首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
"’Building with Arches" Round Arch and Vault → Although the round arch was used by the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia
"’Building with Arches" Round Arch and Vault → Although the round arch was used by the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia
admin
2012-01-14
55
问题
"’Building with Arches"
Round Arch and Vault
→ Although the round arch was used by the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia several centuries before our common era, it was most fully developed by the Romans, who perfected the form in the 2nd century B.C.E. The arch has many virtues. In addition to being an attractive form, it enables the architect to open up fairly large spaces in a wall without risking the building’s structural soundness. These spaces admit light, reduce the weight of the walls, and decrease the amount of material needed. As utilized by the Romans, the arch is a perfect semicircle, although it may seem elongated if it rests on columns. It is constructed from wedge-shaped pieces of stone that meet at an angle always perpendicular to the curve of the arch. Because of tensions and compressions
inherent
in the form, the arch is stable only when it is complete, when the topmost stone, the keystone, has been set in place. For this reason an arch under construction must be supported from below, usually by a wooden framework.
→ Among the most elegant and enduring of Roman structures based on the arch is the Pont du Gard at Nimes, France, built about 15 C.E. when the empire was nearing its farthest expansion. At this time, industry, commerce, and agriculture were at their peak. Roman engineering was applied to an ambitious system of public-works projects, not just in Italy but in the outlying areas as well. The Pont du Gard functioned as an aqueduct, a structure meant to transport water, and its lower level served as a footbridge across the river. That it stands today virtually intact after nearly two thousand years (and is crossed by cyclists on the route of the famous Tour de France bicycle race) testifies to the Romans’ brilliant engineering skills. Visually, the Pont du Gard exemplifies the best qualities of arch construction. Solid and heavy, obviously durable, it is shot through with open spaces that make it seem light and its weight-bearing capabilities effortless.
→ When the arch is extended in depth—when it is, in reality, many arches placed flush one behind the other—the result is called a barrel vault. This vault construction makes it possible to create large interior spaces. The Romans made great use of the barrel vault, but for its finest expression we look many hundreds of years later, to the churches of the Middle Ages.
→ The church of Sainte-Foy, in the French city of Conques, is an example of the style prevalent throughout Western Europe from about 1050 to 1200—a style known as Romanesque. Romanesque builders adopted the old Roman forms of round arch and barrel vault so as to add height to their churches.
Until this period most churches had beamed wooden roofs, which not only posed a threat of fire but also limited the height to which architects could aspire.
With the stone barrel vault, they could achieve the soaring, majestic space we see in the
nave
of Sainte-Foy.
Pointed Arch and Vault
→ While the round arch and vault of the Romanesque era solved many problems and made many things possible, they nevertheless had certain drawbacks. For one thing, a round arch, to be stable, must be a semicircle; therefore, the height of the arch is limited by its width. Two other difficulties were weight and darkness. Barrel vaults are both literally and visually heavy, calling for huge masses of stone to maintain their structural stability. Also, the builders who constructed them dared not make light-admitting openings in or around them, for fear the arches and vaults would collapse, and so the interiors of Romanesque buildings tend to be dark. The Gothic period in Europe, which followed the Romanesque, solved these problems with the pointed arch. A
The pointed arch, while seemingly not very different from the round one, offers many advantages.B Because the sides arc up to a point, weight is channeled down to the ground at a steeper angle, and therefore the arch can be taller. The vault constructed from such an arch also can be much taller than a barrel vault.C Architects of the Gothic period found they did not need heavy masses of material throughout the curve of the vault, as long as the major points of intersection were reinforced. D
Glossary
nave: the long central area in a church with aisles on each side
The word achieve in the passage is closest in meaning to
选项
A、retain
B、accomplish
C、decorate
D、finance
答案
B
解析
In this passage, accomplish is a synonym for "achieve." Context comes from the contrast with "limited" in the previous sentence.
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/ZPyO777K
0
托福(TOEFL)
相关试题推荐
Completethesummaryusingthelistofwords,A-l,below.Writethecorrectletter,A-l,inboxes37-40onyouranswersheet.Re
Lookatthefollowingopinionsordeeds(Questions9-13)andthelistofpeoplebelow.Matcheachopinionordeedwiththecorre
AccidentalScientistsAAparadoxliesclosetotheheartofscientificdiscovery.Ifyouknowjustwhatyouarelookingfor,fi
Youshouldspendabout20minutesonQuestions1-13,whicharebasedonReadingPassage1below.CLASSIFYINGSOCIETIESAlthough
TheStudyofChimpanzeeCultureA.Afterstudyingthesimilaritiesbetweenchimpanzeesandhumansforyears,researchershav
Howdidthestudentgettheuniversityprospectus?Whodecidesthecountryinwhichthestudentwillworkinyearthree?
SECTION4Questions31-40Questions31-33Completethefollowingsentencesaccordingtotheinformationgivenbythetutor.Use
TheprofessoralreadyknowssomethingaboutClarefromher______.
WhatisthepurposeofJaneandRick’smeetingwiththetutor?
Whatdoesthepassagemainlydiscuss?Itcanbeinferredfromthepassagethatbrainsizeisassumedto
随机试题
关于嗜酸性粒细胞增多症,正确的说法是
可治疗反流性食管炎及术后胃肠无力的药物:可使大便变黑的抗溃疡病药物:
Χ线球管组件的散热方式不包括
A.3寸B.5寸C.1.5寸D.6寸E.4寸足三里与下巨虚相距为()
调制罩面用的石灰浆不得单独使用,应掺入砂子、麻刀和纸筋等的()。
下列事项中,需要在营业外支出科目中核算的是()。
交易双方在公平交易中可接受的资产或债权价值是()。
下列各项中,可以导致经济订货基本模型中的经济订货批量减少的因素是()。
使用报表设计器建立一个报表,具体要求如下:①报表的内容(细节带区)是orderlist表的订单号、订购日期和总金额。②增加数据分组,分组表达式是“orderlist.客户号”,组标头带区的内容是“客户号”,组注脚带区的内容是该组订单的“总金额”合计
______meansthatlanguagecanbeusedtorefertothecontextsthatareremovedfromtheimmediatesituationofthespeaker,esp
最新回复
(
0
)