2012年3月4日托福阅读考试出现的是北美3月3日考试的题目，同时是一套新题，北京新东方托福研发组葛旭老师为同学们带来本次考试的托福阅读文章复现及解析。

　　在美国建筑材料发展的阅读中，根据考生回忆出来的“十九世纪晚期”、“中空结构”（Hollow structure）、“芝加哥学派”（Chicago school）以及钢材料（Steel）几个关键词能大致定位出本文重点讨论的是美国现代建筑中“摩天楼”的发展。（Skyscraper）。在这里将本时期摩天楼的相关背景阅读呈现给同学们以供参考。

　　Rise of the Skyscraper

　　The most notable United States architectural innovation has been the skyscraper. Several technical advances made this possible. In 1853 Elisha Otis invented the first safety elevator which prevented a car from falling down the shaft if the suspending cable broke. Elevators allowed buildings to rise above the four or five stories that people were willing to climb by stairs for normal occupancy. An 1868 competition decided the design of New York City's six story Equitable Life Building, which would become the first commercial building to use an elevator. Construction commenced in 1873. Other structures followed such as the Auditorium Building, Chicago in 1885 by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan. This adopted Italian palazzo design details to give the appearance of a structured whole: for several decades American skyscrapers would blend conservative decorative elements with technical innovation.

　　Soon skyscrapers encountered a new technological challenge. Load-bearing stone walls become impractical as a structure gains height, reaching a technical limit at about 20 stories (culminating in the 1891 Monadnock Building by Burnham & Root in Chicago). Professional engineer William LeBaron Jenney solved the problem with a steel support frame in Chicago's 10-story Home Insurance Building, 1885. Arguably this is the first true skyscraper. The use of a thin curtain wall in place of a load-bearing wall reduced the building's overall weight by two thirds. Another feature that was to become familiar in 20th century skyscrapers first appeared in Chicago's Reliance Building, designed by Charles B. Atwood and E.C. Shankland, Chicago, 1890 - 1895. Because outer walls no longer bore the weight of a building it was possible to increase window size. This became the first skyscraper to have plate glass windows take up a majority of its outer surface area.

　　Some of the most graceful early towers were designed by Louis Sullivan (1856-1924), America's first great modern architect. His most talented student was Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), who spent much of his career designing private residences with matching furniture and generous use of open space.

　　在探讨古希腊哲学家泰勒斯（Thales）的阅读中，还主要探讨了米利托时期（Milesian）的哲学家Anaximander和Anaximenes的理论。在西方哲学史中，关于此三位哲学家的介绍性文本几乎全部集中于对宇宙中初始物质的关注。为了方便大家理解，现将三位的主要观点列举出来，并分别将其宇宙观进行梳理。

　　Milesian philosophers debate what the primary element at the root of change is:

　　·Thales: Water since it exists in all three states of matter. (Liquid, gas and solid);

　　·Anaximander: a vague element he calls the “boundless”;

　　·Anaximenes: Air or vapor since rain is pressed from air.

　　1. Thales’ theory: water as a first principle

　　Thales' most famous belief was his cosmological thesis, which held that the world started from water. Aristotle considered this belief roughly equivalent to the later ideas of Anaximenes, who held that everything in the world was composed of air.

　　Explanation on Thales’ theory

　　The best explanation of Thales' view is the following passage from Aristotle's Metaphysics. The passage contains words from the theory of matter and form that were adopted by science with quite different meanings.

　　"That from which is everything that exists and from which it first becomes and into which it is rendered at last, its substance remaining under it, but transforming in qualities, that they say is the element and principle of things that are."

　　And again:

　　"For it is necessary that there be some nature (φ?σι?), either one or more than one, from which become the other things of the object being saved... Thales the founder of this type of philosophy says that it is water."

　　Aristotle's depiction of the problem of change and the definition of substance is clear. If an object changes, is it the same or different? In either case how can there be a change from one to the other? The answer is that the substance "is saved", but acquires or loses different qualities (π?θη, the things you "experience").

　　A deeper dip into the waters of the theory of matter and form is properly reserved to other articles. The question for this article is, how far does Aristotle reflect Thales? He was probably not far off, and Thales was probably an incipient matter-and-formist.

　　The essentially non-philosophic Diogenes Laertius states that Thales taught as follows:

　　"Water constituted (?πεστ?σατο, 'stood under') the principle of all things."

　　Heraclitus Homericus states that Thales drew his conclusion from seeing moist substance turn into air, slime and earth. It seems likely that Thales viewed the Earth as solidifying from the water on which it floated and which surrounded Ocean.

　　2. Anaximander's theory of matter:

　　·He would say to Thales: Water can change into wood, as you say, but after having done so it isn't water any more. So water isn't conserved.

　　·Something is conserved, but it is something that can have first the form of water, then the form of wood.

　　·Anaximander . . . said that the principle and element of existing things was the indefinite, being the first to introduce this name for the material principle. He says that it is neither water nor any of the other so-called elements, but some other indefinite nature, from which come into being all the heavens and the worlds in them. (Theophrastus quoted by Simplicius)

　　Anaximander's cosmology

　　·What holds the earth up:

　　oNothing. It is at the center so there is no reason for it to move one way rather than another.

　　oA bold idea and a step towards modern views.

　　·Shape of the earth:

　　oIt is a cylinder; we live on one of the flat surfaces.

　　oHalfway towards our view of the earth as a sphere.

　　·Heavenly bodies:

　　oThere are circles (or spheres) turning around the earth. These have vents in them through which we see fire; those are the heavenly bodies.

　　oEclipses occur when the vents are blocked.

　　oThe phases of the moon are due to the blocking and opening of its vent.

　　oAgrees with modern cosmology that heavenly bodies orbit under the earth.

　　3. Anaximenes’ theory of matter

　　·Anaximenes . . . a companion of Anaximander, also says, like him, that the underlying nature is one and infinite, but not undefined as Anaximander said but definite, for he identifies it as air; and it differs in its substantial nature by rarity and density. Being made finer it becomes fire, being made thicker it becomes wind, then cloud, then (when thickened still more) water, then earth, then stones; and the rest come into being from these. (Theophrastus quoted by Simplicius)

　　·This is Thales' theory with air substituted for water.

　　·Anaximander probably would have said: Stone isn't air!

　　Anaximenes' cosmology

　　·The earth is flat, being borne upon air, and similarly the sun, moon and the other heavenly bodies, which are all fiery, ride upon the air through their flatness. (Hippolytus)

　　·Anaximenes says that the heavenly bodies make their turnings through being pushed out by condensed and opposing air. (Aetius)

　　·He says that the heavenly bodies do not move under the earth, as others have supposed, but round it, just as if a felt cap turns round our head; and that the sun is hidden not by being under the earth, but through being covered by the higher parts of the earth and through its increased distance from us. (Hippolytus)

　　·This is retrograde from Anaximander.