Вопрос № 1077906 - Английский язык

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Machu Picchu
1. Set high in the Peruvian Andes, the ruins of the Inca city of Machu Picchu are among the world’s most magnetic tourist sights. Until recently reaching this mountain aerie meant a long, heart-pounding trek led by local guides. Today, globetrotting tourists arrive with nonchalant ease in air-conditioned comfort. Spanish colonialists, the collapse of high Incan culture, the elements, and natural calamities have done their best to wipe the historic architecture of Peru off the map.
2. The remote and haunting remains of Machu Picchu, however, allow us to see the great, rigid power of Inca architecture at its best and most daunting. The site of this powerful walled city, lying between two mountain peaks some 3,000 ft (900 m) above the Urubamba River, was a revered place long before the Incas began to build here with real purpose in about 1400. Inside the well-cut gray granite walls are the remains of a wide range of public buildings including palaces, baths, temples, storehouses, and burial grounds.
3. There are about 150 houses, gathered in groups around communal courtyards and aligned in terraces. The various parts of the city, on their complex series of terraces, were connected by grand stone stairs. One of the important remains found at Machu Picchu is the Intihuatana stone, used in an astronomical ritual for “tying” the sun to the earth at the midday equinox, in the perpetually vain hope of slowing its movement across the sky.
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Machu Picchu
1. Set high in the Peruvian Andes, the ruins of the Inca city of Machu Picchu are among the world’s most magnetic tourist sights. Until recently reaching this mountain aerie meant a long, heart-pounding trek led by local guides. Today, globetrotting tourists arrive with nonchalant ease in air-conditioned comfort. Spanish colonialists, the collapse of high Incan culture, the elements, and natural calamities have done their best to wipe the historic architecture of Peru off the map.
2. The remote and haunting remains of Machu Picchu, however, allow us to see the great, rigid power of Inca architecture at its best and most daunting. The site of this powerful walled city, lying between two mountain peaks some 3,000 ft (900 m) above the Urubamba River, was a revered place long before the Incas began to build here with real purpose in about 1400. Inside the well-cut gray granite walls are the remains of a wide range of public buildings including palaces, baths, temples, storehouses, and burial grounds.
3. There are about 150 houses, gathered in groups around communal courtyards and aligned in terraces. The various parts of the city, on their complex series of terraces, were connected by grand stone stairs. One of the important remains found at Machu Picchu is the Intihuatana stone, used in an astronomical ritual for “tying” the sun to the earth at the midday equinox, in the perpetually vain hope of slowing its movement across the sky.
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Hurricane preparation tips for construction sites
1. Local emergency operations officials and the National Weather Service will provide hurricane landfall probabilities. Approximately 60 to 48 hours before the hurricane is expected to make landfall, consider cancelling the delivery of building materials to all job sites except any materials needed to secure the building site from storm damage. While contractors generally don't want to stop or delay construction activities, the 48- to 24-hour window before landfall is the suggested time to stop all construction activity. It's important to note that most local building departments generally stop field inspections, except for those related to pouring columns, tie beams, wet decks, floors and similar structural items, during this time as well. Contractors are encouraged to activate their hurricane job site plan during this window of time.
2. They notify subcontractors to help secure the building site. Helpful hints for site protection include: secure all job sites, giving priority attention to those located in the most populated areas; clean up all construction debris; tie or band together all loose plywood and lumber; secure other loose building supplies; remove permit board and all job site signage; locate and turn off electricity, water and gas.
3. Also, secure all portable toilets. Portable toilets can also be anchored adjacent to L-shaped walls of the home under construction and they can be weighted down with concrete blocks or sand. After the site is secure, advise subcontractors to leave and not return until the hurricane threat has passed. Make sure to have contact numbers for all subcontractors stored in a secure and dry place and that they know who will contact them after the hurricane passes.
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What are the two ways to secure portable toilets?

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The Shard, London
1. The Shard is a skyscraper in the centre of London, just near the famous Tower Bridge. It is one of the tallest buildings in Europe. Designed by Renzo Piano, the tower has 88 levels and is clad entirely in glass. It contains offices, restaurants, bars, cafes, viewing galleries, a hotel and residential apartments. One of the biggest challenges the developers had to deal with was to minimise disruption in the local area. The Shard is located next to London Bridge station, one of the busiest transport hubs in London, and Guy's Hospital, a large teaching hospital. Noise and dust had to be kept to a minimum.
2. There was some special equipment used during the construction of the Shard. These cantilever loading platforms are easy to install and move. Cranes lift the platforms into position. They are flush with the floor allowing the movement of large objects in and out of the structure. High-rise buildings like the Shard need a lot of concrete. This project used a powerful, high-performance pump which can pump more than 90 m3 of concrete per hour.
3. Normally a lift shaft has to be complete before a lift can be installed. With jump lift technology this is not necessary. As the building rises, the jump lift, which contains its own machine room, rises with it. The Shard construction site used a number of cranes. The lead crane in the centre occupied the highest spot. This crane was mounted inside the core. As the building rose the crane was jacked up.
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What is «the jump lift» technology?

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Palace of king Minos
1. The Palace of King Minos has been immortalized in Greek mythology as the Labyrinth, home to the Minotaur—a terrifying, man-eating, half-man half-bull. The Greek hero, Theseus, finally killed the Minotaur with the help of King Minos’s daughter, Ariadne, and the inventor and craftsman, Daedalus, who had been forced to design the Labyrinth for the powerful king.
2. Two stories high and based around a large open courtyard, the palace comprises a bewildering range of rooms, some colonnaded and ceremonial, others designed for storage and manufacturing of various kinds. What has been called the Throne Room is a windowless chamber. The piano nobile – a floor raised one story above ground level and containing the principal social apartments – has many well built and well-ventilated chambers.
3. Far from being the grim place of Greek mythology, Minos’s palace boasted good sanitation and drainage, shelter from the sun, gardens, and grand rooms offering fine views. Some of these were reconstructed by the British archaeologist, Sir Arthur Evans, in the 1920s. The rambling and decidedly unclassical plan of the palace has been put down to the organic growth of the building over generations, rather than to the scheming mind of King Minos. The remains of the ancient palace at Knossos are all that survive of several important Cretan palaces destroyed by major earthquakes in ca. 1625BCE and ca. 1375BCE.
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Why did the palace have the rambling plan?

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Marble: characteristics, uses and problems
1. Marble is an extremely hard, metamorphic stone composed of calcite (CaCO3). It is formed as a result of the recrystallization of limestone under the intense pressure and heat of geologic processes. The effect of this process is the creation of a stone with a very tight crystalline structure and small but definite porosity.
2. Because of its structure, marble can take a very high polish and is a very popular decorative stone for architectural and sculptural uses. The limited porosity of marble, especially polished marble, makes it less vulnerable to the leaching effects of water. Calcium carbonate, however, of which marble is composed, is highly susceptible to attack by acidic agents. Marble is readily dissolved by acids, even very dilute acids, however the actual results of acidic exposure will vary with the nature of the acid.  For this reason, it is always important to determine the exact type of pollutants causing marble deterioration.
3. Marble has many decorative and structural uses. It is used for outdoor sculpture as well as for sculpture bases; in architecture it is used in exterior walls and veneers, flooring, decorative features, stairways and walkways. The way in which the stone is used may be a factor in limiting or controlling the severity of exposure. The use or function of the marble may also affect the feasibility of applying certain treatments, but type of use is not the primary factor in the major types of deterioration and damage to which marble is susceptible.
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Why one should be very careful applying cleaners to marble?