Seven new wonders but only one Great Wall
[ 2007-07-09 08:53 ]
The Great Wall is at the top of the "New Seven Wonders of the World" list.
China's more than 5,000-km-long engineering and architectural marvel is
followed by the pink-colored ruins of Petra in Jordan, the statue of Christ the
Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru, the Mayan
city of Chichen Itza in Mexico, the Coliseum in Rome, and the Taj Mahal in
India.
A private Swiss foundation launched a worldwide poll in January
to choose the new top seven wonders from 21 sites. A jury short-listed the 21
from the original 77 selected by the foundation. Nearly 100 million votes were
cast before the results were declared in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon on
Saturday night.
The top contenders that lost out were the Acropolis in
Athens, Greece, the Stonehenge in Britain, Angkor Vat in Cambodia, the statues
on Easter Island and the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
The private campaign was
the brainchild of Swiss filmmaker
and museum curator Bernard Weber,
who said his initiative seeks to recreate the popularity of the Seven Wonders of
the World.
Only one of the original seven wonders, the Pyramids of
Egypt, can still be seen. The others were the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the
Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum at
Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.
"The real cultural and historical value of a world heritage site should
not be determined by online voting but by what they mean to human beings," said
a netizen on popular portal www.sina.com.cn.
The China Great Wall Society's
Deputy Secretary Zhang Ji welcomed the results. The Great Wall's name on
the list could only help preservation efforts, he said.
Han Guowei, a
society official, addressed the glittering gathering in Lisbon and appreciated
the efforts of the organizers and people who voted for the Great Wall. He
welcomed friends from across the world to experience the "eternity and
greatness" of the Great Wall.
(China Daily 07/09/2007 page 1)
Vocabulary:
brainchild: 主意、想法
curator: 館長(zhǎng)
Questions:
1. How were the seven sites
selected?
2. How many of the original seven wonders of the world can
still be seen?
3. What does the China Great Wall Society's Deputy
Secretary believe the listing could help?
Answers:
1. A private Swiss foundation launched a poll in January.
2. Only one,
the Egyptian pyramids.
3. Preservation efforts at the
wall.
（英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津 Linda 編輯）
About the broadcaster:
 Matt Doran is an award-winning American newspaper journalist and an
undergraduate student at Albion College. He is currently a polisher for China
Daily Website and is on summer break from Beijing Foreign Studies University,
where he will resume his study of Chinese in the fall.
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