新概念英语第三册英音版 17－The Longest Suspension Bridge in the World
发布时间：2012-12-26 编辑：查字典英语网小编
[al:新概念英语（三）] [ar:MP3 同步字幕版（英音）] [ti:The Longest Suspension Bridge in the World] [by:更多学习内容，请到chazidian.com搜索“新概念”] [00:01.47]Lesson 17 [00:03.50]The longest suspension bridge in the world [00:13.40]How is the bridge supported? [00:17.95]Verrazano, an Italian about whom little is known, sailed into New York Harbour in 1524 and named it Angouleme. [00:29.02]He described it as 'a very agreeable situation located within two small hills in the midst of which flowed a great river.' [00:38.01]Though Verrazano is by no means considered to be a great explorer, his name will probably remain immortal, [00:46.03]for on November 21st, 1964, the longest suspension bridge in the world was named after him. [00:54.67]The Verrazano Bridge, which was designed by Othmar Ammann, joins Brooklyn to Staten Island. [01:02.86]It has a span of 4,260 feet. [01:07.30]The bridge is so long that the shape of the earth had to be taken into account by its designer. [01:14.34]Two great towers support four huge cables. [01:18.83]The towers are built on immense underwater platforms made of steel and concrete. [01:25.02]The platforms extend to a depth of over 100 feet under the sea. [01:30.19]These alone took sixteen months to build. [01:33.99]Above the surface of the water, the towers rise to a height of nearly 700 feet. [01:40.43]They support the cables from which the bridge has been suspended. [01:45.20]Each of the four cables contains 26,108 lengths of wire. [01:52.20]It has been estimated that if the bridge were packed with cars, it would still only be carrying a third of its total capacity. [02:00.57]However, size and strength are not the only important things about this bridge. [02:06.98]Despite its immensity, it is both simple and elegant, [02:11.17]fulfilling its designer's dream to creat 'an enormous object drawn as faintly as possible'.