4. Write a short composition ‘Types of Glasses and Their Usage’’ (70 words). ‘parts of building’ Text 1. History of the Tallest Skyscrapers

Match the following words and translations.

A skyscraper is a very tall, continuously habitable building. Although there is no uniform official definition or a precise cutoff height above which a building may clearly be classified as a skyscraper, a minimum height of 150m or approximately 500ft may constitute a safe criterion for such a qualification. However, as per usual practice in most cities the definition is used empirically, depending on the relative impact of the shape of a building to a city’s overall skyline. Thus, depending on the average height of the rest of the buildings and/ or structures in a city, even a building of 80m height (approximately 262ft) may be considered a skyscraper provided that it clearly stands out above its surrounding built environment and significantly changes the overall skyline of this particular city.

The word skyscraper was first applied to such buildings in the late 19th century, reflecting public amazement at the tall buildings being built in Chicago and New York City. The structural definition of the word skyscraper was refined later by architectural historians, based on engineering developments of the 1880s that had enabled construction of tall multi-story buildings. This definition was based on the steel skeleton – as opposed to constructions of load-bearing masonry, which passed their practical limit in 1891 with Chicago’s Monadnock Building. Philadelphia’s City Hall, completed in 1901, still holds claim as the world’s tallest load-bearing masonry structure at 167m (548ft). The steel frame developed in stages of increasing self-sufficiency, with several buildings in Chicago and New York advancing the technology that allowed the steel frame to carry a building on its own. Today, however, many of the tallest skyscrapers are built more or less entirely with reinforced concrete. In the United States today, it is a loose convention to draw the lower limit on what is a skyscraper at 150 meters. Elsewhere, though, a shorter building will sometimes be referred to as a skyscraper, especially if it is said to ‘dominate’ its surroundings. Thus, calling a building a skyscraper will usually, but not always, imply pride and achievement.

Originally, skyscraper was a nautical term for a tall mast or sail on a sailing ship. A skyscraper taller than 300m (1,000ft) may sometimes be referred to as a supertall.

The somewhat arbitrary term skyscraper should not be confused with the slightly less arbitrary term highrise, defined by the Emporis Data Committee as ‘a building which is 35m (115ft) or greater in height, and is divided at regular intervals into occupiable floors’. All skyscrapers are highrises, but only the tallest highrises are skyscrapers. Habitability separates skyscrapers from towers and masts. Some structural engineers define a highrise as any vertical construction for which wind is a more significant load factor than weight is. Note that this criterion fits not only highrises but some other tall structures, such as towers.

At the beginning of the 20th-century, New York City was a center for the Beaux-Arts architecutural movement, attracting the talents of such great architects like Stanford White and Carrere and Hastings. As better construction and engineering technology become available as the century progressed, New York became the focal point of the competition for the tallest building in the world. The city's striking skyline has been composed of numerous and varied skyscrapers, many of which are icons of 20th-century architecture:

• The Flatiron Building, standing 285ft (87m) high, was one of the tallest buildings in the city upon its completion in 1902, made possible by its steel skeleton. It was one of the first buildings designed with a steel framework, and to achieve this height with other construction methods of that time would have been very difficult.

• The Woolworth Building, a neo-Gothic ‘Cathedral of Commerce’ overlooking City Hall, was designed by Cass Gilbert. At 792ft (241m), it became the world’s tallest building upon its completion in 1913, an honor it retained until 1930, when it was overtaken by 40 Wall Street.

• That same year, the Chrysler Building took the lead as the tallest building in the world, scraping the sky at 1,046ft (319m). More impressive than its height is the building’s design, by William Van Alen. An art deco masterpiece with an exterior crafted of brick, the Chrysler Building continues to be a favorite of New Yorkers to this day.

• The Empire State Building, the first building to have more than 100 floors (it has 102), was completed the following year. It was designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon in the contemporary Art Deco style. The tower takes its name from the nickname of New York State. Upon its completion in 1931, it took the top spot as tallest building, and at 1,47ft (448m), towered above all other buildings until 1973.

• When the World Trade Center towers were completed in 1973 many felt them to be sterile monstrosities, even though they were the world’s tallest buildings at that time. But most New Yorkers became fond of ‘The Twin Towers’ and after the initial horror for the loss of life in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks there came great sadness for the loss of the buildings. The Empire State Building is again the tallest building in New York City.