In the 1960s, many people in North America turned their
attention to environmental problems, and new steel-and-glass skyscrapers were
widely criticized. Ecologists (47) out that a cluster of tail
buildings in a city often (48) public transportation and
parking lot capacities. Skyscrapers are also (49)
consumers, and wasters, of electric power. In one recent year, the
addition of 17 million square feet of skyscraper office space in New York
City (50) the peak dally demand for electricity by 120,000
kilowatts—enough to supply the entire city of Albany, New York, for a
day. Glass-walled skyscrapers can be (51)
wasteful. The heat loss (or gain) through a wall (52)
half-inch plate glass is more than ten times that through a typical
masonry wall (53) with insulation board. To (54)
the strain on heating and air-conditioning equipment, builders of
skyscrapers have begun to (55) double-glazed panels of glass,
and reflective glasses coated with silver or gold mirror films that
(56) glare as well as heat gain. However, mirror-walled
skyscrapers raise the temperature of the surrounding air and affect neighboring
buildings.
A) pointed
I) abandon
B) overburdened
J) lessened
C) of
K) lessen
D) filled
L) use
E) improves
M) reduce
F) mildly
N) especially
G) lavish
O) economical
H) raised