Unit 1 深厚广博魅力永恒：中国世界文化遗产

1.1 The Great Wall—Wall of History长城——历史的城墙

长城是中国也是世界上修建时间最长、工程量最大的一项古代军事防御工程，它并非简单孤立的一线城墙，而是由点到线、由线到面，把长城沿线的隘口、军堡、关城和军事重镇连接成一张严密的网，形成一个完整的防御体系。自公元前七八世纪开始，延续不断修筑了2000多年，分布于中国北部和中部的广大土地上，总计长度达5万多千米，被称之为“上下两千多年，纵横十万余里”。如此浩大的工程不仅在中国，就是在世界上，也是绝无仅有的，因而在几百年前就与罗马斗兽场、比萨斜塔等并列为中古世界七大奇迹之一。长城带古代的经济、文化结构与古代民族的构成格局，决定了中国古代农业经济地区与畜牧业经济地区的关系集中表现于长城一线，其农业经济、文化与畜牧业经济、文化的对立统一也沿长城一线展开。与此相适应的，无论是民族间政治、经济、文化上的联合与交流，还是民族间军事、政治上的斗争，都沿长城一线展开。它对于主体民族的形成与发展，主体民族与长城带各民族的关系，以至整个中华民族的形成与发展都曾起过重要作用。

如今，长城已失去了它的军事用途，更多地体现了中华民族坚不可摧、永存于世的伟大意志和力量。它是我国古代劳动人民创造的伟大奇迹，是中国悠久历史的见证。这座稀世珍宝是中华民族的骄傲，也是整个世界的骄傲。

In 220 B.C., under Qin Shi Huang, sections of earlier fortifications（防御工事）were joined together to form a united defense system against invasions from the north. Construction continued up to the Ming Dynasty (1368—1644), when the Great Wall became the world's largest military structure. Its historic and strategic importance is matched only by its architectural significance.

The Great Wall integrally（完整地）preserves all the material and spiritual elements and historical and cultural information that carry its outstanding universal value. The complete route of the Great Wall over 20,000 kilometers, as well as elements constructed in different historical periods which constitute the complicated defense system of the property, including walls, fortresses, passes（关口）and beacon towers, have been preserved to the present day. The building methods of the Great Wall in different times and places have been integrally maintained, while the unparalleled（空前的）national and cultural significance of the Great Wall to China is still recognized today.

There is a traditional love story from China, set at the time of the building of the Great Wall of China.

Over 2,000 years ago, in China, there lived a young man called Fan Xiliang and his young sweetheart, Meng Jiangnv. They loved each other very much and looked forward to（期待）getting married and living happily ever after. But, on the day of their wedding, a terrible thing happened. The Emperor of China was building a Great Wall to keep out his enemies and protect his people. He needed thousands of men to build this Great Wall, and often he had to force them to work for him. Fan Xiliang was one of these men, and on the very day of his wedding he was dragged away to work on building the Great Wall.

For five long years, Meng Jiangnv waiting at home for her husband to return, but he never came. One night, while she was sleeping, Meng Jiangnv dreamed that she saw her husband, wearing very thin clothes and shivering with cold（冷得发抖）.When she woke up she immediately started to make some warm, padded clothes for Fan Xiliang, and as soon as they were made she set out to look for him.

Meng Jiangnv bravely made the very long journey on foot, crossing mountains and rivers in her search for her husband. When, after many moons, she came to the Great Wall, she looked everywhere for her husband, but she couldn't find him. Eventually she found someone who had known her husband, but he sadly told her that Fan Xiliang had died and was buried somewhere under the Great Wall, along with many thousands of other men.

Meng Jiangnv was heart-broken. She sat down at the foot of the Great Wall and wept. She wept day and night for her beloved husband, knowing that she would never see him again. She wept so much that her weeping caused a great stretch（一大段）of the Great Wall to fall down. In the rubble（碎石）she found the bones of her husband, and she gathered them together so that he could be properly buried.

The Emperor was very angry that Meng Jiangnv had made his Great Wall fall down, and ordered that she should be brought to him, to be punished. But when he met her and saw how beautiful this sorrowful（悲伤的）lady was, he fell in love and decided to marry her.

Meng Jiangnv had no choice but to agree, but she asked the Emperor for one favor before she married him: that Fan Xiliang be given a grand funeral. As soon as the funeral was over, she decided to escape the Emperor and to be with her husband forever, and she threw herself gladly into the sea, to drown. The people of China built a temple near the Great Wall in memory of（纪念）this beautiful, loyal lady, who loved her husband so much.

用英语畅谈The Great Wall黄金句

☺ Its historic and strategic importance is matched only by its architectural significance.长城唯有在建筑学上的价值，足以与其在历史和战略上的重要性相媲美。

☺ The Great Wall integrally preserves all the material and spiritual elements and historical and cultural information that carry its outstanding universal value.长城完整地保留了所有物质和精神要素以及历史和文化信息，彰显了其自身显著的普世价值。

☺ The building methods of the Great Wall in different times and places have been integrally maintained.长城在不同时期、不同地域的建筑方法都得到了完好的传承。

☺ The Emperor of China was building a Great Wall to keep out his enemies and protect his people.中国的皇帝打算修建长城，抵抗外敌、保护人民。

☺ Meng Jiangnv wept so much that her weeping caused a great stretch of the Great Wall to fall down.孟姜女哭得很厉害，甚至把长城都哭倒了一大段。

☺ The people of China built a temple near the Great Wall in memory of this beautiful, loyal lady, who loved her husband so much.人们在长城附近修建了一座庙宇，以纪念这位美丽、忠贞、深爱丈夫的女子。

用英语畅谈The Great Wall