A secret apartment atop the Eiffel Tower

2020-06-03孟洁

疯狂英语·新读写 2020年4期

关键词：埃菲尔铁塔法国政府幕布

难词探意

1. backdrop /΄bækdrɒp/ n. （舞台）背景幕布

2. demolition /ˌdemə΄lɪʃn/ n. 拆除

3. debut /΄deɪbjuː/ n. （演员、运动员）首次亮相

4. converse /kən΄vзːrs/ v. 交谈；谈话

The Eiffel Tower is one of the world's most famousbackdrops, but it's also home to a little-known apartment with an intriguing history of science and secrecy.

Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower, added a number of secret extras to it, ranging from a secret apartment to telegraph and radio broadcast equipment.It was this equipment that may have saved the Eiffel Tower from being torn down as a temporary exhibit left over from the World's Fair, ademolitionthat was planned for 20 years from the time of itsdebut.

In 1903, just six short years before the tower was to be demolished, Eiffel doubled down on his invitations to scientists to host discussions and conduct research from within the tower's little-known apartment. The apartment, about 1,000 feet (304 meters) off the ground, was equipped with pleasant rugs and chairs surrounded by other comforts, but it also had nearby spaces to serve as mini laboratories.

From this bird-level apartment, the atmosphere was measured, the stars and planets were observed and the bounds of physics were explored by some of the greatest minds of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By 1903, Eiffel had found the answer to saving his tower. Captain Gustave Ferriè experimented with wireless broadcast signals,eventually sending signals as far as North America.The Eiffel Tower, and its scientific purpose, became too important to the French government to be torn down.Just a few years later, the tower would play a vital role in World WarⅠ,when the French military used the wireless communicators to transmit to ships in the Atlantic Ocean.

Today, the Eiffel Tower receives about 7 million visitors each year, and those who purchase a ticket to the top of the tower can look through a window at the apartment where Thomas Edison onceconversedwith Eiffel and other invitation-only learned guests. For the most part, the apartment's original appearance has been preserved. The apartment's laboratory areas exhibit some of their original scientific equipment, and there is an observatory above the apartment that is still not open to public viewing.

Reading

Check

1. What saved the Eiffel Tower from being torn down?

A. The famous backdrops.

B. Its value in tourism.

C. A number of secret equipment.

D. Its significance in the history.

2. What can we know about the Eiffel Tower?

A. It was often used by Thomas Edison secretly.

B. The bounds of physics were explored there in the 18th century.

C. It was once used to send wireless broadcast signals to the world.

D. Famous scientists were invited there to have discussions and do researches.