世界小史 第147期:中国(在线收听

   His province was called Ch'in, from which his family took its name, and it is likely that the whole country now known as China was named after him.

  他所统治的国家叫秦国,他的家族也这样取名,大概中国整个国家今天还都是按他的名字取名的。
  There are certainly more than enough reasons for China to take its name from the Prince of Ch'in.
  人们确实有足够的理由按秦王的名字来称呼中国。
  Not only did he make himself the first emperor of all China, by conquering all the other provinces one by one, but he transformed the entire country.
  因为他不仅通过其征战其他省份使自己成为统治整个中国的第一位皇帝,而且他革新了整个国家。
  He threw out all the princes and totally reorganized his empire.
  他赶走了所有别的诸侯并重新划分了他的帝国。
  and if you ask me why he hated history and destroyed all those books, it was because he wanted to wipe out every trace of how things had been done before,
  如果你问我他为什么他憎恨历史,销毁了所有的书籍,是因为如此他就想完全抹去对昔日时光的记忆,
  so he could build an entirely new China – his China – starting from scratch.
  以便他能够建造一个全新的中国——他的中国——真正从头开始。
  He built roads everywhere and began work on an enormous project: the Great Wall of China.
  他到处修建道路,开始他的一个伟大的工程:修筑万里长城。
  Today it is still a massive construction, a double wall made of stone with tall towers and castellations, winding its symmetrical way over plains,
  今天它仍然是一项巨大的工程,这是一道由石头建造的4000米长的高大边界围墙,城墙上有城垛和高塔,蜿蜒伸展,
  through deep ravines and up steep mountain slopes as it follows the line of the frontier for all of 4,000 miles.
  越过平原和河谷,越过陡峭的群山和山峰。
  原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/syysdw/sjxs/377623.html