美国男子600万根牙签打造"牙签城"

A former television presenter has spent six years building famous landmarks - out of six million toothpicks.

Stan Munro used more than 170 litres of glue as he worked full time on buildings such as the Big Ben, Tower Bridge and The Vatican.

He has also recreated Sydney's Opera House, the Taj Mahal and Cutty Sark in 1:164 scale.

The married 38-year-old can take anything from one day to six months to make each building with the majority of his time going into research.

He downloads as many technical drawings and satellite images as possible from the internet and scales the rest himself.

Stan's buildings are largely hollow, with just a few structural supports - also made from the toothpicks he buys direct from a wholesaler.

The larger models are made in separate pieces so they can be moved with less hassle.

Stan continues to work on his models at the Museum of Science and Technology in Syracuse, New York, United States.

His latest exhibition, called Toothpick City II - Temples and Towers, features more than 40 famous religious and tall buildings from around the world.

He has been working on it for four years and it is due to be completed in December.

He has built structures out of toothpicks since his school days when he was asked to build a 6-inch tall structure that could hold an egg.

His was so strong it could hold his desk.

He combined his childhood passion of toothpicks with his more adult interest in architecture in 2003, following three months of unemployment.

His first Toothpick City, called History of Skyscrapers, was sold to a museum in Mallorca, Spain. It took two years to build and has 50 buildings.

Stan said: "Toothpick City was so much fun to build, I decided to build another one. This one is bigger and much more detailed.

"I want this exhibit to be a celebration of religious diversity, architectural achievement and historical accuracy - or just 'wow, that's a lot of toothpicks'.

（美国）一名前电视节目主持人耗时六年、用600万根牙签搭建成了世界多个著名建筑。

这位名叫斯坦．蒙罗搭的“建筑师”专职搭建各种建筑，如大本钟、伦敦塔桥以及梵蒂冈城国等，他搭建这些建筑用掉的胶水达170多升。

他还按照1比164的比例，再造了悉尼歌剧院、泰姬陵以及“卡蒂萨克”号帆船。

这位38岁的已婚人士搭建每座建筑短则一天，长则半年，他的大部分时间都用在了搭建建筑的调查研究上。

他尽可能多地从网上下载技术图纸和卫星图片，其它的则自己按比例制作。

斯坦的建筑大多为空心，只有少数几个支撑结构，这些支撑结构也是用他直接从一个批发商那里购买的牙签制作的。

较大的模型通常被分为几部分来制作，这样移动时能少些麻烦。

斯坦继续在美国纽约锡拉丘兹（雪城）科技博物馆搭建他的模型。

他的最新作品展“牙签城2号——庙宇和高楼大厦”将展出40多座世界各地的著名宗教建筑和高楼大厦。

过去四年间，他一直在埋头打造这个作品，预计将于今年12月完工。

斯坦从学生时代就开始用牙签搭建建筑模型，当时有人让他搭建一个六英寸高，能承受一个鸡蛋重量的模型。

而他最终搭建出来的模型非常坚固，甚至能支撑住他的课桌。

2003年，在他失业三个月后，斯坦将自己童年时期对牙签的热情与他成年后对于建筑的兴趣结合了起来。

他的首个名为“摩天大楼历史”的“牙签城”卖给了西班牙马略卡岛的一家博物馆。这座共包括50个建筑的牙签城耗时两年完成。

斯坦说：“搭建牙签城非常有意思，我决定再另建一座。这一次规模更大、工艺更精细。”

“我希望这次展览能作为对宗教多样性、建筑成就和历史拟真的一次赞颂，或者能让人们发出这样的感叹也好：‘哇！这么多的牙签’。”

Vocabulary:

technical drawing: 技术图纸，工程图纸

hassle: trouble; bother（困难，麻烦）