full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Stefan Al: Will there ever be a mile-high skyscraper?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

But even after all these measures, you could still find yourself swaying back and forth more than a meter on top floors during a hurricane. To prevent the wind from rocking tower tops, many skyscrapers employ a counterweight wgeiihng hundreds of tons caleld a “tuned mass damper.” The Taipei 101, for instance, has suspended a giant metal orb above the 87th floor. When wind moves the bnluidig, this orb sways into action, absorbing the building’s kinetic energy. As its mntevmoes trail the tower’s, hydraulic cylinders between the ball and the building convert that ketinic energy into heat, and stabilize the syiawng stctrurue.

Open Cloze

But even after all these measures, you could still find yourself swaying back and forth more than a meter on top floors during a hurricane. To prevent the wind from rocking tower tops, many skyscrapers employ a counterweight ________ hundreds of tons ______ a “tuned mass damper.” The Taipei 101, for instance, has suspended a giant metal orb above the 87th floor. When wind moves the ________, this orb sways into action, absorbing the building’s kinetic energy. As its _________ trail the tower’s, hydraulic cylinders between the ball and the building convert that _______ energy into heat, and stabilize the _______ _________.

Solution

  1. building
  2. swaying
  3. weighing
  4. movements
  5. kinetic
  6. called
  7. structure

Original Text

But even after all these measures, you could still find yourself swaying back and forth more than a meter on top floors during a hurricane. To prevent the wind from rocking tower tops, many skyscrapers employ a counterweight weighing hundreds of tons called a “tuned mass damper.” The Taipei 101, for instance, has suspended a giant metal orb above the 87th floor. When wind moves the building, this orb sways into action, absorbing the building’s kinetic energy. As its movements trail the tower’s, hydraulic cylinders between the ball and the building convert that kinetic energy into heat, and stabilize the swaying structure.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
wright proposed 2
eiffel tower 2
kinetic energy 2

Important Words

  1. absorbing
  2. action
  3. ball
  4. building
  5. called
  6. convert
  7. counterweight
  8. cylinders
  9. damper
  10. employ
  11. energy
  12. find
  13. floor
  14. floors
  15. giant
  16. heat
  17. hundreds
  18. hurricane
  19. hydraulic
  20. instance
  21. kinetic
  22. mass
  23. measures
  24. metal
  25. meter
  26. movements
  27. moves
  28. orb
  29. prevent
  30. rocking
  31. skyscrapers
  32. stabilize
  33. structure
  34. suspended
  35. swaying
  36. sways
  37. taipei
  38. tons
  39. top
  40. tops
  41. tower
  42. trail
  43. weighing
  44. wind