated steel trusses

[04:05.49]would act as supports to stiffen 13 the outside walls

[04:09.09]against the buckling 14 forces

[04:10.95]of the wind?load pressures.

[04:13.36]There would be no interior columns

[04:16.76]in the office spaces,

[04:18.29]an amazing feat 15

[04:19.92]as there would be 40 000 square feet

[04:23.21]of office space on each of the upper floors.

[04:26.17]In total, there would be seven buildings

[04:30.87]in the complex;

[04:36.34]the twin towers standing 16 110 stories high ,

[04:36.08]four smaller towers,

[04:38.27]and a central plaza 17.

[04:39.70]Also, there would be seven underground levels

[04:44.18]containing services,

[04:45.38]shopping, parking garages and a subway station.

[04:49.43]When completed, there would be

[04:52.38]ten million square feet of leasable space,

[04:55.88]or an acre of rentable space

[04:58.51]on each floor of each tower.

[05:00.70]The elevator system was intended to be fast,

[05:05.26]efficient,and space saving.

[05:07.67]Express elevators opening onto the forty-first

[05:11.61]and seventy-fourth floors

[05:14.24]would serve the sky lobbies.

[05:16.31]From these floors and from the plaza,

[05:19.70]four banks of elevators would

[05:22.22]carry passengers to each of the three zones.

[05:25.06]Tenders posted, contractors 18 hired,

[05:29.23]and the preliminary materials purchased,

[05:31.85]the groundbreaking ceremony

[05:33.82]was held on August 5, 1966.

[05:38.85]Some offices were ready for occupancy

[05:42.24]in 1970 but the ribbon cutting ceremony

[05:45.96]wasn't held until April 4, 1973.

[05:50.01]Final cost 750 million dollars.

[05:54.82]The institution of the W.T.C.

[05:59.20]would become a symbol of commerce

[06:01.48]and economic superiority to the world.

[06:04.65]International businesses recognized

[06:08.48]that it would be advantageous 19

[06:10.34]to have offices there.

[06:11.87]Thus, the working population of the W.T.C.

[06:16.14]would incorporate a cross-section of nationalities,

[06:19.64]not just Americans.

[06:21.39]The buildings would be occupied

[06:24.56]by as many as

[06:28.72]fifty thousand people daily during the week.

[06:29.34]Additionally,thousands of tourists

[06:32.18]could be in the center at any given time,

[06:34.81]visiting the restaurant,

[06:36.34]Windows on the World,

[06:38.20]atop One W.T.C.,

[06:40.83]the indoor and outdoor observation decks

[06:44.00]on Two W.T.C., as well as the shops,

[06:47.17]exhibition pavilions,

[06:49.25]and the 250 room hotel.

[06:52.21]A complex of this size

[06:55.16]is not without some problems,

[06:57.35]including fire. Numerous small fires

[07:00.96]and one major one on February 13, 1975

[07:06.03]occurred over the years.

[07:07.67]However, on February 26, 1993,

[07:12.81]a terrorist attack on the W.T.C.

[07:15.77]caused the largest incident ever handled

[07:18.50]by the City of New York's Fire Department.

[07:21.57]The blaze, resulting from

[07:24.52]the ignition of a nitrourea bomb,

[07:27.26]with hydrogen cylinders 20 to add impact,

[07:30.10]and located in the parking garage,

[07:32.83]required the response of 84 engine companies,

[07:36.45]60 truck companies,

[07:38.49]and hundreds of personnel.

[07:41.01]Firefighters maintained a presence

[07:43.31]at the site for 28 days,

[07:46.15]guarding against the possibility

[07:48.67]of further fires caused by the blast.

[07:51.95]Six people died and 1042 were injured.

[07:56.87]The towers survived.

[07:58.83]After this violent incident failed

[08:02.77]in its intended purpose of destroying the W.T.C.,

[08:06.60]who could have envisaged 21 an assault

[08:09.23]as disastrous 22 as the one inflicted 23 on it

[08:12.40]and the United States on September 11, 2001?

[08:16.77]Who could have conceived an attack

[08:19.62]so vicious it would eclipse

[08:21.92]almost every man?made catastrophe 24?

[08:24.76]Who could have foreseen that

[08:27.17]the American dream would

[08:28.88]blur into a terrible nightmare?

[08:31.40]At 8∶45 a.m. New York local time,

[08:36.32]a hijacked 25 767 commercial airliner 26

[08:40.04]with a full load of jet fuel

[08:42.23]for a transcontinentalflight collided with One W.T.C.,

[08:46.60]The north tower,

[08:48.24]with enough impetus 27 to carry it

[08:50.54]through to the opposite side.

[08:52.52]Initially, terrorism was not a consideration

[08:56.67]in the mind of the public.

[08:58.09]This was merely a dreadful accident.