美國男子600萬根牙籤打造"牙籤城"
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'.
（美國）一名前電視節目主持人耗時六年、用600萬根牙籤搭建成了世界多個著名建築。
這位名叫斯坦•蒙羅搭的“建築師”專職搭建各種建築，如大本鐘、倫敦塔橋以及梵蒂岡城國等，他搭建這些建築用掉的膠水達170多升。
他還按照1比164的比例，再造了悉尼歌劇院、泰姬陵以及“卡蒂薩克”號帆船。
這位38歲的已婚人士搭建每座建築短則一天，長則半年，他的大部分時間都用在了搭建建築的調查研究上。
他儘可能多地從網上下載技術圖紙和衛星圖片，其它的則自己按比例製作。
斯坦的建築大多爲空心，只有少數幾個支撐結構，這些支撐結構也是用他直接從一個批發商那裏購買的牙籤製作的。
較大的模型通常被分爲幾部分來製作，這樣移動時能少些麻煩。
斯坦繼續在美國紐約錫拉丘茲（雪城）科技博物館搭建他的模型。
他的最新作品展“牙籤城2號——廟宇和高樓大廈”將展出40多座世界各地的著名宗教建築和高樓大廈。
過去四年間，他一直在埋頭打造這個作品，預計將於今年12月完工。
斯坦從學生時代就開始用牙籤搭建建築模型，當時有人讓他搭建一個六英寸高，能承受一個雞蛋重量的模型。
而他最終搭建出來的模型非常堅固，甚至能支撐住他的課桌。
2003年，在他失業三個月後，斯坦將自己童年時期對牙籤的熱情與他成年後對於建築的興趣結合了起來。
他的首個名爲“摩天大樓歷史”的“牙籤城”賣給了西班牙馬略卡島的一家博物館。這座共包括50個建築的牙籤城耗時兩年完成。
斯坦說：“搭建牙籤城非常有意思，我決定再另建一座。這一次規模更大、工藝更精細。”
“我希望這次展覽能作爲對宗教多樣性、建築成就和歷史擬真的一次讚頌，或者能讓人們發出這樣的感嘆也好：‘哇！這麼多的牙籤’。”
Vocabulary:
technical drawing: 技術圖紙，工程圖紙
hassle: trouble; bother（困難，麻煩）
