In recent years, a craze for height has hit hard in industrializing Asian countries like Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, which boast seven of the world’s 10 tallest buildings. The current tallest, at 101 floors, is the Taipei 101 in Taiwan, though Toronto’s CN Tower is 180 feet higher, largely because of its huge antenna. Yet, in the Persian Gulf city of Dubai, the world’s tallest building-to-be is already well under construction. Its pilings are already in place, plunging 160 feet into the earth. When it’s finished, visitors will swoon over this city from 123 stories high, if not more. Currently, however, its exact height is still kept a secret to potential competitors in the world’s race for the title of the tallest skyscraper.
While New York built skyscrapers because land was scarce, Dubai is doing it to get on the world map. “It’s image, clearly,” said Richard Rosan, president of its construction firm. “There’s no practical reason for having a building this tall. You can’t be scared of heights if you want to work on the top floor.”
On paper, the Dubai Tower looks something like a giant space shuttle about to be launched into the clouds. Designers say the silvery steel-and-glass building will restore to the Arab world the honor of hosting the earth’s tallest structure—a title lost in 1889 when the Eiffel Tower upset the 43-century reign of Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza.
The word upset in the last paragraph means __________.