7-8 世界人工奇观：中国长城

Great Wall of China

 

The Great Wall is the most time consuming, material consuming, and labor¹ intensive construction project in human history. It is the ultimate human construction.

 

Like a massive sleeping dragon, the Great Wall snakes across China’s landscape, rising and falling with the contours¹ of the countryside. It's part of the geography of China, and this is totally unique. That's what makes it a wonder of the world.

 

The person responsible for this great wonder was a powerful warlord² named Chin Chu Wong.

 

The Ancient Chinese territory map looked like a jigsaw²³. Seven pieces, and seven kingdoms vying⁴ for power, but one of these kingdoms the Chin kingdom conquered the other six kingdoms to create what is regarded as the first centralized empire in Chinese history.

 

Emperor Chin was brash⁵ and ambitious but he knew he could never defeat the ruthless horse riding warriors³ to the north--the Mongols. He decided⁴ that a wall should be built to prevent those Mongols invading again. So he started the long history of Great Wall building.

 

And for another 2000 years Chinese dynasties built walls. In the end a whole network of walls spread across the northern tier of the country. 15 feet across, 21 feet tall and over 4000 miles in total. In the past, the Great Wall of China served very real, practical needs--to defend the country. Now it's regarded as a symbol, the soul of the Chinese Nation.

 

The great wall earns the number one spot on our list of the ultimate ten man-made wonders.

 

注释：

1. contour [5kCntuE] n. 轮廓；轮廓线

2. warlord [5wC:lC:d] n. (中国的)军阀

3. jigsaw [5dVi^sC:] n. 拼图玩具；犬牙交错的图案

4. vie [vai] vi. (分词形式 vying)竞争

5. brash [brAF] a. 自以为是的；粗鲁的

 

中国长城

 

长城是人类历史上最耗时、耗资、耗力的建筑工程，它是人类最伟大的建筑。

长城像一条沉睡的巨龙，在中华大地上沿着乡村蜿蜒起伏，绵延万里。它是中国地理的一部分，举世无双，无与伦比。是一大世界奇迹。

创造这伟大奇迹的是一个被称为秦始皇的强权君主。

古代中国的版图看起来像不规则的拼图，分成7块，7个诸侯国争夺霸权，其中一个诸侯国秦国最后打败了其他6国，创建了中国历史上第一个中央集权的帝国。

秦始皇残暴且野心勃勃，但他知道他永远也战胜不了北方那些骑在马背上的勇士--蒙古人。他决定修建一条防止蒙古人再次入侵的城墙，于是便开始了建造长城的漫长历史。

在此后的2000年里，中国各朝代继续修建城墙，最终形成了一条完整的城墙网络，横亘在中国北部。它宽15英尺，高21英尺，总长4000多英里。过去，中国长城一直发挥着它真正的实际作用--保卫国家。现在它已成为一种象征，中华民族灵魂的象征。

长城位列我们十大人工奇观之首。

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 jigsaw   

n.缕花锯，竖锯，拼图游戏；vt.用竖锯锯，使互相交错搭接

参考例句：

• A jigsaw puzzle can keep me absorbed for hours.一副拼图就能让我沉醉几个小时。
• Tom likes to work on jigsaw puzzles,too.汤姆也喜欢玩拼图游戏。

3 warriors   

武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I like reading the stories ofancient warriors. 我喜欢读有关古代武士的故事。
• The warriors speared the man to death. 武士们把那个男子戳死了。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。