Engineering the Impossible
时间：2018-11-28 作者：英语课 分类：疯狂英语2004年
Engineering the Impossible
Hong Kong, a city of seven million—and growing fast. It’s 1)bursting at the seams. By the year 2050 Hong Kong’s population will almost double. Where will these people live? Other cities face this same problem: Tokyo, Shanghai, New York, 2)Djakarta, Taipei, Beijing, 3)Bombay.
But there’s simply no room left for that kind of urban sprawl 1. There’s only one place to go——up. Fast forward 50 years. This is the tallest man-made structure on the planet. It’s name: 4)Millennium 2 Tower. It would stand twice as tall as anything built before, a half mile high. Over 60 thousand people would live or work here. 5)Literally 3, a city within a city. Millennium’s designers think it represents the best solution for the coming population explosion.
It would cost ten billion dollars. It would 6)consume more building materials than any single nation could produce. Construction would take a 7)decade. Who would take on such a seemingly impossible task?
One of Millennium’s key designers is architect David Nelson.
David Nelson: It would be a massive project to say the least, and it would be a world project. But to actually realize it, resources would have to come from all over the globe. Europe, America, Asia—all brought together. The challenge and the 8)motivation for doing it would be to realize one of the world’s largest and most complex construction projects.
Millennium would be more complex than anything ever built. So its builders won’t know for sure the building is safe until it’s up, and they’ll have little margin for error. Massive 9)tremors have brought down entire cities in this part of the world. Can Millennium’s designers make it 10)immune to these 11)upheavals of the earth?
It’s a complex problem because in all buildings, including Millennium, safety is just one concern among many. Millennium can’t be a 12)fortress 7. It will need to be a home, one that welcomes people in. The plans call for one hundred thousand 13)occupants and visitors working or playing inside at any given moment. Getting those people into the building and making sure they have a great experience will be what makes Millennium successful; but how to do it?
For the design team, the secret was to bring all the richness of city life within.
David Nelson: It’s a place to work, it’s a place to live, to be entertained, to shop, to go to Church. To do everything you can think of in a normal life.
A cluster of cafés and restaurants, theatres and stores would provide entertainment. Health clubs, even schools and medical clinics would also serve the towers’ 14)residents.
Millennium’s designers have proven something. Things that seem impossible today, might just become reality tomorrow. The engineering problems have, for the most part, already been solved. Our achievements are limited only by our imaginations.
注释：
1) burst at the seams 胀破接缝; 太挤
2) Djakarta [dVE5kB:tE] n. 雅加达（印尼首都）
3) Bombay [bCm5bei] n. 孟买(印度港口和商业中心)
4) millennium [mi5lenjEm] n. 千禧年
5) literally [5litErEli] ad. 简直
6) consume [kEn5sju:m] v. 消耗；消费
7) decade [5dekeid] n. 十年
8) motivation [7mEuti5veiFEn] n. 促动因素, 动力
10) immune [i5mju:n] a. 免疫的；免受（伤害）的
11) upheaval 6 [Qp5hi:vEl] n. 动乱；剧变
12) fortress [5fC:tris] n. 堡垒
13) occupant [5RkjupEnt] n. 占有者,居住者
14) resident [5rezidEnt] n. 住户
挑战不可能
香港，一个有七百万人口的城市，且人口数量仍在快速增长，这里已是拥挤到了极点。预计到了2050年香港人口几乎会翻倍。这些人将住在哪里？其它城市也面临相同问题：东京、上海、纽约、雅加达、台北、北京、孟买。
但根本再没有任何空间能让城市那样子扩展下去了。唯一发展的空间是——向上发展。时光快速前进50年。这是世界上最高的人造建筑，其名为——千禧塔。其建筑高度将会是历来最高建筑物的两倍，足足有半英里高。超过六万人会在这里居住或工作。可说是城中之城。千禧塔的设计师认为这是解决人口膨胀的最佳办法。
其成本高达一百亿美元。耗材之多非任何一个国家能独立生产供应的。建筑时间可能要十年。谁会接受这种看似不可能的任务？
建筑师大卫·纳尔逊是千禧塔的主要设计师之一。
大卫·纳尔逊：这无疑是个庞大项目，一个全球性项目。但要真正实现这壮举，则需要来自世界各国的资源。欧洲、美国、亚洲要通力合作。建设全球最大且最复杂的建筑项目之一，是这个项目的挑战性和动力的所在。
千禧塔比其它建筑都要复杂。因此，建筑师们不到建成之时都不能断定它是绝对安全，而他们不容有失。大地震曾把这一地区的城市夷为平地。千禧塔的设计师能使它经受得住这种地壳剧烈运动的冲击吗？
这是个复杂问题，因为所有建筑物，包括千禧塔，安全只是众多问题之一。千禧塔不能建得像个堡垒，要有家的感觉，以吸引人们进来。预计随时有十万用户及访客到塔内工作或娱乐。要吸引人们进去并确保他们能有满意的体验，这将是千禧塔成功的关键；但怎样才能做得到呢？
设计小组认为，秘诀就在于引入多姿多彩的城市生活。
大卫·纳尔逊：这是个工作及居住的场所，还可娱乐、购物、上教堂——做你能想到的平常生活中的任何事。
众多的咖啡室、餐厅、戏院和商店为人们提供娱乐消遣，还有健身室、甚至学校和诊所为塔内住户提供服务。
千禧塔的设计师们证实了：今天看似没可能的事，明天可能便成为现实。现在，大部分工程问题都已得到解决，人类的成就只受限于自身的想象力。
- In our garden,bushes are allowed to sprawl as they will.在我们园子里，灌木丛爱怎么蔓延就怎么蔓延。
- He is lying in a sprawl on the bed.他伸开四肢躺在床上。
- The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
- We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。
- He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
- Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。
- We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
- The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。
- There was a slight tremor in his voice.他的声音有点颤抖。
- A slight earth tremor was felt in California.加利福尼亚发生了轻微的地震。