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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
探索世界奥秘之万里长城 Unit2
Often, the only clue he has, is from some ancient text. And it is up to him to puzzle out the arcane1 references and make them fit the modern landscape.
Armed only with a walking stick to fend2 off snakes and rabid dogs, he has walked many thousands of miles, but he has had many successes. After struggling up this forested mountainside, he discovered a long-lost wall. No one had ever noticed it before but once it was part of an ancient Great Wall, too much earlier, and in a completely different location from the wall everyone knows. And the more scientists and archeologists probe, the more mysterious it all becomes. In a lifetime of searching, Chen has discovered thousands of miles of forgotten walls. In fact, if you add up all the walls that we now know about, it comes to a staggering total of 35, 000 miles, almost enough to stretch around the planet twice. But why built so many walls at such an enormous cost? What were the Chinese afraid of?
It was said you could smell them coming, even before you heard the thunder of their hooves. Then they were on you, slaughtering3, raping4, pillaging5 and burning. Behind them, they left a trail of smoking cities and bleached6 bones. They were the nomadic7 hordes8 of the northern plains, the Huns, Mongols, Manchus, all at war with the settled life of the Chinese.
The Chinese were terrified by the nomads9 and detested10 their harsh way of life. A famous poem said they have no fields or pastures, only wastes where white bones lie among yellow sands. Nomads live solely11 off their livestock12. Their animals provided every basic need: food, milk, meat, hides for clothes and the yurt - the nomadic tent. Animal dung provided fuel. In this uncompromising landscape, it was the only way to fuel a fire. The harsh climate kept the nomads always on the move, looking for pastures suitable for their flocks. When disease and freezing weather decimated their animals, the nomadic hordes raided the Chinese when they refused to trade with them. China had everything the nomads didn't have, rice, silk, writing and a very elaborate civilization. The Great Wall was a barrier between the civilized13 world of the Chinese and barbarians14.
arcane: secret, hidden; mysterious; occult
forested: covered with trees, thickly wooded
yurt: rounded building characteristic of the Mongols and the Turks of central Asia
dung: animal excrement
1 arcane | |
adj.神秘的,秘密的 | |
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2 fend | |
v.照料(自己),(自己)谋生,挡开,避开 | |
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3 slaughtering | |
v.屠杀,杀戮,屠宰( slaughter的现在分词 ) | |
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4 raping | |
v.以暴力夺取,强夺( rape的现在分词 );强奸 | |
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5 pillaging | |
v.抢劫,掠夺( pillage的现在分词 ) | |
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6 bleached | |
漂白的,晒白的,颜色变浅的 | |
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7 nomadic | |
adj.流浪的;游牧的 | |
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8 hordes | |
n.移动着的一大群( horde的名词复数 );部落 | |
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9 nomads | |
n.游牧部落的一员( nomad的名词复数 );流浪者;游牧生活;流浪生活 | |
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10 detested | |
v.憎恶,嫌恶,痛恨( detest的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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11 solely | |
adv.仅仅,唯一地 | |
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12 livestock | |
n.家畜,牲畜 | |
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13 civilized | |
a.有教养的,文雅的 | |
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14 barbarians | |
n.野蛮人( barbarian的名词复数 );外国人;粗野的人;无教养的人 | |
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