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In 1172, Donna Berta di Bernardo donated sixty silver coins to the local cathedral for the purchase of stones to be used in the base of a new bell tower.

The next year, construction on the tower began and almost immediately there were problems. The tower site sat on soft ground composed mostly of clay, fine sand, and shells (the city sits between the Arno and the Serchio rivers). By the time the builders finished the second floor in 1178, the tower was beginning to lean.

Soon, construction was halted for almost 100 years, as Pisa fought wars against Genoa, Lucca and Florence. This may have been a lucky break, as modern analysis says that the tower definitely would have toppled had construction continued without time for the soil to settle.

When work on the tower started again, it was leaning 0.2 degrees north of vertical, but by the time the workers started on the seventh floor, the tower was tilting one degree south. Around this time, construction stopped again for unknown reasons.

DON'T LEAN ON ME

Over the next century, construction continued intermittently.

The tower’s lean gained another 1.6 degrees. To counteract the lean, the builders made the remaining floors taller on the south side of the tower. But the weight of the additional floors only made the foundation sink further, making the lean worse. Having done what they could, the builders finished up and officially completed the tower around 1370.

Since the tower’s completion, engineers and architects from all over the world have monitored the lean and tried to correct it. These attempts have involved adding grout to the foundation masonry, wrapping plastic-coated steel pieces around the tower up to the second floor, pouring a concrete ring around the base of the tower, laying lead counterweights to the north side, installing anchored cable counterweights, and extracting soil from underneath the north side.

After the removal of more than 70 metric tons of soil in 2008, engineers announced that the Tower had been stabilized enough that it had stopped moving for the first time since construction began. Its lean is now only about 4 degrees (prior to the all the restoration attempts, the lean was 5.5 degrees), or about 13 feet past perfectly vertical. The Leaning Tower of Pisa should be stable for at least the next 200 years.

Comprehension

1.      What is the main idea of the passage?

A.      Why the Leaning Tower of Pisa leans

B.      The Builders of the Leaning Tower of Pisa

C.      How to correct the Leaning Tower of Pisa

D.      The Construction of the Leaning Tower of Pisa

2.      How long does it take to build the Leaning Tower of Pisa?

A.      195 years

B.      196 years

C.      197 years

D.      198 years

3.      Which of the following words is similar in meaning to “donate” (Line one)

A.     contribute

B.     accept

C.     give in

D.     spend

Background information

比薩斜塔位于意大利中部比薩古城內的教堂廣場上，是一組古羅馬建筑群中的鐘樓，這座堪稱世界建筑史奇跡的斜塔，不僅以它“斜而不倒”聞名天下，還因為1590年，意大利的偉大科學家伽俐略，曾在斜塔的頂層做過自由落體運動的實驗，讓兩個重量相差10倍的鐵球，同時從塔頂落下，結果，兩球同時著地，一舉推翻了束縛人們思想近2000年的希臘著名學者亞里士多德關于重量不同的物體其下落的速度也不相同的“物體下落速度與重量成正比”的理論。伽俐略開創了實驗物理的新時代，被人們稱為“近代科學之父”，而他用來做實驗的斜塔也因而更加遐邇聞名。

Do you know how tall the Leaning Tower of Pisa is?

E.     45.4 meters

F.     54.5 meters

G.     35.4 meters

H.     55.4 meters

                                                       (Key:B)

Vocabulary:

intermittedly 斷斷續續地

officially 正式地，官方地

install 安裝

analysis 分析

lean on 依靠，依賴

Comprehension key:

1 D 整篇文章介紹的是比薩斜塔的建設歷史。

2 C 比薩斜塔從1173年開始建設，1370年完工，所以耗時197年。

3 A donate意為“捐獻，捐贈”跟contribute的意思類似。Give in: 屈服。