The Great Wall 万里长城 - 4

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 )

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。

2 sculpted   

adj.经雕塑的

参考例句：

• a display of animals sculpted in ice 冰雕动物展
• The ladies had their hair sculpted by the leading coiffeur of the day. 女士们的发型都是当代有名的理发师做的。

3 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

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

参考例句：

• For ten years she dwelled among the nomads of North America. 她在北美游牧民中生活了十年。
• Nomads have inhabited this region for thousands of years. 游牧民族在这地区居住已有数千年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 planks   

（厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点

参考例句：

• The house was built solidly of rough wooden planks. 这房子是用粗木板牢固地建造的。
• We sawed the log into planks. 我们把木头锯成了木板。

6 shoveled   

vt.铲，铲出（shovel的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The hungry man greedily shoveled the food into his mouth. 那个饥饿的人贪婪地、大口大口地吃。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• They shoveled a path through the snow. 他们在雪中铲出一条小路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 upwards   

adv.向上，在更高处...以上

参考例句：

• The trend of prices is still upwards.物价的趋向是仍在上涨。
• The smoke rose straight upwards.烟一直向上升。

8 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

9 exhaustion   

n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述

参考例句：

• She slept the sleep of exhaustion.她因疲劳而酣睡。
• His exhaustion was obvious when he fell asleep standing.他站着睡着了，显然是太累了。

10 mortar   

n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合

参考例句：

• The mason flushed the joint with mortar.泥工用灰浆把接缝处嵌平。
• The sound of mortar fire seemed to be closing in.迫击炮的吼声似乎正在逼近。

11 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

12 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。