VOA标准英语2010年-Want to Live in a Work of Art?

A perfect example of Wright's one-with-nature architecture is Fallingwater, a house that he built for a client in rural Pennsylvania. It was partially¹ constructed atop a waterfall.

If you ask Americans to name a famous architect, chances are they'll think first of Frank Lloyd Wright.

 

His minimalist buildings, designed to blend with nature, revolutionized architectural thinking. 

Wright was born on a Wisconsin farm in 1867, two years after the end of the U.S. Civil War. He would live to see the Soviet² Union send a Sputnik satellite into space.

Wright's unconventional Hollyhock House in Los Angeles was built for an unconventional woman: Aline Barnsdall, who met the architect while leading a Chicago experimental theater company.

 

Even before young Frankie was born, his schoolteacher mother decided³ that he would be an architect.  Bright and curious, the lad obliged by arranging blocks and paper in the shapes of simple buildings and furniture. 

Wright apprenticed⁴ in Chicago under the early designers of modern skyscrapers⁵.

Eventually he inherited his family's Wisconsin farm, where he built one of the world's most famous houses - Taliesin. Wright called it the supreme⁶ natural house that blended so well into the surroundings that it was hard to tell where floors left off and the ground began.

He incorporated what he called his Usonian style into clients' low, flat homes that were almost works of modern art.

Avoiding fancy Victorian flourishes, Wright designed long rooms with lots of right angles and shelves that ran the length of the house. His houses were not what you would call cozy⁷.

Wright's home and first studio in suburban⁸ Chicago, Illinois, was not as far out - by conventional standards - as his later work.

 

Wright was an imaginative architect but a terrible engineer. Clients loved to show off their homes but found the austere⁹ wooden furniture - which was bolted in place and difficult to move - as uncomfortable as park benches. Floor-to-ceiling windows were drafty. And worst of all, most of the roofs leaked.

Some of Wright's customers put up with it all as a sacrifice for the sake of art and design.

Mildred Rosenbaum in Florence, Alabama, said she her family sometimes grew tired of living in an architectural laboratory. She joked that the kids might get up in the middle of the night sometime and unscrew the place!
 

1 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

2 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 apprenticed   

学徒，徒弟( apprentice的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I was apprenticed to a builder when I was fourteen. 14岁时，我拜一个建筑工人为师当学徒。
• Lucius got apprenticed to a stonemason. 卢修斯成了石匠的学徒。

5 skyscrapers   

n.摩天大楼

参考例句：

• A lot of skyscrapers in Manhattan are rising up to the skies. 曼哈顿有许多摩天大楼耸入云霄。
• On all sides, skyscrapers rose like jagged teeth. 四周耸起的摩天大楼参差不齐。

6 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

7 cozy   

adj.亲如手足的，密切的，暖和舒服的

参考例句：

• I like blankets because they are cozy.我喜欢毛毯，因为他们是舒适的。
• We spent a cozy evening chatting by the fire.我们在炉火旁聊天度过了一个舒适的晚上。

8 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

9 austere   

adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的

参考例句：

• His way of life is rather austere.他的生活方式相当简朴。
• The room was furnished in austere style.这间屋子的陈设都很简单朴素。