英语美文-“风之城”Chicago

       芝加哥（Chicago），位于美国中西部密歇根湖的南部，是世界著名的国际金融中心之一。此外，芝加哥还拥有很多世界著名的高楼大厦，被誉为“摩天大楼的故乡”。截至2016年，芝加哥人口约为270多万。

       芝加哥是美国最重要的文化科教中心之一，拥有世界顶级学府芝加哥大学（The University of Chicago）、西北大学（Northwestern University）和享誉世界的芝加哥学派，截至2017年，逾百位诺贝尔奖得主曾在芝加哥工作、求学过。

       芝加哥是世界著名的旅游圣地，2016年共接待全世界超过5400万名游客。

New Words：

constantly  adv.不断地；时常地

freshwater  adj.淡水的；无经验的

skyscraper  n. 摩天楼，超高层大楼；

demolish  vt. 拆除；破坏；

planetarium n. 天文馆；行星仪

populous  adj. 人口稠密的；人口多的

neighborhood  n.街坊；街区

     Chicago isknown as the "Windy City". Some people think this is because of thebreeze that blows almost constantly. The city is located in the state ofIllinois on the shore of one of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan, which is thefifth largest freshwater body in the world. Chicago may also be called thewindy city because of the wind tunnel effect created in downtown by many tallbuildings.

       芝加哥被称为“风城”。有些人认为这是因为不停地吹风。这座城市位于伊利诺斯州的密歇根湖沿岸，密歇根湖是世界上第五大淡水湖。芝加哥被称为风城，可能是因为许多高楼大厦在市中心产生的风洞效应。

Skyscrapers are an important part of Chicago'shistory. The first skyscraper in the U.S. was built in the city in 1884. Atonly 10 stories, it was impressive for its time. The skyscraper was eventuallydemolished. Chicago is the home of other famous firsts. It was the birthplaceof the refrigerated rail car, mail-order catalogs, the car radio, the TV remotecontrol, the first Ferris wheel, the first steel rail road, the firstplanetarium in the Western Hemisphere. Chicago is also the home to the firstblood bank and the first drive-in bank. It is also the home to The Lincoln ParkZoo, the oldest public zoo in the U.S. Maybe the windy city should be calledthe city of firsts.

       摩天大楼是芝加哥历史的重要组成部分。美国的第一座摩天大楼建于1884年。当时它只有10层，但是在当时的时代已经很了不起了。这座摩天大楼最终被拆毁了。芝加哥是其他著名的创举之乡。它是冷藏火车车厢、邮购目录、汽车收音机、电视遥控器、第一个弗累斯大转轮、第一条钢道、西半球第一座天文馆的诞生地。芝加哥也是第一血库和第一家银行的所在地。它也是林肯动物园之家，美国最古老的公共动物园，也许风城应该被称为“第一城”。

Chicago is the third most populous city in the U.S.,after New York City and Los Angeles. A little more than two and a half millionpeople live in the city that has more than 100 neighborhoods. President BarackObama used to live in Chicago.

芝加哥是美国第三大人口最多的城市，在纽约和洛杉矶之后。大约有250万城市人口，100多个社区。贝拉克•奥巴马总统以前住在芝加哥。

Nearly 40 million people visit Chicago every year.Many of them visit the Willis Tower. Formally known as the Sears Tower, it isthe tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. It takes only a minute to getup to the 103rd floor Sky deck thanks to some of the fastest elevators in theworld. From the Sky deck visitors can see four states: Indiana, Illinois,Michigan, and Wisconsin.

每年有近4000万人来芝加哥旅游。他们中许多人参观希尔斯大厦。它被正式的名字叫做西亚士大厦，是西半球最高的建筑物。多亏了世界上一些最快的电梯，登上第一百零三层的天空甲板只需一分钟。从空中甲板可以看到四个州：印第安娜、伊利诺斯、密歇根和威斯康星。