1 . Skyscraper didn’t always mean a tall building. The earliest reference to the word dates back to 1788, when it was used to describe a really tall horse, according to The Oxford English Dictionary. By the 1790s, a Philadelphia doctor had used the term to describe the triangular sail at the very top of a ship.

After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the Home Insurance Company hired architect William Jenney to design a tall, fire-proof head office. Jenney was inspired to design the building’s steel framework (框架)after his wife placed a heavy book on a small birdcage and found that the cage supported the weight. Today, that revolutionary structure is widely considered to be the first skyscraper.

Since then, the competition to build the world’s tallest building has been as sharp as the top of the Empire State Building. In the late 1920s, Walter Chrysler and his architect arranged for the secret construction of a roof that added 125 feet of height to the new Chrysler Building, making it 1,046 feet tall. The plan allowed them to eclipse(使逊色)the 927-foot Bank of Manhattan Trust Building.

However, only 11 months after the Chrysler Building was ranked the world’s tallest, it was surpassed by a new neighbor — the Empire State Building. Yet when it opened in 1931, less than 25 percent of the building was occupied. New York jokers called it the “Empty State Building”.

The largest skyscraper in the world always seems to be under construction. Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia is the latest and it’s expected to stretch nearly one kilometer (3, 280 feet) into the sky.

1. What did the word “skyscraper” originally mean？

A．A triangular sail.	B．A high building.
C．A fire-proof head office.	D．An extremely tall horse.

2. Which of the following can best replace the underlined word “surpassed” in paragraph 4?

A．given away

B．left behind

C．put off

D．taken up

3. Why was the Empire State Building called “Empty State Building”?

A．It was ranked the world’s tallest.

B．Tourists were not allowed to visit it.

C．Its construction lasted eleven months.

D．Only a few people lived or worked in it.

4. How does the passage develop?

A．In order of time.	B．In order of space.
C．By analyzing causes.	D．By giving definitions.