职称英语综合类阅读理解英文及译文只好向上

　　只好向上

　　想到个现代化的城市首先进入脑海的就是它的空中轮廓线。幢幢高楼如根根插入天 空的手指一般。确实有些城市因不愿改变城市固有的风格而不允许建筑物超出定的高度。但任何一个城市想要引起世界关注，第一件事就是建造摩天大楼。

　　当人口在城市聚集时，就产生了对土地的需求。城市是资本的聚集地，对土地的需求 可以实现。而在城市利用土地赚钱最好的方米洛舍维奇之死法就是在最小的土地面积上居住最多的人。这 就意味着要建高楼。

　　早在19世纪建造高楼的技术已经存在，但楼房的高度还受一个很重要的因素的制约。 那就是楼房必须能让顶层的居民上下方便，人们下班回家后肯定不想像爬山那样去爬楼梯。

　　美国发明家艾莉莎?奥的斯为我们创造了电梯，他更喜欢叫它升降机。其实其中大部 分技术都是很古老的，电梯使用的是跟埃及人修建金字塔同样的滑轮系统。奥的斯所作的 贡献是将滑轮系统与一个争气机连接起来制成一个刹车装置确保电梯上的链条断开时电梯 不会坠落。正是这项技术赢得了人们对这项新发明的信心。事实上他在游乐场里让大家试 乘了几年才把这个想法出售给建筑师和营造商。

　　电梯在现代社会肯定不能成为主题公园的看点了，乘电梯也成了再普通不过的事情， 有时甚至会让人觉得厌烦。然而心理学家及其他研究人类行为的学者则发现了电梯的妙处。 原因很简单。科学家经常在动物园里研究动物，而对于研究人类来说最接近的方式就是在电梯里观察他们了。

　　工作场所心理学家贾利?菲茨基波恩说：电梯空间狭小，人们想要享受私人空间的要 求在这里成了幻想，你不可能选择随意离开那里。他还指出人被封闭在这个小空间里会产 生很多不同的情绪。有些人会感到害怕，有些人则把它当作接近老板的好机会。有些人喜 欢站在靠门的地方，有些人则藏在角落里。大部分的人试图混在人群里，而有些人特意表 现以引起别人的注意，还有的人索性靠在角落记笔记。

　　不要担心，他们可能只是大学里的研究者。

　　The Only Way Is Up

　　Think of a modem city and the first image that come to mind is the skyline. It is full of great buildings, pointing like fingers to heaven. It is true that some cities dont permit buildings to go above a certain height. But these are cities concerned with the past. The first thing any city does when it wants to tell the world that it has arrived is to build skyscrapers.

　　When people gather together in cities, they create a demand for land. Since cities are places where money is made, that demand can be met. And the best way to make money out of city land is to put as many people as possible in a space that covers the smallest amount of ground. That means building upwards.

　　The technology existed to do this as early as the 19th century. But the height of buildings was limited by one important factor. They had to be small enough for people on the top floors to climb stairs. People could not be expected to climb a mountain at the end of their journey to work, or home.

　　Elisha Otis, a US inventor, was the man who brought us the lift - or elevator, as he preferred to call it. However, most of the technology is very old. Lifts work using the same pulley system the Egyptians used to create the Pyramids. What Otis did was attach the system to a steam engine and develop the elevator brake, which stops the lift falling if the cords that hold it up are broken. It was this that did the most to gain public confidence in the new invention1. In fact, he spent a number of years exhibiting lifts at fairgrounds, giving people the chance to try

　　them out before selling the idea to architects and builders.

　　A lift would not be a very good theme park attraction now. Going in a lift is such an everyday thing that it would just be boring. Yet psychologists and others who study human behavior find lifts fascinating. The reason is simple. Scientists have always studied animals in zoos. The nearest they can get to that with humans is in observing them in lifts2.

　　It breaks all the usual conventions about the bubble of personal space3 we carry around with us -- and you just cant choose to move away, says workplace psychologist, Gary Fitzgibbon. Being trapped in this setting can create different types of tensions, he says. Some people are scared of them. Others use them as an opportunity to get close to the boss. Some stand close to the door. Others hide in the comers. Most people try and shrink into the background. But some behave in a way that makes others notice them. There are a few people who just stand in a comer taking notes.

　　Dont worry about them. They are probably from a university.