The forgotten city—Machu Picchu

河南鄭州市第十一中學 谷戰峰

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海詞積累

1.terracen.梯田；階地

2.slidev.滑；溜

3.architecturen.建筑

4.orientv.朝向

5.abandonv.拋棄

6.territoryn.領土

7.uninhabitedadj.無人居住的

8.missionaryn.傳教士

9.refugen.避難所

10.assemblagev.聚集

The Lost City of Machu Picchu is a mysterious wonder.The Incas（印加人）built a city of stone there,without the aid of wheels or iron tools.This is the best example of Inca engineering.They built more than 600terracesto prevent the city fromslidingdown the mountain.They designed a water supply system with a length of about 1 km.

Forthe Incasthearchitecturewas especially important.The temples which were built around the city areorientedto catch the rays of the rising sun.The slopes of the roofs reflect the Huayna Picchu,the mountain that emerges after them.However,Machu Picchu has kept its secrets well,hiding for over 400 years its true meaning and purpose.

Abandonedin the sixteenth century and invaded by the Andean forest,it became a lost place and was forgotten even by the people who built it.Complete for centuries,Machu Picchu is a window to the past,through which we can know who built it—the Incas,an ancientcivilization that created the most powerful empire in South America.

For centuries,Machu Picchu was hidden to the world.The Spanish conqueror never found it and the Incas who knew the location of Machu Picchu eventually forgot it.

When Hiram Bingham arrived in theterritoryoccupied by the Archaeological Park of Machu Picchu,it wasuninhabitedat least since the fifteenth century.

It is unlikely that Bingham was the first outsider to have seen the ruins—documents show thatmissionarieshad been there before.Of course,Machu Picchu was not“lost”—it had been known by natives for centuries.Nor was it the place Bingham was originally looking for:He had been searching for Vilcabamba.It was the lastrefugeof the Inca Empire until it fell to the Spanish in 1572.But to the outside world,the ancientassemblagewas definitely new.Since then,Machu Picchu,which in Inca means“Old Peak”,has become one of the most visited places in Latin America and Peru's most famous site.

Reading Check

1.What does the underlined word “emerges” most probably mean?

A.Develops. B.Follows.

C.Appears. D.Blocks.

2.What do we know about Machu Picchu?

A.It was found by the Spanish.

B.It is now a tourist attraction.

C.It is known for centuries.

D.It was first discovered by Bingham.

3.Which place was Bingham originally looking for?

A.Vilcabamba.

B.The temples.

C.Machu Picchu.

D.The Archaeological Park.

Language Study

Difficult sentence

Complete for centuries,Machu Picchu is a window to the past,through which we can know who built it—the Incas,an ancient civilization that created the most powerful empire in South America.幾個世紀都完好無損，馬丘比丘是通往過去的一扇窗戶，通過它我們可以知道是誰建造了它——印加，一個創造了南美洲最強大帝國的文明古國。

【點石成金】Machu Picchu is a window to the past是主句，through which we can know是“介詞+關系代詞”引導的非限制性定語從句，who built it是賓語從句。an ancient civilization...America是the Incas的同位語，that引導的是限制性定語從句。