2015年度全国职称英语考试综合C:2017职称英语考试综合类阅读理解英文及译文：引人注目的埃菲尔铁塔

引人注目的埃菲尔铁塔

世界各地的人们都来到大约300米高，接近埃菲尔铁塔顶端的地方涂鸦。日本人、巴西人、美国人在这块冰冷的铁上涂上自己的名字、喜好和政治观点，使这有法兰西色彩的纪念碑成为动感世界的象征。

从塔上可以看到巴黎市的远景，但奇怪的是观光者们宁愿花时间留下到此一游的痕迹，也不去观赏风景。但这些涂鸦者也引起了一个问题：为什么在建成114年后，埃菲尔铁塔仍然这么受欢迎？尽管它在几十年前就已经不是世界上的建筑物了。

这个问题的答案就像那构成90层的铁塔的工程一样复杂。一部分的理由是，毫无疑问，铁塔是永不过时的。周期性的维护使得它永远不会被腐蚀掉。埃菲尔铁塔定期油漆，覆盖那些涂鸦，但是它仍将继续存在下去。

“埃菲尔是巴黎的象征，而巴黎又代表了法国。所以，埃菲尔十分具有象征性。”Hugues Richard说道。这位31岁的法国人保持着在19分零4秒的时间内骑行车经过747级台阶登上铁塔上铁塔二层的纪录。“这是铁娘子，能让人产生灵感。”他说。

但是它能使人们产生怎样的灵感呢？毕竟，铁塔并没有任何目的。1930年纽约的Chrysler大厦取代它成为世界上的建筑。但是电视和广播信号仍然从塔顶发送出来，而Gustave Eiffel,这个狂热的建造者利用它的高度进行气象学、空气动力学和无线电传输的研究。他在12月台票27日逝世，终年91岁。

本质上来说，铁塔伫立在那儿本身就是一个灵感——它就像一张空白的画布，任游客遐想。对于那些善于从技术角度考虑问题的人来说，它是一个工程上的胜利；而对于恋人们来说，它则象征着浪漫。

“这座塔将在我们所有的人离去后长久存在。”埃菲尔铁塔管理公司的说Isabelle Esnous。

Eiffel Is an Eyeful

Some 300 meters up, near the Eiffel Tower’s wind-whipped summit the world comes to scribble. Japanese, Brazilians. Americans—they graffiti their names, loves and politics on the cold iron—transforming the most French of monuments into symbol of a world on the move.

With Pairs laid out in miniature below, it seems strange that visitors would rather waste time marking their presence than admiring the view. But the graffiti also raises a question: Why, nearly 114 years after it was completed, and decades after it ceased to be the world’s tallest structure, is la Tour Eiffel still so popular?

The reasons are as complex as the iron work that graces a structure some 90 stories high. But part of the answer is, no doubt, its agelessness, regularly maintained, it should never rust away. Graffiti is regularly painted over, but the tower lives on.

“Eiffel represents Paris and Paris is France. It is very symbolic,” says Hugues Richard, a 31-year-old Frenchman who holds the record for cycling up to the tower’s second floor—747 steps in 19 minutes and 4 seconds, without touching the floor with his feet. “It’s iron lady, it inspires us,” he says.

But to what? After all, the tower doesn’t have a purpose. It ceased to be the world’s tallest in 1930 when the Chrysler Building went up in New York. Yes, television and radio signals are beamed from the top, and Gustave Eiffel, a frenetic builder who died on December 27, aged 91, used its height for conducting research into weather, aerodynamics and radio communication.

But in essence the tower inspires simply by being there---a blank canvas for visitors to make of it what they will. To the technically minded, it’s an engineering triumph. For lovers, it’s romantic.

“The tower will outlast all of us, and by a long way,” says Isabelle Esnous, whose company manages Eiffel Tower.

本文来源：https://www.wddqw.com/Cisx.html