ACT Exam Question No 7

Question No 7:

The Gateway Arch
The skyline of St. Louis, Missouri, is fairly unremarkable, with one huge exception, the Gateway Arch that stands on the banks of the Mississippi. Part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, the Arch is a really cool monument built to honor St. Louis’ role as the gateway to the West.

Construction on the 630-foot high structure began, in 1961, and was completed four years later in 1965. The monument includes an underground visitor center that explores westward expansion through galleries and a theater. Two passenger trams take visitors to the Observation Room and the Museum of Westward Expansion at the top. In 1947, a group of interested citizens known as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association held a nationwide competition to select a design for a new monument that would celebrate the growth of the United States.

Other U.S. monuments are spires, statues, or imposed buildings, but the winner of this contest was a plan for a completely unique structure. The man that submitted the winning design, Eero Saarinen, later became a famous architect. In designing the Arch, Saarinen wanted to “create a monument which would have lasting significance and would be a landmark of our time.”

The Gateway Arch is a masterpiece of engineering, a monument even taller than the Great Pyramid in Egypt, an on its own way, at least as majestic. The Gateway is an inverted catenary curve, the same shape that a heavy chain will form if suspended between two points.

Covered from top to bottom with sleek stainless steel coating, the Arch often reflects dazzling bursts of sunlight. In a beautiful display of symmetry, the height of the arch is the same as the distance between the legs at ground level.

A. NO CHANGE
B. Began (in 1961)
C. Had begun in 1961
D. Began in 1961

Answer: D