2015考研英语阅读美国大使馆挖壕筑壑_大学英语阅读

2015考研英语阅读美国大使馆挖壕筑壑

　　Embassy architects argue that they are creativewhere the rules permit it. Thomas McCarthy of PageSoutherland Page, a Texan firm which has designed17 American diplomatic compounds, is very proudof the tributes to local tradition it incorporated intothe embassy in Ouagadougou, for example, in theform of a shaded but open-air waiting area and azigzag decorative motif on the external walls. Butaesthetics and security are just two of a host ofcompeting priorities.

　　大使馆的建筑师们表示，他们在规定允许的范围内充分地发挥了创造力。德州公司Page Southerland Page公司的托马斯麦卡锡曾为美国设计过17座外交使馆建筑群。他为将当地传统融入到驻瓦加杜古大使馆建筑所做出的贡献感到自豪，比如，阴凉却露天的等候室和外部墙面曲折的绘画图案。但美学和安全性只是大量优先竞争因素中的两个而已。

　　The State Department insists on fixed prices and completion dates, with predeterminedpenalties for overruns. Yet conditions in the host country can be unpredictable to say theleast. Page Southerland Page has had half a dozen projects interrupted by civil wars orterrorist scares. Even in places at peace, the obstacles can be hard to foresee: a dead tree onthe site in Phnom Penh turned out to be revered by locals, forcing the design to be changed topreserve it; in Kigali, excavations for the foundations unearthed human remains; in Kiev thewinters are so cold that it was hard to keep the concrete from freezing; and in Monrovia anarms embargo impeded the import of the explosives needed to blast away some awkwardrocks.