英国：大本钟倾斜，议会大厦或沉没

The landmark clock tower containing Big Ben at

Britains Palace of Westminster, is tilting,2 while media reports said the mother of all parliaments was slipping into the River Thames,3 raising fears over its future.

The 96-metre tall clock tower, which houses the bell originally nicknamed Big Ben, leans about 46 cm to the left of its peak.4

A construction expert who worked on the leaning tower of Pisa in Italy and a multi-storey carpark under the houses of parliament in central London,5 said there was nothing to worry about, and it would take years to reach an angle of concern.

Professor John Burland of Imperial College London also said work on the underground Jubilee6 train line in the 1990s had not caused dramatic movement, while a spokesman for the commission said the tilt could have existed since its construction in 1859.

The lean which is just visible to the naked eye had “been there for years,”Burland said. “When I first started work on the carpark it was obvious that it was leaning,” he told BBC radio. “It was probably developed at a very early stage because theres no cracking in the cladding and we think it probably leant while they were building it and before they put the cladding on.7 That was a long time ago and buildings do lean a little bit.”

He also dismissed concern in the media that parliament was slipping into the Thames, while the commissions spokesman denied the walls around the palace were suffering from a particularly bad subsidence8 problem causing Big Ben to lean. The current building, which houses the upper and lower chambers9 as well as the offices of some lawmakers, was built after its medieval predecessor was largely destroyed by fire in 1834 and has required constant maintenance.10

1. Big Ben: 大本钟（伦敦英国议会大厦钟楼上的大钟）；parliament:（由上议院与下议院组成的）英国议会。

2. landmark: 地标；Palace of Westminster:（英国议会）威斯敏斯特宫，又称议会大厦，是英国议会上下两院的所在地；tilt: 倾斜。

3. slip into: 滑进；River Thames:（英国英格兰南部的）泰晤士河。

4. house: v. 庇护，给……提供场所；nickname: v. 起绰号；peak: 顶点。

5. the leaning tower of Pisa:（意大利）比萨斜塔；multi-storey:（建筑物）多层的；carpark: 停车场。

6. jubilee:（尤指50周年、25周年等具有特殊意义的）周年纪念。

7. crack: 破裂；cladding: 覆面（建筑物外壁、容器或引擎表面的保护层）；leant: lean的过去分词，意为“倾斜的”。

8. subsidence: 下沉。

9. upper and lower chambers chamber: 指上下议院。

10. medieval: 中世纪的；predecessor: 前身；maintenance: 维护，保养。