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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
探索世界奥秘之万里长城 Unit4
These aren't miniatures, they are life-size. So far, the Chinese have only dug up 10% of the site. And already thousands of warriors1 and some 10,000 weapons have been discovered. Look closely at the faces, each one is different. The Terracotta Army was sculpted2 from its real-life counterpart. The army is drawn3 up in battle formation. At the rear, a command post of senior generals give commands. Their age and status shown by their spreading waistlines. In all, it took almost 700,000 men 38 years to complete the construction of Emperor Qin's tomb. Once China was united, and he had reorganized his empire, Qin sent 300,000 soldiers to the northern frontier to drive back the ever- threatening nomads4. When their job was done, Qin ordered his army to stay. And with an extra half a million peasants, they built the first Great Wall of China.
The wall was made with compressed earth. It's a technique still used every day in the Chinese countryside. First, wooden planks5 are laid parallel to one another as wide apart as the wall's thickness, then earth is shoveled6 between the planks, watered and packed down by human feet. Then the planks are built upwards7, and the wall continues to grow layer by layer. It is a cheap and fast way to make a wall. A hundred times easier, it has been calculated, than building with stone. That's how Qin built 4,000 miles of wall in just 12 years. Surprisingly, these walls can last a very long time. The walls of this ancient city are nearly 2,000 years old, preserved by the extreme dryness of the Gobi Desert's climate. The wall protected China but it took a terrible toll8 on its people. Millions of men died of exhaustion9 while working on the wall. Some say the dead were used as mortar10 and buried in it. They said that the bones of the dead were so numerous, it turned the mortar of the wall white. No one escaped the terrible rule of the Emperor Qin. Every peasant paid his taxes and contributed to the growing wealth of his empire. The greatness of China was built on the backs of the poor. And the history of the Qin Dynasty is laced with tales of sadness. There is a fairy tale in China as well-known to the Chinese as the story of Snow White or Robin11 Hood12 is to us.
real-life: existing or occurring in reality
drive back: repel, repulse, ward off, resist
1 warriors | |
武士,勇士,战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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2 sculpted | |
adj.经雕塑的 | |
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3 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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4 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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5 planks | |
(厚)木板( plank的名词复数 ); 政纲条目,政策要点 | |
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6 shoveled | |
vt.铲,铲出(shovel的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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7 upwards | |
adv.向上,在更高处...以上 | |
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8 toll | |
n.过路(桥)费;损失,伤亡人数;v.敲(钟) | |
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9 exhaustion | |
n.耗尽枯竭,疲惫,筋疲力尽,竭尽,详尽无遗的论述 | |
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10 mortar | |
n.灰浆,灰泥;迫击炮;v.把…用灰浆涂接合 | |
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11 robin | |
n.知更鸟,红襟鸟 | |
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12 hood | |
n.头巾,兜帽,覆盖;v.罩上,以头巾覆盖 | |
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