Nothing can more seriously change the look of a town or city so dramatically than the sudden appearance of an office building which t【72】above all the surrounding buildings. Before the arrival of this skyscraper, all the buildings in the city stood in special relationship to each other. The most str【73】of them was probably the cathedral or the town hall f【74】by other public buildings. These dominated the city and gave it a definite shape. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the new arrival dwarfs (使显得矮小) everything in sight, and even the most【75】(grace) existing buildings may now be so sadly di【76】as to seem slightly ridiculous beside this monster. It rises up above them like a huge, white, slotted (开门的) packing-case resting【77】its side, demanding at【78】merely because of its size and not because of any intrinsic (内在的) worth.
Part of the charm of a big city l【79】in the variety of styles that can be seen in the architecture of its buildings. One feels that the city has grown slowly and each age has left its mark. By demolishing buildings of f【80】times, we wipe out every vestige of the past forever.
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