雅思阅读精讲 READING PASSAGE 1

Why pagodas don’t fall down

A

In a land swept by typhoons and shaken by earthquakes, how have Japan's tallest and seemingly flimsiest 不结实的; 易损坏的(原型flimsy)old buildings —500 or so wooden pagodas宝塔—remain ed standing for centuries? Records show that only two have collapsed during the past 1400 years. (第1题)Those that have disappeared were destroyed by fire as a result of lightning or civil war. The disastrous损失惨重的Hanshin earthquake in 1995 killed 6,400 people,topple d elevated highways, flatten ed使…成为平地office blocks and devastate d 毁灭; 摧毁the port area of Kobe. Yet it left the magnificent five-storey pagoda at the Toji temple in nearby Kyoto unscathed未受损伤; 未遭伤害(第2题) though it levelled夷平a number of buildings in the neighborhood.

Topple: ~ (over) be unsteady and fall 不稳而倒下:

The pile of books toppled over onto the floor. 那一摞书倒在地板上了.

B Japanese scholars have been mystified for ages about why these tall, slender buildings are so stable. It was only thirty years ago that the building industry felt confident enough to erect office blocks of steel and reinforced concrete that had more than a dozen floors.（第3题）With its special shock absorbers 减震器to dampen 抑制the effect of sudden sideways movements from an earthquake, the thirty-six-storey Kasumigaseki building in central Tokyo — Japan's first skyscraper 摩天楼— was considered a masterpiece of modern engineering when it was built in 1968.

【重要词汇】mystify/ ˈmɪstɪfaɪ; ˋmɪstəˈfaɪ/ v(pt, pp -fied) [Tn] make (sb) confused through lack of understanding; puzzle; bewilder 使（某人）困惑不解; 使迷惑: I'm mystified; I just can't see how he did it. 我大惑不解, 就是不明白他是怎麽做到的. * her mystifying disappearance她神秘的失踪.

dampen (down )

to make something such as a feeling or activity less strong

The light rain dampened the crowd's enthusiasm.

Raising interest rates might dampen the economy.

to make a sound or movement less loud or strong

The spring dampens the shock of the impact.

C Yet in 826, with only pegs短桩and wedges楔子to keep his wooden structure upright, the master builder Kobodaishi had no hesitation in sending his majestic雄伟的Toji pagoda soaring fifty-five metres into the sky —nearly half as high as the Kasumigaseki skyscraper built some eleven centuries later. Clearly, Japanese carpenters of the day knew a few tricks about allowing a building to sway and settle

itself rather than fight nature's forces.

（第4题）But what sort of tricks?

D The multi-storey pagoda came to Japan from China in the sixth century. As in China, they were first introduced with Buddhism and were attached to important temples. (第9题) The Chinese built their pagodas in brick or stone, with inner staircases, and used them in later centuries mainly as watchtower s（第5题和第7题）瞭望塔. When the pagoda reached Japan, however, its architecture was freely adapted to local conditions —they were built less high, typically five rather than nine storeys, made mainly of wood and the staircase was dispense d（第5题）免除，省掉with because the Japanese pagoda did not have any practical use but became more of an art object. Because of the typhoons that batter接连猛击Japan in the summer, Japanese builders learned to extend the eave s屋檐of buildings further beyond the walls.（第6题）This prevents rainwater gush ing 流出, 泻出, 涌出down the walls. Pagodas in China and Korea have nothing like the overhang that is found on pagodas in Japan.

【重要词组】dispense with sb/sth manage without sb/sth; get rid of sb/sth 用不着某人[某事物]; 摆脱某人[某事物]: He is not yet well enough to dispense with the pills. 他尚未痊愈, 仍需吃药.

adapte (oneself) (to sth) become adjusted to new conditions, etc 适应（新环境等）: Our eyes slowly adapted to the dark. 我们的眼睛慢慢地适应了黑暗的环境.

【重要词汇】overhang / ˈəuvəhæŋ; ˋovɚˈhæŋ/ n part that overhangs 悬垂的部分: a bird's nest under the overhang of the roof房檐下的鸟巢.

E The roof of a Japanese temple building can be made to overhang the sides of the structure by fifty per cent or more of the building's overall width.（第8题）For the same reason, the builders of Japanese pagodas seem to have further increased their weight by choosing to cover these extended eaves not with the porcelain瓷tile s 瓦of many Chinese pagodas but with much heavier earthenware陶器tiles.

【难句解析】The roof of a Japanese temple building can be made to overhang the sides of the structure by fifty per cent or more of the building's overall width.句子结构the roof… can be made to….by…

日本寺庙的屋顶可以被建造成各面都延伸出庙宇本身，延伸的范围在该寺庙整体宽度的50%或者更多。

F But this does not totally explain the great resilience弹性of Japanese pagodas. Is the answer that, like a tall pine tree, the Japanese pagoda —with its massive trunk-like central pillar柱子known as shinbashira —simply flex es伸缩，弯曲and sway s摇动, 摇摆during a typhoon or earthquake? For centuries, many thought so. But the answer is not so simple （11题B选项）because the startling令人吃惊的thing is that the shinbashira actually carries no load 不负重at all.