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
- building
- swaying
- weighing
- movements
- kinetic
- called
- 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 |
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eiffel tower |
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kinetic energy |
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Important Words
- absorbing
- action
- ball
- building
- called
- convert
- counterweight
- cylinders
- damper
- employ
- energy
- find
- floor
- floors
- giant
- heat
- hundreds
- hurricane
- hydraulic
- instance
- kinetic
- mass
- measures
- metal
- meter
- movements
- moves
- orb
- prevent
- rocking
- skyscrapers
- stabilize
- structure
- suspended
- swaying
- sways
- taipei
- tons
- top
- tops
- tower
- trail
- weighing
- wind