English Comprehension No.10
Read the passages carefully to grasp the sense and the Meaning sought to be conveyed by the narrator. Attempt to point the correct answer to each question.
The Great Wall of China is said to be the one structure built by man on earth which would be visible to observers on the moon. It covers a distance of 1,500 miles as the crow flies. From the Liaotung Peninsula westward to the last fortress in Central Asia, it crosses the northern provinces of China. But its actual course, twisting and turning, sweeping across deep valleys, covers over 2,000 miles.
In the eastern section its height varies from 15 to 30 feet, and its width from about 25 feet at the bottom to 15 feet at the top, where there is a pathway wide enough for six horsemen to ride side by side protected by parapets. When the wall was first built it had about 25,000 towers, each 40 feet square high projecting from it every few hundred yards with holes from which the defenders could shoot at attackers. Thousands of these towers are still standing. There are also many watch-towers on the enemy side, outside the wall on hilltops or passes. These and the towers of the wall were used for signaling with smoke or flags by day and with fire by night. The approach of invaders could be reported at once, and reinforcements sent to any part of the frontier.
The Great emperor Shih Huang Ti joined three earlier frontier walls to form a great wall which was to act as a boundary between China and the north and keep out the feared nomads of the Mongolian steppes. The wall was designed to strengthen the nation’s defenses; it was not then, as it later became in Ming times, a substitute for a strong army and state.
Construction was started in about 221 B.C. and the structure was practically complete when shih hung tidied in 210 B.C. the man who did most in carrying out the emperor’s plans was general Meng Tien, who in 221 B.C. led an expedition against the tartars with an army of 300,000 drove them back from the yellow river into the steps and set his men to work on building the wall. They were later joined by the thousands of convicts. year in, year out, in icy winds and snowstorms in winter, and in dust storms in summer, the work went on, and so many mended that the wall was sometimes called the longest cemetery in the world. The core of the wall is earth and stone, faced with brick, and set in a stone foundation. In hilly place the design was altered: two parallel ditches were dug out of the rock, 25 feet apart and great blocks of stone were laid in the trenches to a height of several feet. Along each side of the face of the wall, joined together with a white mortar so hard no nail could be driven into it. The space between the two brick walls was filled nail; could be driven into it. The space between the two brick walls was filled with earth, which was beaten down hard. North of Peking the wall follows mountain summits of such an altitude and sleepness that even goats can hardly climb them. Further west, the wall often follows the easiest route, and here again its design changes and it is built of yellow earth faced with a thin layer of bricks or stone.
Emperor (Wu Ti 140-86 B. C.) resumed work on the wall and extended it to its greatest length and built fortresses in Central Asia itself. The emperors of the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1386-1644) carried out more work on the wall repairing its whole length and establishing new walls west of the Yellow River.
The Wall which now exists nearly 2,000 years old; the long line of gray bricks goes back into China’s past, dividing two ways of life, separating the normal from the peaceful farmer.
Question 1: What do you know about the length of the Great Wall of China?
Answer A The great Wall is 1,500 miles long crossing even length of twisting valleys, etc.
Answer B The Great Wall is 2,000 miles long leaving the twisting valleys
Answer C The Great Wall is 2,000 miles long overall including twisting walls
Answer D The Great Wall is 1,500 miles long stretched out straight and does not cover the twisting valleys
Answer c
Question 2: What was the idea behind raising the Great Wall?
Answer A To facilitate weather conditions of that part of China
Answer B To engage the convicts in hard labor
Answer C To Check the invaders from the North without necessitating massive army
Answer D To watch the movement of the enemy and keep them off the invasion attempts
Answer d
Question 3: What was the Wisdom of Emperor Shih Huang Ti in constructing Great Wall?
Answer A He considered the wall as more powerful means of defense than a massive army
Answer B He had already used three separate walls to protect the frontiers
Answer C He was the first ruler to use walls as a reliable means of defense
Answer D He joined three old walls to make the Great Wall for protection from the North
Answer d
Question 4: What do you come to know about the design and construction of the Great Wall?
Answer A The entire Wall is constructed in a uniformed way
Answer B The entire Wall is constructed with the same material
Answer C The same method of construction is used for the entire Wall
Answer D Different methods of construction are used in different parts of the country
Answer d
Question 5: Who carried over the most part of the work on the Great Wall?
Answer A Shih Huang Ti
Answer B General Meng Ten
Answer C Emperor Wu Ti
Answer D The Ming Emperors
Answer b