长城到底有多长?_BEC初级作文_BEC初级-查字典英语网

长城到底有多长?

林赛：事实上这个答案在世界上引起了困惑，还影响到了国际关系。因为尽管有关方面在接受一些记者采访时给出了详细解释，之后一周的大部分头条标题还是类似“长城总长度为预想的两倍”，而这根本不是真实情况。

It's simply that the state looked at the Ming wall first, they looked at the pre-Ming wall second, and the two added together gives you the total length of all visible remains of the Great Wall in China today.

事实很简单，国家先勘测了明长城，然后又勘测了明以前历代所建的长城，两次勘测结果加起来得到今天中国所有可见的长城遗迹的总长度。

The Korean news services seized upon this news and accused China of stretching the length of the Great Wall like a rubber band.

韩国媒体抓住这个消息不放，指责中国的长城和橡皮筋一样可以随意延长。

How would you answer it?

《华尔街日报》：你对此如何作答？

I think it's best left at rest. The best way to appreciate the Great Wall of China is: wan li chang cheng. These are four Chinese characters. 'Wan,' if you look it up in the dictionary, means 10,000. 'Li' is a Chinese unit of distance equivalent to about 500 meters. 'Chang' is long; 'cheng' is wall. So the direct translation of wan li chang cheng is the '10,000-li long wall.' But if you ask someone who's literate to translate 'wan' in that context they would say, it actually doesn't mean 10,000, it means endless, immeasurable. So the erudite translation of wan li chang cheng is 'the endless wall,' and in fact that is one of the opening discussions in my book.