037 埃菲尔铁塔

旁白 neutral

In 1886 Gustave Eiffel, a very famous French builder, was chosen to build a tower in Paris for the 1889 International Exposition

1886年，法国著名建筑大师古斯塔夫·埃菲尔受命，为1889年的巴黎世界博览会建造一座高塔。

旁白 neutral

However, when people first saw his drawings, they were not pleased

然而，当人们初次看到他的设计图时，他们并不满意。

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In fact, many people truly hated the new tower

事实上，许多人对这座新塔深恶痛绝。

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" What is this?" asked a famous artist

“这是什么？”一位著名画家问道。

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" It is a picture of the new tower they are building for the International Exposition," replied his friend

“这是他们为国际博览会建造的新塔的图片，”他的朋友回答。

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" Do you like it?"

“你喜欢吗？”

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" No," declared the artist," I hate it

“不，”画家断言，“我讨厌它。

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It is the strangest-looking tower I have ever seen

这是我见过的最古怪的塔。

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It has no beauty and it will ruin Paris."

它毫无美感，会毁了巴黎的。”

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Around Paris, other people were saying the same thing

在巴黎各地，其他人也说着同样的话。

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" The tower that Gustave Eiffel is building looks like a big streetlamp," wrote one newspaper reporter

“古斯塔夫·埃菲尔正在建造的那座塔，看起来就像一盏巨大的路灯柱，”一位报社记者写道。

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" Eiffel is building a factory pipe," wrote another reporter

“埃菲尔在建造一根工厂的烟囱管，”另一位记者写道。

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Many of the artists and other important people wrote letters demanding that the Eiffel Tower not be built

许多艺术家和其他重要人物写信要求不要建造埃菲尔铁塔。

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They believed that Paris was too great a city for such a horrible tower

他们认为巴黎是一座太伟大的城市，不该有这样一座可怕的塔。

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But thankfully, the people in charge did not listen to these complaints

但幸好，负责的人们没有理会这些抱怨。

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Gustave Eiffel was one of the first builders to use metal in his constructions

古斯塔夫·埃菲尔是最早在建筑中使用金属的建造者之一。

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He was famous for building large and strong bridges and tall buildings made of metal

他以建造大型、坚固的钢铁桥梁和金属高楼而闻名。

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Before building the Eiffel Tower, he also designed and built the Statue of Liberty in New York City

在建造埃菲尔铁塔之前，他还设计并建造了纽约市的自由女神像。

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On July 1, 1887 Eiffel and his company began working on the tower

1887年7月1日，埃菲尔和他的公司开始着手建造这座铁塔。

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It was a very unusual building project because they first made all the pieces of the tower in a factory

这是一个非常不寻常的建筑项目，因为他们先在一家工厂里制造了铁塔的所有部件。

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Then they brought the pieces to Paris and put them together like a puzzle

然后，他们把组件运到巴黎，像拼拼图一样拼接起来。

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Each piece of the puzzle was put together with special nails called rivets

拼图的每一块都用一种叫做铆钉的特殊钉子连接在一起。

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The rivets were so large that it took four men to put one in

这些铆钉非常大，需要四个工人才能安装一个。

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Since there were over two million rivets, this was a very big job

由于有两百多万个铆钉，这是一项非常庞大的工作。

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But slowly the pieces were put together, and the tower went up and up and up

但慢慢地，组件被拼接起来，铁塔越来越高，越来越高，越来越高。

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By March 15, 1888, the workmen completed the first level

到1888年3月15日，工人们完成了第一层。

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Then six months later, they had put the second level together

六个月后，他们又将第二层拼装完毕。

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By March of 1889, the tower was completed and ready for the exposition

到1889年3月，铁塔竣工，为世博会做好了准备。

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When it was finished, it was 324 meters tall and weighed more than 10,000 tons

完工后，它高达324米，总重量超过一万吨。

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When the Eiffel Tower was finished, the people of Paris were very pleased with it

埃菲尔铁塔建成后，巴黎市民非常满意。

旁白 neutral

Those who thought that the tower would look ugly, now thought it was one of the most wonderful structures ever made

那些曾认为铁塔会很丑陋的人，现在认为它是人类有史以来建造的最了不起的建筑之一。

旁白 neutral

Because the tower was made for visitors to the exposition, it needed to have elevators that could bring people up to the first, second, and top floors

由于这座塔是为世博会游客建造的，它需要有能把人送到第一层、第二层和顶层的电梯。

旁白 neutral

Today that might seem easy, but in 1889 that was a very difficult job

这在今天看来可能很容易，但在1889年，那是一项极其困难的工作。

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No one had ever built elevators so high before

以前从来没有人建过这么高的电梯。

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In most buildings, the elevators go straight up and straight down, but not in the Eiffel Tower

在大多数建筑里，电梯是直上直下的，但在埃菲尔铁塔里不是这样。

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Because of the shape of the tower, the elevators had to travel along a curve

由于铁塔的形状，电梯必须沿着一条曲线运行。

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When people first saw these unusual elevators, they were amazed and excited

当人们第一次看到这些不同寻常的电梯时，他们感到惊奇和兴奋。

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Because it was specifically built for the exposition, the Eiffel Tower was going to stay up for only a few years at first

因为埃菲尔铁塔是专门为世博会建造的，所以最初只打算保留几年。

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But soon it became very popular and visitors from around the world came to see it

但很快它就变得非常受欢迎，来自世界各地的游客前来参观。

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These days, over six million people visit the tower each year

如今，每年有超过六百万人参观铁塔。

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So instead of taking the tower down, Gustave Eiffel found other good uses for the tower

所以，古斯塔夫·埃菲尔非但没有拆掉铁塔，反而为它找到了其他好的用途。

旁白 neutral

In the early 1900s, there was a new invention called the radio

在20世纪初，出现了一项名为无线电的新发明。

旁白 neutral

In order to travel far distances, radio signals must come from radio towers that are very tall

为了能远距离传播，无线电信号必须从很高的无线电发射塔发出。

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So Gustave had the great idea of using the Eiffel Tower as a radio tower

于是，古斯塔夫想出了一个绝妙的主意，把埃菲尔铁塔用作无线电发射塔。

旁白 neutral

The Eiffel Tower is beautiful in the daytime because you can see the wonderful metal structure that Gustave built

白天的埃菲尔铁塔很美，因为你可以看到古斯塔夫建造的精妙金属结构。

旁白 neutral

However, it is also wondrous at night because there are more than 350 beautiful lights that cover it from head to toe

然而，它在夜晚也同样奇妙，因为有超过350盏美丽的灯覆盖了整座塔，从头到脚。

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On top are two light beams that can be seen from over eighty kilometers away

塔顶有两束光束，在八十多公里外就能看到。