第三篇 Can Buildings be Designed to Resist Terrorist Attack In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, structural engineers are trying hard to solve a question that a month ago would have been completely unthinkable. Can buildings be designed to withstand catastrophic blasts inflicted by terrorists’ Ten day’s after the terrorist attacks on the twin towers, structural engineers from the University at Buffalo and the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research(MCEER) headquartered at UB traveled to ground zero(世贸中心被毁现场)as part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation. Visiting the site as part of an MCEER reconnaissance visit, they spent two days beginning the task of formulating ideas about how to design such structures and to search for clues on how to do so in buildings that were damaged but still are standing. "Our objective in visiting ground zero was to go and look at the buildings surrounding the World Trade Center, those buildings that are still standing, but that sustained damage. " said M. Bruneau, Ph. D. "Our immediate hope is that we can develop a better understanding as to why those buildings remain standing, while our long-term goal is to see whether earthquake engineering technologies can be married to existing technologies to achieve enhanced performance of buildings in the event of terrorist attacks," he added. Photographs taken by the investigators demonstrate in startling detail the monumental damage inflicted on the World Trade Center towers and buildings in the vicinity(附近). "One building a block away from the towers remains standing, but was badly damaged. This building is many meters away from the World Trade Center and yet we see a column there that used to be a part of that building." explained A. Whittaker, Ph. D. "This column became a missile that shot across the road, through the window and through the floor. " The visit to the area also revealed some surprises, according to the engineers. For example, the floor framing system in one of the adjacent buildings was quite rugged, allowing floors that were pierced by tons of falling debris to remain intact. "Highly redundant ductile (易变形的)framing systems may provide a simple, but robust strategy for blast resistance. " he added. Other strategies may include providing alternate paths for gravity loads in the event that a load-bearing column fails. "We also need a better understanding of the mechanism of collapse," said A. Whittaker. "We need to find out what causes a building to collapse and how you can predict it." Reinhom, Ph.D. noted that earthquake shaking has led to the collapse of many buildings in the past. It induces dynamic response and extremely high stresses and deformations in structural components. Solutions developed for earthquake-resistant design may be directly applicable to blast engineering and terrorist-resistant design. Part of our mission now at UB is to transfer these solutions and to develop new ones where none exist at present. The column mentioned by Dr. Whittaker______.
A. was part of the building close to the World Trade Center
B. was part of the World Trade Center
C. was shot through the window and the floor of the world Trade Center
D. damaged many buildings in the vicinity of the World Trade Center
下面的短文有15处空白,请根据短文内容为每处空白白确定1个最佳选项。 Unpopular Subjects Is there a place in today’s society for the study of useless subjects in our universities Just over 100 years ago Fitzgerald argued in a well-written letter to Nature that "universities must be allowed to study useless subjects-if (51) don’t, who will" He went on to use the example of Maxwell’s electrodynamics(电动力学) as one case where a "useless subject" has been transformed (转换) to a (52) subject. Nowadays this argument is again very active in many (53) Indeed one suspects that it is one of those arguments that must be fought anew (重新) by each generation. But now there is an (54) twist (歪曲,扭曲) -subjects must not only be useful, they (55) also be popular enough that students will flock (蜂拥) to do them, and even flock to (56) to do them. As universities become commercial operations, the pressure to eliminate(去除) subjects or departments that are less popular will become (57) . Perhaps this is more acutely(尖锐的) felt at the moment by physics. There has been much discussion in the press of universities that are (58) physics departments and incorporate(使合并)them with mathematics or engineering departments. Many scientists think otherwise. They see physics as a (59) science, which must be kept alive if only to provide a (60) for other sciences and engineering. It is of their great personal concern that physics teaching and research is (61) in many universities. How can it be preserved(保留,保存)in the rush towards commercial (62) A major turnaround (转变) in student popularity(讨人喜欢,流行) may have to wait (63) the industrial world discovers that it needs physicists and starts paying them well. Physics is now not only unpopular; it is also "hard". We can do more about the latter by (64) teaching in our schools and universities. We can also develop cooperative arrangements to ensure that physicists (65) their research and teaching up to date.
A. lighter and lighter
B. stronger and stronger
C. larger and larger
D. smaller and smaller