7-8 世界人工奇观：中国长城（在线收听）

Great Wall of China

The Great Wall is the most time consuming, material consuming, and labor 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 jigsaw³. 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 warriors to the north--the Mongols. He decided 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。