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
73
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 their in the passage refers to
选项
A、masses
B、builders
C、stone
D、vaults
答案
D
解析
"Barrel vaults are both literally and visually heavy, calling for huge masses of stone to maintain their [the vaults] structural stability." The pronoun "their" does not refer to Choices A, B, or C.
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/aPyO777K
0
托福(TOEFL)
相关试题推荐
REVIEWOFRESEARCHONTHEEFFECTSOFFOODPROMOTIONTOCHILDRENThisreviewwascommissionedbytheFoodStandardsAgencytoex
Lookatthefollowingstatements(Questions18-23)andthelistofpeoplebelow.Matcheachstatementwiththecorrectperson,A,
Youshouldspendabout20minutesonQuestions1-13,whicharebasedonReadingPassage1below.AverybriefhistoryoftimeTh
Inthelastdecadearevolutionhasoccurredinthewaythatscientiststhinkaboutthebrain.Wenowknowthatthedecisionshu
Theprofessorsaysthatsuperhighways______.【28】
HowlonghasJackhadhisownbusiness?WhichbankdidJackrecommendtoAhmed?
environmentalissues
Completethesummarybelow.WriteNOMORETHANTWOWORDSforeachanswer.Afterhighschoolsomepeopletravel,finda(a
Completethesentencesbelow.WriteNOMORETHANTHREEWORDSforeachanswer.EffectsofweatheronmoodStelladefines’effect
Whatdoesthepassagemainlydiscuss?Itcanbeinferredfromthestatementaboutmotherchimpanzeesandtheiryoung(lines21
随机试题
男性,63岁,有食管癌家族史,进行性吞咽困难1个月。下列哪项检查可确诊
形态学和生理学性状相同的细菌群体构成一个()。
依据《危险化学品安全管理条例》的规定,申请危险化学品安全使用许可证的化工企业,应当具备的条件有()。
自由现金储备、留存借贷能力、厂房设备的余力、定型的但尚未推出的新产品等因素决定着竞争对手的()。
甲公司为境内上市公司,2017年甲公司发生的导致净资产变动的交易或事项如下:①接受其大股东捐赠500万元;②当年将作为存货的商品房改为出租,甲公司对投资性房地产采用公允价值模式进行后续计量,转换日,商品房的公允价值大于其账面价值800万元;③按照持股
北斗卫星导航系统是中国自行研制的全球卫星导航系统,它能够提供的服务包括()。
把下面的六个图形分为两类,使每一类图形都有各自的共同特征或规律,分类正确的一项是:()
ThomasMalthuspublishedhisEssayonthePrincipleofPopulationalmost200yearsago.Eversincethen,forecastershavebeing
A、Peoplecanusenearly75percentofit.B、Peoplecanuseabout97percentofit.C、Peoplecanuseexactly3percentofit.D、P
A、About10millionpeopledieofsmokingeveryyear.B、Mostdeathsfromsmokingoccurinhigh-incomecountries.C、Smokingcanbr
最新回复
(
0
)