The Oniy Way Is Up

Think of a modemcity and the first image that comes to mind is the skyline.It is full of greatbuildings, pointing like fingers to heaven.It is true that some cities don'tpermit

buildings to goabove a certain height. But these are cities concerned with the past.The firstthing any city does when it wants to tell the world that it has arrived is tobuild

skyscrapers.

When people gathertogether in cities,they create a demand for land.Since cities are places wheremoney is made,that demand can be met.And the best way to make money

out of city land isto put as many people as possible in a space that covers the smallest amount ofground.That means building upwards.

The technologyexisted to do this as early as the 19th century.But the height of buildings waslimited by one important factor.They had to be small enough for people on the

top floors to climbstairs.People could not be expected to climb a mountain at the end of theirjourney to work,or home.

Elisha Otis,a USinventor,was the man who brought us the lift-or elevator,as he preferred tocall it.

However,most of thetechnologyis very old.Lifts work using the same pulley system the Egyptiansused to create the Pyramids.What Otis did was attach the system to a steam

engine and developthe elevator brake, which stops the lift falling if the cords that hold it upare broken.It was this that did the most to gain public confidence in the new

invention.In fact,hespent a number of years exhibiting lifts at fairgrounds,giving people thechance to try them out before selling the idea to architects and builders.

A lift would not bea very good theme park attraction now.Going in a lift is such an everyday thingthat it would just be boring.Yet psychologists and others who study human

behavior find liftsfascinating.The reason is simple.Scientists have always studied animals inzoos.The nearest they can get to that with humans is in observing them inlifts.

"It breaks allthe usual conventions about the bubble of personal space we carry around withus-and you just can't choose to move away,"says workplacepsychologist,Gary

Fitzgibbon."Beingtrapped in this setting can create different types of tensions,"hesays.Some people are scared of them.Others use them as an opportunity to getclose to the

boss.Some standclose to the door.Others hide in the corners.Most peo- ple try and shrink intothe background.But some behave in a way that makes others notice them.There

are a few people whojust stand in a corner taking notes.

Don't worry aboutthem.They are probably from a university.People trapped inthis lift have different types of tensions.

A.Right

B.Wrong

C.Not mentioned