Great wall of china

This highly homogeneous traditional architecture repeated throughout the centuries established types of simple rectangular lowsilhouetted buildings constructed according to canons of proportions and construction methods which varied with each dynasty and period and varied from one region to another. Stone and brick were used for structures demanding strength and permanence, such as fortifications, enclosure walls, tombs, pagodas, and bridges. Otherwise buildings were mostly constructed in a wooden framework of columns and beams supported by a platform, with non-bearing curtain or screen walls. The most prominent feature of the Chinese house was the tile-covered gabled roof, high-pitched and upward-curving with widely overhanging eaves resting on multiple brackets. Separate roofs over porches surrounding the main buildings or, in the case of pagodas, articulating each floor created a distinctive rhythmical horizontal effect.

The emperor Tsin Shi Hwang Di became the first ruler of a unified China in the second century B.C. In an almost unimaginably ambitious attempt to unite his country, he ordered the construction of a wall right across its northern boundary, from the seas in the east to the northwest corner, in order to keep out the normadic peoples to the north. Several sections of an older wall, built from the seventh century on for the same purpose, were incorporated, but by far the greater portion of the work was new.

The Great Wall covers 1,395 miles, but it has so many loops and branches that the total length could be nearly 4,000 miles.

THE TOWERS

The watchtowers are about 30 feet square. In all, there are 25,000 along the length of the wall plus 15,000 others separate from it!

QUARRYING

Of all ancient civilizations, China's had the greatest available range of building materials: From the earliest times, mud bricks, timber, and stone were used, and later kilnfired bricks and tiles, as well.

THE STRUCTURE

The watchtowers are 46 feet high, while the wall itself averages 23 feet. Between 20 and 23 feet wide at the base, it narrows at the top but is still wide enough for a continuous roadway. The wall, when finished, was over 3,700 miles long. In the east much of it still remains in fairly good condition.

Tsin ordered that any workman leaving a crack between the stones large enough to insert a nail should be hanged on the sport.

THE WHEEL BARROW

The material used to build the wall was dug by slaves from quarries. Stones being used for the outer walls and the roadway had to be dressed, which was done by the local masons The Chinese invented the wheelbarrow in the third century A.D., which allowed the laborers to work much faster than before.

1. Answer the following questions:

1. How did Chinese building vary?

2. What is the most prominent feature of the Chinese house?

3. Who became the first ruler of a unified China?

4. What was the reason for constructing the Great Wall?

5. What is the total length of the Great Wall?

6. What kind of material did the Chinese architects use?

7. What is the watchtowers' height?

8. How high is the wall itself?

9. What is the length of the Wall?

10. What was the emperor Tsin's order?

11. What invention helped the Chinese to work much faster?

2. Give the Russian equivalents to the following words and word combinations:

homogeneous; rectangular; lowsilhouted; permanence; enclosure walls; pagodas; wooden framework; non - bearing curtain; screen walls; tile - covered gabled roof; high - pitched; upward - curving; watchtowers; kilnfired brick.

3. Find in the text all the participles ( I, II ) and translate them.

4. Give the English equivalents of the following Russian words and word combinations:

однородная традиционная архитектура, ненесущие стены между колоннами каркаса, щипцовая крыша, с крутыми скатами, свесы крыши, общая длина, башня для наблюдения, внешняя стена.

5. Retell the text.