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  3. The Empire State Building Turns 75 Empire State Building, the famous building in New York City is 75 years old. The grou

The Empire State Building Turns 75 Empire State Building, the famous building in New York City is 75 years old. The grou

admin2012-12-13  17
问题                      The Empire State Building Turns 75
    Empire State Building, the famous building in New York City is 75 years old.
    The ground was broken on Jan. 22nd, 1930. Workers dug a hole about 17 meters deep for the foundation. In March, work began on the steel structure. It grew taller and taller. By November, well ahead of plans, the stonework on the outside of the building was finished.
    On May 1st, 1931, President Herbert Hoover pressed a button in Washington, D.C. On went the lights of, at that time, the world’s tallest building.
    The Empire State Building in Midtown Manhattan was open for business.
    The Empire State Building is just over 443 meters tall. That includes the 62-meter-tall lightening rod(避雷针)on top. There are 103 floors.
    And if you want to reach them all on foot, just know there are more than 1860 stairs. Runners compete in a yearly race to the top. If even the thought of that makes you tired, then you might want to ride an elevator instead. The building has 73 of them.
    The Empire, State Building sits on more than 7,000 square meters of land.
    The building has 5 entrances and 6,500 windows.
    And, last but not least, it has 250 workers who take care of the building.
Empire State Building Towers over New York City
    The Empire State Building holds a special place in the hearts of Americans. For one thing, it was the tallest building in the world for more than 40 years.
    But the Empire State Building is also a big player in the cultural history of New York City. One reason is its light shows. The first took place in 1932. A searchlight was lit on top of the building to honor the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as president. New York is known as the Empire State, and Roosevelt was its governor.
    In 1956, four large searchlights were added to the building. They were called Freedom Lights. They were meant as a way to send a message of welcome and hope to immigrants. The Freedom Lights were also meant to signal the hopes of Americans for peace. People at that time worried about the threat from the Soviet Union.
    More lights were added in 1964. But a big surprise came in 1976. The Empire State Building shined in red, white and blue. The colors of the flag celebrated the 200th anniversary of American independence.
    Ever since then, the owners of the Empire State Building have observed holidays and special events with color. For example, on February 14th, the building glows red for Valentine’s Day, the day for love.
    On Saint Patrick’s Day, March 17th, the Empire State Building turns green to honor the patron saint(守护神)of Ireland. And on April 22nd, it shines a combination of green and blue to mark Earth Day.
    There are also special colors to mark the independence days of several countries and to honor campaigns against diseases. There are even light shows to celebrate the birthdays of cartoon characters like Popeye and Betty Boop.
    Sometimes the building goes dark as a remembrance, as it did in 2004 after the death of former President Ronald Reagan.
Photograph and Film Star
    Even if you have never visited New York, there is a good chance you have seen the Empire State Building. It has been photographed countless times. It has even played parts in movies.
    In 1933 the Empire State Building was one of the stars of "King Kong." A huge ape climbs to the top, fighting off airplanes and holding in his hand a screaming woman, played by Fay Wray.
    In 1957 the Empire State Building appeared in the love story "An Affair to Remember." Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr play a man and a woman who meet and fall in love on a ship. They are looking at the New York City skyline from the ship when they plan a future meeting.
    More recently, in "Sleepless in Seattle," two people in love agree to meet at the Observation Deck on Valentine’s Day. Both do arrive, but one is a little later. They almost miss each other.
    The makers of that film made a small mistake. They should have lit the tower in red.
    In the movie "Independence Day" the Empire State Building is destroyed by creatures from space.
    But there is one motion picture in which the main character is the Empire State Building. The Pop artist Andy Warhol made the 1964 movie "Empire."
    He and a crew set up a camera in an office high up in another tall building. They filmed the Empire State Building through an evening into night. The camera never moved. The result is a silent film 8 hours long in black-and-white.
Empire State Building and the Twin Towers
    In the early 1970s, the Empire State Building lost its place as the tallest building in New York. People in the city now had the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center to look up to.
    Tragically that all changed in the morning of September 11th, 2001. Members of A1-Qaida crashed hijacked(劫机)passenger airplanes into the Twin Towers and destroyed them. The Empire State Building again became the city’s tallest building.
    The Empire State Building survived a plane crash. In 1945, a large military plane hit the building at the 79 floor. The pilot had gotten lost in foggy conditions.
    The pilot and 2 passengers were killed. The crash also killed 11 people in the building. Yet a woman survived a drop of 75 floors in an elevator after the cable lines broke as a result of the crash.
A Giant Pencil
    Many people say the Empire State Building looks like a giant pencil. They may be right.
    John Jacob Raskob was the business leader mainly responsible for the Empire State Building. The story goes that Raskob held up a pencil in front of the architects and asked them how high they could build it.
    Raskob chose the architects at Shreve, Lamb and Harmon Associates to design the building. They planned for the top of the building to serve as a port for airships. But that never happened. The winds were too strong at that height.
    Still, the height of the building was useful for another purpose. NBC, the National Broadcasting Company, placed a television tower on the building in 1950. It was the most powerful transmitter in the world. Antennas(天线)on the Empire State Building still serve many communication needs.
    More than 100 million people have visited the Empire State Building since it opened in May of 1931. It is very popular with people who visit New York City.
    But the building never became as popular with large companies as the developers had hoped. Today the building has about 900 tenants(租客). Small businesses are the main occupants.
    The Empire State Building opened during the Great Depression. At that time few people were willing or able to pay for office space there.
    The Web site of the Empire State Building offers a virtual tour and use of cameras on top of the building to see New York City. The Web site is esbnyc, com.
From 1931 to 2006, the Empire State Building lived through a course of  years.
选项 A、Y
B、N
C、NG
答案A
解析
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