【正确答案】Key points: The Flatiron Building was the first true skyscraper in New York. It is an office tower that stands apart from other buildings on all sides. The Flatiron Building is twenty-two stories tall, has a steel frame covered on the outside with stone, and is decorated with geometric patterns, columns, arches, and a crown of carved stone. The Flatiron Building is built on an irregular, triangle-shaped site, giving it an unusual shape. The building got its name from a joke about its shape. People thought it looked like a flatiron, a triangle-shaped piece of iron used for pressing clothes.

【答案解析】[解析] In the late nineteenth century, New York's early "skyscrapers" were steel-framed stone buildings that were only eight or nine stories tall. Then, in 1902, the city got its first true skyscraper. It was called the Flatiron Building, and it was the first structure to come close to being the ideal skyscraper--that is, an office tower that stood apart, forever free on all sides. The Flatiron Building is twenty-two stories tall. It has a steel frame that's covered on the outside with stone. The first three stories give a sense of heaviness to the lower part of the building. The next thirteen stories have windows grouped in pairs, with carved geometric patterns between them. The top stories are even more decorated with columns and arches, and the top is a heavy crown of carved stone. The Flatiron Building is different from most other skyscrapers because of the shape of the site it's built on. The irregular, triangle-shaped site was the result of three streets coming together. Because the site is surrounded by streets, the Flatiron Building will always stand alone, separate from other buildings on all three sides. The building's name--actually its nickname--was a joke about its flatiron shape. At that time, electric irons hadn't been invented, so clothing was pressed with a flatiron, a heavy triangle-shaped piece of iron that was heated on top of a stove. People joked that the building looked like a flatiron, and the name stuck. Because the Flatiron Building was so narrow, a famous photographer said it looked like the front end of a huge steamship. We can honestly say that this bold design, this strange, tall, thin building, changed the design of the office building forever. Using points and details from the lecture, describe the Flatiron Building and explain how it got its name.