考研優美英語作文背誦013
Skyscrapers and Environment
In the late 1960's, many people in North America turned their attention to environmental problems, and new steel-and-glassskyscrapers were widely criticized. Ecologists pointed out that a clusterof tall buildings in a city often overburdens public transportation andparking lot capacities.
Skyscrapersare also lavish consumers, and wasters, of electric power. In one recent year,the addition of 17 million square feet of skyscraper office space in NewYork City raised the peak daily demand for electricity by 120, 000kilowatts -- enough to supply the entire city of Albany, New York, for a day.
Glass-walledskyscrapers can be especially wasteful. The heat loss (or gain) through a wallof half-inch plate glass is more than ten times thatthrough a typical masonry wall filled with insulation board. Tolessen the strain on heating and air-conditioning equipment, builders of skyscrapers have begun to use double-glazedpanels of glass, and reflective
glasses coated with silver or gold mirror films that reduce glare as well as heat gain. However, mirror-walled skyscrapers raise thetemperature of the surrounding air and affect neighboring buildings.
Skyscrapersput a severe strain on a city's sanitation facilities, too. If fully occupied,the two World Trade Center towers in New York City would alone generate2.25 million gallons of raw sewage each year -- as much as a city the sizeof Stanford, Connecticut, which has a population of more than 109, 000.
全文翻譯：
摩天大樓與環境
60 年代后期，許多北美人把注意力轉向了環境問題，那些嶄新的玻璃鋼摩天大樓受到 了廣泛的批評。
生態學家指出，城市中密集的高層建筑經常給公共交通與停車場的承載能 力造成過重的負擔。摩天大樓還是電能的過度消費者與浪費者。 最近的某一年，紐約市摩 天寫字樓 1，700 萬英尺辦公面積的增加使電能的最高日需求量提高了 120，000 千瓦。 這 些電能足以供紐約的整個奧爾巴尼市使用一天。玻璃表面的摩天大樓特別地浪費。 通過半 英寸的平板玻璃墻壁損失(或增加)的熱量是典型的加入絕緣板的石墻所允許的熱量損失(或 增加)的十倍以上。
為了減輕取暖設備或空調設備的壓力，摩天大樓的建造者們已經開始使 用雙面上釉的玻璃鑲板和涂上了金色或銀色反光薄膜的反光玻璃，來減少強光照射和熱量的 增加；但是，鏡面的摩天大樓會提高周圍空氣的溫度并會對附近的建筑物產生影響。摩天大 樓也對城市的衛生設施造成了沉重的壓力。
單單紐約市的二個世界貿易中心大樓如果完全 被占滿的話，每年就會產生 2，250，000 加侖的污水。 這相當于康涅狄格州的斯坦福市這 樣大的城市一年所產生的污水量，而康州的斯坦福市擁有 109，000 人口。
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