搖擺的千禧橋
The Bridge That Swayed

出題日期
2018/1/12、2017/2/11
命中課本
菁英雅思機經「建築」
延伸閱讀
劍橋雅思 7-4-1 Pulling Strings to Build Pyramid
中文說明

搖擺的千禧橋當倫敦千禧橋在 2000 年 6 月開放時,出現了驚人的搖擺及振動,這引起了廣大民眾的疑問和好奇,倫敦人因此給它起了一個綽號為「搖擺橋」。自倫敦塔橋在 1894 年開放以來,千禧橋是倫敦第一座橫跨泰晤士河的新橋,也是有史以來第一座只供行人行走的橋。這座橋連接了聖保羅大教堂旁的倫敦城和班克賽德的泰特現代藝術館。千禧橋於 2000 年 6 月 10 日星期六正式開放。在啟用儀式當天,數以千計的人同時跨上這座橋,產生強大的共振效果,晃動的弧度之大,聽說有人當場就「暈橋」。千禧橋在第一次開放後只過了 3 天,政府便暫停開放。2 年後在橋樑多處加入減振器,成功解決負荷過重時的共振現象後才重新開放...

高分單字
sway v. 搖動,搖擺

The dancer swayed slightly on her feet.
那名舞者站著輕輕搖擺著。

wobbly adj. 晃動的

The front wheels on the truck seem wobbly.
那輛卡車的前輪似乎在晃動。

pedestrian n. 行人

There are a few pedestrians sheltering from the rain under trees.
有幾個行人站在樹下躲雨。

assemble v. 聚集

Over 100,000 people were assembled on the plaza to protest over the planned change to the law.
有 10 萬多人聚集在廣場抗議修法案。

still adj. 靜止的

The patient lay still and was unable to move.
那名病患躺下不動,無法移動。

intensify v. 增強

Her father’s death intensified her loneliness.
她父親的過世加劇了她的孤寂。

retain v. 保持

The president has lost his battle to retain control of the nation.
那位總統被打敗了,失去了繼續掌管國家的權力。

exert v. 用(力)

The runner has exerted all his strength.
那名跑者已竭盡全力。

buffet v. (風浪等的)衝擊

Tokyo was buffeted by storms last night.
東京昨夜被暴風雨襲擊。

vibration n. 震動

Railway manufacturers want to reduce vibration for the sake of safety.
鐵路製造商出於安全的考量而想要減輕震動。

看出題原文

The Bridge That Swayed

When the London Millennium footbridge was opened in June 2000, it swayed alarmingly. This generated huge public interest and the bridge became known as London’s “wobbly bridge.”


The Millennium Bridge is the first new bridge across the river Thames in London since Tower Bridge opened in 1894, and it is the first ever designed for pedestrians only. The bridge links the City of London near St Paul’s Cathedral with the Tate Modern Art Gallery on Bankside.


The bridge opened initially on Saturday 10th June 2000. For the opening ceremony, a crowd of over 1,000 people had assembled on the south half of the bridge with a band in front. When they started to walk across with the band playing, there was immediately an unexpectedly pronounced lateral movement of the bridge deck. “It was a fine day and the bridge was on the route of a major charity walk,” one of the pedestrians recounted what he saw that day. “ At first, it was still. Then it began to sway sideways, just slightly. Then, almost from one moment to the next, when large groups of people were crossing, the wobble intensified. Everyone had to stop walking to retain balance and sometimes to hold onto the hand rails for support.” Immediately it was decided to limit the number of people on the bridge, and the bridge was dubbed the “wobbly” bridge by the media who declared it another high-profile British Millennium Project failure. In order to fully investigate and resolve the issue the decision was taken to close the bridge on 12th June 2000.


Arup, the leading member of the committee in charge of the construction of the bridge, decided to tackle the issue head on. They immediately undertook a fast-track research project to seek the cause and the cure. The embarrassed engineers found the videotape that day which showed the centre span swaying about 3 inches sideways every second and the south span 2 inches every 1.25 seconds. Because there was a significant wind blowing on the opening days (force 3-4) and the bridge had been decorated with large flags, the engineers first thought that winds might be exerting excessive force on the many large flags and banners, but it was rapidly concluded that wind buffeting had not contributed significantly to vibration of the bridge. But after measurements were made in university laboratories of the effects of people walking on swaying platforms and after large-scale experiments with crowds of pedestrians were conducted on the bridge itself, a new understanding and a new theory were developed.


The unexpected motion was the result of a natural human reaction to small lateral movements. It is well known that …


完整文章內容,請參閱菁英機經教材課本。

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