作者聲明：為了考生的共同利益，本文謝絕轉載！

Why such wooden pagodas, despite their height and weight, have remained upright and intact through numerous earthquakes and typhoons is something that no one has been able to explain satisfactorily from the standpoint of modern architectonics. This is because building science evolved in the West as a discipline dealing with the structural mechanics of rigid bodies, that is, buildings of stone, brick, or concrete. In the article that follows, one architect elucidates the ingenious techniques by which the Japanese of earlier times built their pagodas to withstand even the strongest winds and earthquakes.

Each story of the pagoda is basically a square box with no bottom, built around twelve outer pillars, or gawabashira. The pagoda as a whole is, in essence, five stacked boxes. Since each story is smaller than the one beneath it, the placement of the gawabashira moves inward as one proceeds up the pagoda, meaning that horizontal beams are needed to support the gawabashira of each story above the first. In fact, these pillars rest on horizontal bases, which in turn are supported by taruki --- slanting beams that run from the inside of the structure diagonally downward to the outside, where they support the eaves. The weight of the upper story, pushing down on the inner ends of the taruki, would cause the outer ends to rise if there were no counterweight. The heavy tiled roof of the eaves performs precisely this function. In short, the taruki functions as a lever arm, while the top of the gawabashira serves as the fulcrum. The story above bears down on the inner end of the lever, and the overhanging roof balances this load at the outer end. Or, to put it another way, the heavy eaves are in effect sustained by the story above. When one reaches the uppermost level, of course, there is no story above to counterbalance the overhang. Here, however, the tall copper or iron spire, or finial, performs that function. The finial of the Horyuji pagoda, we are told, weighs a full three tons.

日本塔建筑奇怪的特點：木制還防震？是真題考察的重點。

我出兩個tfng，大家看選什么。

The structural mechanics of modern architectonics in the West does not investigate yielding bodies.

The weight of the eaves of Japan’s pagoda is supported by the upper story.

答案：

1：題目可理解為：“西方現代建筑學中的結構力學沒有研究易彎曲的建筑。”

找到原文為：“This is because building science evolved in the West as a discipline dealing with the structural mechanics of rigid bodies, that is, buildings of stone, brick, or concrete.”說它研究的是剛性物體，如磚、石、混凝土等建筑。

如果只是通過這句話判斷，則易選NG。但上文中說日本塔是木質而抗震，從現代的建筑學的觀點立場無法解釋。因為西方現代建筑學中的結構力學研究的是剛性物體（rigid bodies）。

所以我們可以判斷木質的日本塔為非剛性（yielding），西方的結構力學無法解釋，是因為它不研究yielding bodies. 答案為TRUE.

2。題目為：“日本塔的塔檐重量由上面一層塔來支撐。”

答案比較明顯，原文有同意表達。但要理解how，

不支持畫圖，上課同學們提醒我講一下。