The Great Wall 万里长城 - 11

With the Mongols expelled, the new rulers, the Ming emperors, were determined¹ that an invasion would never happen again. And so in 1368, when Europe was being decimated by the Black Plague(黑死病, 鼠疫), the Ming rulers created the world's largest and greatest civil engineering project, even greater than earlier walls, because this wall was mostly built of stone. The Ming Wall stretches from Shanhaiguan(山海关) on the Yellow Sea to Jiayuguan(嘉峪关) in the Gobi Desert. It lies across China like a long winding² spine³, 4,000 miles in length, with thousands of watchtowers poking⁴ out like vertebrae.

Much of the Great Wall was made of stone, a building material 100 times more labor⁵-intensive than mud brick. The wall builders were not in the least daunted⁶ by spiked⁷ mountain peaks. And even among these misty⁸ mountain tops, the wall had to be zealously⁹ guarded. Watchtowers were crucial to the protection of the wall. If reinforcements were needed, the guards signaled to the village of mere¹⁰ a half mile away. Here, the old garrison¹¹ walls of a long abandoned barracks still stand. Some 500 troops would have been stationed here, and if this wasn't enough, there were even larger concentration of troops in forts, a few minutes' signaling away. In this way, a small number of men on the wall could alert an army of over one million men in a matter of a few hours.

Army garrisons¹² competed with each other in wall building. Each general wanted his section to be more impressive than all the others. A plaque¹³ proclaims that in the spring of the year 1597, Tongkai was commander in charge of the gang building this section of the wall. Chen Yiting was in charge of food and even the lowly stonemason Wu Zengye had his name carved.

To build a wall to this standard was not easy, much of the labor was carried out by convicts, who if they died, had to be replaced by another member of their family, and so on until the sentence was completed, hardly a method that encouraged happy workers. Every 50 feet, the builders installed drains to carry off rain water. These waterspouts were always built on the inside of the wall, the side away from the enemy. So we couldn't lasso a spout¹⁴ in climb of the wall.

decimate: destroy or kill a large part of (a group); inflict¹⁵ great destruction or damage on

winding: twisting or turning; sinuous

in the least: also, in the slightest. At all, in the smallest degree. These terms are nearly always used in a negative context.

stonemason: a craftsman who works with stone or brick

1 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

2 winding   

n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈

参考例句：

• A winding lane led down towards the river.一条弯弯曲曲的小路通向河边。
• The winding trail caused us to lose our orientation.迂回曲折的小道使我们迷失了方向。

3 spine   

n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊

参考例句：

• He broke his spine in a fall from a horse.他从马上跌下摔断了脊梁骨。
• His spine developed a slight curve.他的脊柱有点弯曲。

4 poking   

n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢

参考例句：

• He was poking at the rubbish with his stick. 他正用手杖拨动垃圾。
• He spent his weekends poking around dusty old bookshops. 他周末都泡在布满尘埃的旧书店里。

5 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。

6 daunted   

使（某人）气馁，威吓( daunt的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was a brave woman but she felt daunted by the task ahead. 她是一个勇敢的女人，但对面前的任务却感到信心不足。
• He was daunted by the high quality of work they expected. 他被他们对工作的高品质的要求吓倒了。

7 spiked   

adj.有穗的；成锥形的；有尖顶的

参考例句：

• The editor spiked the story. 编辑删去了这篇报道。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They wondered whether their drinks had been spiked. 他们有些疑惑自己的饮料里是否被偷偷搀了烈性酒。 来自辞典例句

8 misty   

adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的

参考例句：

• He crossed over to the window to see if it was still misty.他走到窗户那儿，看看是不是还有雾霭。
• The misty scene had a dreamy quality about it.雾景给人以梦幻般的感觉。

9 zealously   

adv.热心地；热情地；积极地；狂热地

参考例句：

• Of course the more unpleasant a duty was, the more zealously Miss Glover performed it. 格洛弗小姐越是对她的职责不满意，她越是去积极执行它。 来自辞典例句
• A lawyer should represent a client zealously within the bounds of the law. 律师应在法律范围内热忱为当事人代理。 来自口语例句

10 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

11 garrison   

n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防

参考例句：

• The troops came to the relief of the besieged garrison.军队来援救被围的守备军。
• The German was moving to stiffen up the garrison in Sicily.德军正在加强西西里守军之力量。

12 garrisons   

守备部队，卫戍部队( garrison的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I've often seen pictures of such animals at the garrisons. 在要塞里，我经常看到这种动物的画片。
• Use a Black Hand to garrisons, and take it for yourself. 用黑手清空驻守得步兵，为自己占一个。

13 plaque   

n.饰板，匾，(医)血小板

参考例句：

• There is a commemorative plaque to the artist in the village hall.村公所里有一块纪念该艺术家的牌匾。
• Some Latin words were engraved on the plaque. 牌匾上刻着些拉丁文。

14 spout   

v.喷出，涌出；滔滔不绝地讲；n.喷管；水柱

参考例句：

• Implication in folk wealth creativity and undertaking vigor spout.蕴藏于民间的财富创造力和创业活力喷涌而出。
• This acts as a spout to drain off water during a rainstorm.在暴风雨季，这东西被用作喷管来排水。

15 inflict   

vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担

参考例句：

• Don't inflict your ideas on me.不要把你的想法强加于我。
• Don't inflict damage on any person.不要伤害任何人。