1. On April 15, 1996, the Council on Tall Buildings proclaimed the Petronas Towers the tallest in the world.
2. The project's developers were a consortium of private investors in association with the Malaysian government and Petronas, the national gas company.
3. Pelli's design didn't answer the developer's call to express the 'culture and heritage of Malaysia' by evoking Islamic arabesques and employing repetitive geometries characteristic of Muslim architecture.
4. The identical towers are linked by a bridge at the 41-st floor, creating a dramatic gateway to the city.
5. The raft is 4.6 metres thick, weighs 35,800 pounds and held the world record for the largest concrete pour until 2007.
6. The structure is high-strength concrete, a material familiar to Asian contractors and twice as effective as steel in sway reduction.
V. What are the following figures connected with in the text?
9.4, 8, 104, 60, 114, 13,200, 54, 4.6, 35,800, 75, 14,000, 22,000.
VI. Translate the following words and word combinations:
A)
to pass the torch to
winning scheme
curved and pointed bays
dramatic gateway
bedrock
concrete raft foundation
twice as effective as steel
mixed-use base
B)
-.
,
VII. Find in the text the words these definitions belong to:
a) any of the world's main continuous expanses of land;
b) the quantitative relation between two amounts showing the number of times one value contains or is contained within the other;
c) an ornamental design consisting of intertwined flowing lines, originally found in Arabic or Moorish decoration;
d) a plane figure with four equal straight sides and four right angles;
e) solid rock in the ground which supports all the soil above it;
f) a rhythmical movement from side to side;
g) the natural agent that stimulates sight and makes things visible.
VIII. What are these proper names connected with in the text:
The Council on Tall Buildings, Petronas, Chicago's Sears Tower, Kuala Lumpur, Cesar Pelli, Malaysia.
IX. Formulate the main idea of each paragraph of the text briefly.
X. Retell the text.
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
World-famous architect Philip Johnson called the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao "the greatest building of our time." It is "a miracle," said The New York Times. Certainly, few buildings in history have generated so much praise or have so greatly changed a city as Frank Gehry's museum on the industrial riverfront of Bilbao.
The city, once the culturally moribund commercial centre of Spain's Basque region, was revitalized by the 1997 opening of this radically unconventional museum - an irregular fusion of limestone, glass, and a shell of thousands of lustrous titanium sheets.
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Admirers have compared the museum to a titanium clipper ship under full sail (harking back to Bilbao's shipbuilding history) and to a spaceship from Alpha Centauri (underlining the museum's futuristic look, an apt setting for its collection of contemporary art). To one Spanish novelist, the blaze of titanium and light is a "meteorite."
Critics, on the other hand, have described the museum as looking like a cauliflower or a large soufflé. In any case, few visitors remain unmoved upon entering the museum's 150-foot-high atrium, from which glass lifts and metal walkways lead to 19 exhibition spaces including the world's largest gallery, measuring 426 feet long and 98 feet wide. The ground-floor galleries suit large-scale artworks and installations, and some pieces were specifically made to fit their exhibit spaces, among them Richard Serra's Serpent.
Works of art displayed at "El Guggy" come from New York's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and from the Basque government. Pieces range from abstract expressionist to cubist and geometrical, and include many big names of 20th-century art: Kandinsky, Picasso, Pollock, De Kooning.
Still, the museum itself remains the main attraction. Visitors gaze out through tall windows, running their eyes along the museum's titanium ripples. They've never seen anything like this before!
Active vocabulary:
moribund -
limestone -
sheets -
lustrous -
apt -
cauliflower -
walkway - ,
ripples -
EXERCISES
I. Answer the following questions:
1. In what word did The New York Times describe the Guggenheim Museum?
2. Who was the architect of the museum?
3. Where is Bilbao situated?
4. When was the museum opened?
5. What are the exterior walls of the Guggenheim Museum covered with?
6. What did critics compare the museum to?
7. What is the height of the museum's atrium?
8. What do works of art come to the Guggenheim Museum from?
9. Whose works can be seen in the museum?
II. Find in the text the synonyms for the following words:
wonder, acclaim, completely, plate, modern, big, look.
III. Fill the gaps in the following sentences:
1. Few buildings in history have generated so much... or have so greatly changed a... as Frank Gehry's museum on the... riverfront of Bilbao.
2. The city was... by the 1997 opening of this radically... museum - an irregular fusion of..., glass, and a... of thousands of lustrous titanium...
3. Admirers have... the museum to a titanium clipper... under full... and to a spaceship from Alpha Centauri.
4.... have described the... as looking like a... or a large soufflé.
5. Few visitors remain... upon entering the museum's 150-foot-high..., from which glass... and metal... lead to 19 exhibition spaces including the world's largest..., measuring 426 feet... and 98 feet...
6. The... galleries suit large-scale... and..., and some pieces were specifically made to... their exhibit spaces,... them Richard Serra's Serpent.
7. Works of art... at "El Guggy"... from New York's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and from the Basque...
8. Visitors... out through tall..., running their eyes along the museum's titanium...
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