剑桥雅思17阅读真题电子版Test3 Passage3

剑桥雅思17共收集了雅思真题4套，羊驼雅思整理了第三套阅读真题Test 3 Reading，以下是阅读第三篇文章Passage 3的文章原文及参考译文，供烤鸭们复习参考。

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READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27–40. which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

Building the Skyline: The Birth and Growth of Manhattan's Skyscrapers

Katharine L. Shester reviews a book by Jason Barr about the development of New York City

In Building the Skyline, Jason Barr takes the reader through a detailed history of New York City. The book combines geology, history, economics, and a lot of data to explain why business clusters developed where they did and how the early decisions of workers and firms shaped the skyline we see today. Building the Skyline is organized into two distinct parts. The first is primarily historical and addresses New York's settlement and growth from 1609 to 1900; the second deals primarily with the 20th century and is a compilation of chapters commenting on different aspects of New York's urban development. The tone and organization of the book changes somewhat between the first and second parts, as the latter chapters incorporate aspects of Barr's related research papers.

Barr begins chapter one by taking the reader on a 'helicopter time-machine' ride – giving a fascinating account of how the New York landscape in 1609 might have looked from the sky. He then moves on to a subterranean walking tour of the city, indicating the location of rock and water below the subsoil, before taking the reader back to the surface. His love of the city comes through as he describes various fun facts about the location of the New York residence of early 19th-century  vice-president Aaron Burr as well as a number of legends about the city.

Chapter two and three take the reader up to the Civil War (1861–1865), with chapter two focusing on the early development of land and the implementation of a grid system in 1811. Chapter three focuses on land use before the Civil War. Both chapters are informative and well researched and set the stage for the economic analysis that comes later in the book. I would have liked Barr to expand upon his claim that existing tenements* prevented skyscrapers in certain neighborhoods because 'likely no skyscraper developer was interested in performing the necessary “slum clearance”' . Later in the book, Barr makes the claim that the depth of bedrock** was not a limiting factor for developers, as foundation costs were a small fraction of the cost of development. At first glance, it is not obvious why slum clearance would be limiting, while more expensive foundations would not.

Chapter four focuses on immigration and the location of neighborhoods and tenements in the late 19th century. Barr identifies four primary immigrant enclaves and analyzes their locations  in terms of the amenities available in the area. Most of these enclaves were located on the least valuable land, between the industries located on the waterfront and the wealthy neighborhoods ordering Central Park.

Part two of the book begins with a discussion of the economics of skyscraper height. In chapter five, Barr distinguishes between engineering height, economic height, and developer height — where engineering height is the tallest building that can be safely made at a given time, economic height is the height that is most efficient from society's point of view, and developer height is the  actual height chosen by the developer, who is attempting to maximize return on investment.

Chapter five also has an interesting discussion of the technological advances that led to the construction of skyscrapers. For example, the introduction of iron and steel skeletal frames made thick, load-bearing walls unnecessary, expanding the usable square footage of buildings and increasing the use of windows and availability of natural light. Chapter six then presents data on building height throughout the 20th century and uses regression analysis to 'predict' building construction. While less technical than the research paper on which the chapter is based, it is probably more technical than would be preferred by a general audience.

Chapter seven tackles the 'bedrock myth', the assumption that the absence of bedrock close to the surface between Downtown and Midtown New York is the reason for skyscrapers not being built between the two urban centers. Rather, Barr argues that while deeper bedrock does increase foundation costs, these costs were neither prohibitively high nor were they large compared to the overall cost of building a skyscraper. What I enjoyed the most about this chapter was Barr's discussion of how foundations are actually built. He describes the use of caissons, which enable workers to dig down for considerable distances, often below the water table, until they reach bedrock. Barr's thorough technological history discusses not only how caissons work, but also the dangers involved. While this chapter references empirical research papers, it is a relatively easy read.

Chapters eight and nine focus on the birth of Midtown and the building boom of the 1920s. Chapter eight contains lengthy discussions of urban economic theory that may serve as a distraction to readers primarily interested in New York. However, they would be well-suited for undergraduates learning about the economics of cities. In the next chapter, Barr considers two of the primary explanations for the building boom of the 1920s — the first being exuberance, and the second being financing. He uses data to assess the viability of these two explanations and finds that supply and demand factors explain much of the development of the 1920s; though it enabled the boom, cheap credit was not, he argues, the primary cause.

In the final chapter (chapter 10), Barr discusses another of his empirical papers that estimates Manhattan land values from the mid-19th century to the present day. The data work that went into these estimations is particularly impressive. Toward the end of the chapter, Barr assesses 'whether skyscrapers are a cause or an effect of highland values' . He finds that changes inland values predict future building height, but the reverse is not true. The bookends with an epilogue, in which Barr discusses the impact of climate change on the city and makes policy suggestions for New York going forward.

* a tenement: a multi-occupancy building of any sort, but particularly a run-down apartment building or slum building

** bedrock: the solid, hard rock in the ground that lies under a loose layer of soil

参考译文

构建天际线：曼哈顿摩天大楼的诞生与发展

Katharine L. Shester对于Jason Barr关于纽约市发展一书的评论

在《构建天际线》一书中，JasonBarr带领读者详细了解纽约市的历史。这本书结合了地质学、历史学、经济学和大量数据，解释了为什么商业集群会在那个地方发展，以及工人和公司的早期决策是如何塑造我们今天看到的天际线的。《构建天际线》分为两个不同的部分。第一个主要是历史性的，讲述纽约从1609年到1900年的定居和发展;第二部分主要涉及20世纪，是对纽约城市发展不同方面的评论的章节汇编。这本书的基调和结构在第一部分和第二部分之间有所不同，因为后面的章节包含了Barr相关研究论文的一些方面。

Barr在第一章开头，带领读者乘坐“直升时光机”生动地描述了1609年的纽约景观从天空俯瞰的样子。然后，他继续进行城市的地下徒步旅行，指出地下岩石和水的位置，然后将读者带回地面。他讲述了19世纪早期副总统亚伦·伯尔(AaronBurr)纽约住所位置的各种有趣事实，以及一些关于这座城市的传说，从中流露出他对这座城市的热爱。

第二章和第三章将读者带到美国内战(1861-1865年),第二章侧重于土地的早期开发和1811年网格系统的实施。第三章侧重于内战之前的土地利用。这两章内容丰富且经过充分研究，为本书后面的经济分析奠定了基础。我希望Barr能够进一步阐述他的说法，即现有的住房阻止了某些社区的摩天大楼，因为‘可能没有摩天大楼开发商对执行必要的“贫民窟清理”感兴趣。’.在本书的后面，Barr声称基岩的深度不是开发商的限制因素，因为地基成本只是开发成本的一小部分。

乍一看，为什么贫民窟清理会受到限制，而更昂贵的地基建筑却不会，这并不明显。

第四章侧重于19世纪后期的移民以及社区和公寓的位置。Barr确定了四个主要的移民飞地，并根据该地区的便利设施分析了它们的位置。这些飞地中的大多数都位于价值最低的土地上，位于海滨工业区和与毗邻中央公园的富裕社区之间。

本书的第二部分首先讨论了摩天大楼高度的经济学。在第五章中，Barr区分了工程高度、经济高度和开发商高度其中工程高度是在给定时间内可以安全建造的最高建筑物，经济高度是从社会角度来看最有效的高度，而开发商高度是开发商为了实现投资回报最大化而选择的实际高度。

第五章还对摩天大楼建造的技术进步进行了有趣的讨论。例如，钢铁骨架的引入使厚重的承重墙变得不必要，扩大了建筑物的可用面积，增加了窗户的使用和自

然光的可用性。第六章介绍了整个20世纪的建筑高度数据，并使用回归分析来“预测”建筑施工。虽然不如本章所依据的研究论文专业性强，但它可能比一般读者所喜欢的更专业。

第七章探讨了“基岩神话”,假设纽约市区和中心区之间的地表附近没有基岩是两个城市中心之间没有建造摩天大楼的原因。相反，Barr认为，虽然更深的基岩确实会增加基础成本，但与建造摩天大楼的总成本相比，这些成本既不高，也不大。本章中我最喜欢的是Barr关于如何实际建立地基的讨论。他描述了沉箱的使用，它使工人能够挖掘相当长的距离，通常在地下水位以下，直到他们到达基岩。Barr详尽的技术史不仅讨论了沉箱的工作原理，还讨论了其中的危险。虽然本章引用了实证研究论文，但它相对容易阅读。

第八章和第九章关注中城区的诞生和20世纪20年代的建筑热潮。第八章包含了对城市经济理论的冗长讨论，可能会分散主要对纽约感兴趣的读者的注意力。但是，它们非常适合学习城市经济学的本科生。在下一章中，Barr考虑了20世纪20年代建筑热潮的两个主要解释———第一个是繁荣，第二个是融资。他使用数据来评估这两种解释的可行性，并发现供需因素解释了20世纪20年代的大部分发展;他认为，尽管促进了经济繁荣，但它并不是主要原因。

在最后一章(第10章)中，Barr讨论了他的另一篇实证论文，该论文估计了19世纪中叶至今的曼哈顿土地价值。这些估计中的数据工作尤其令人印象深刻。在本章的末尾，Barr评估了“摩天大楼是高地价的原因还是结果”。他发现土地价值的变化可以预测未来的建筑高度，但反之则不然。这本书以结语结束，Barr讨论了气候变化对这座城市的影响，并为纽约的未来发展提出了政策建议。