Harvey的阅读回忆：日本塔的考试重点

作者声明：为了考生的共同利益，本文谢绝转载！

Why such wooden pagodas, despite their height and weight, have remained upright and intact through numerous earthquakes and typhoons is something that no one has been able to explain satisfactorily from the standpoint of modern architectonics. This is because building science evolved in the West as a discipline dealing with the structural mechanics of rigid bodies, that is, buildings of stone, brick, or concrete. In the article that follows, one architect elucidates the ingenious techniques by which the Japanese of earlier times built their pagodas to withstand even the strongest winds and earthquakes.

Each story of the pagoda is basically a square box with no bottom, built around twelve outer pillars, or gawabashira. The pagoda as a whole is, in essence, five stacked boxes. Since each story is smaller than the one beneath it, the placement of the gawabashira moves inward as one proceeds up the pagoda, meaning that horizontal beams are needed to support the gawabashira of each story above the first. In fact, these pillars rest on horizontal bases, which in turn are supported by taruki --- slanting beams that run from the inside of the structure diagonally downward to the outside, where they support the eaves. The weight of the upper story, pushing down on the inner ends of the taruki, would cause the outer ends to rise if there were no counterweight. The heavy tiled roof of the eaves performs precisely this function. In short, the taruki functions as a lever arm, while the top of the gawabashira serves as the fulcrum. The story above bears down on the inner end of the lever, and the overhanging roof balances this load at the outer end. Or, to put it another way, the heavy eaves are in effect sustained by the story above. When one reaches the uppermost level, of course, there is no story above to counterbalance the overhang. Here, however, the tall copper or iron spire, or finial, performs that function. The finial of the Horyuji pagoda, we are told, weighs a full three tons.

日本塔建筑奇怪的特点：木制还防震？是真题考察的重点。

我出两个tfng，大家看选什么。

The structural mechanics of modern architectonics in the West does not investigate yielding bodies.

The weight of the eaves of Japan’s pagoda is supported by the upper story.

答案：

1：题目可理解为：“西方现代建筑学中的结构力学没有研究易弯曲的建筑。”

找到原文为：“This is because building science evolved in the West as a discipline dealing with the structural mechanics of rigid bodies, that is, buildings of stone, brick, or concrete.”说它研究的是刚性物体，如砖、石、混凝土等建筑。

如果只是通过这句话判断，则易选NG。但上文中说日本塔是木质而抗震，从现代的建筑学的观点立场无法解释。因为西方现代建筑学中的结构力学研究的是刚性物体（rigid bodies）。

所以我们可以判断木质的日本塔为非刚性（yielding），西方的结构力学无法解释，是因为它不研究yielding bodies. 答案为TRUE.

2。题目为：“日本塔的塔檐重量由上面一层塔来支撑。”

答案比较明显，原文有同意表达。但要理解how，

不支持画图，上课同学们提醒我讲一下。