西安的兵马俑

我上个星期去了西安，看了兵马俑，真的太有意思了！

Last week I went to Xi'an and saw the Terracotta Army. It was really interesting!

兵马俑？那是什么？我不知道。

The Terracotta Army? What's that? I don't know it.

兵马俑是很多很多士兵，已经在地下站了两千多年了。

The Terracotta Army is thousands and thousands of soldiers. They've already been standing underground for over two thousand years.

两千多年？这么老！西安是一座什么样的城市？

Over two thousand years? That old! What kind of city is Xi'an?

西安是中国很老的一座城市，以前也是一个很重要的地方。兵马俑就在西安附近的地下。

Xi'an is a very old city in China. It used to be a very important place too. The Terracotta Army is underground near Xi'an.

这些士兵是谁做的？为什么要做这么多？

Who made these soldiers? Why did they make so many?

那里的人告诉我，是秦始皇要人做的。秦始皇是中国的第一个皇帝，他想，这些士兵可以一直在地下保护他。

The people there told me it was Qin Shi Huang who had people make them. Qin Shi Huang was China's first emperor, and he thought these soldiers could protect him underground forever.

皇帝一个人，为什么要这么多士兵保护？

Why would one emperor need so many soldiers to protect him?

他们是这么相信的：以后，这些士兵还能一直保护皇帝，所以才让人做了这么多。

That's what they believed: afterward, these soldiers could still go on protecting the emperor, which is why they had so many made.

他们是怎么发现的？以前没有人知道地下有兵马俑吗？

How did they discover them? Did nobody know there were terracotta warriors underground before?

对，一直没有人知道。一九七四年，有几个农民在那儿挖井，挖着挖着，突然发现了一个兵马俑的脸。

Right, nobody knew for a long time. In 1974, a few farmers were digging a well there, and while digging, they suddenly discovered the face of a terracotta warrior.

农民挖井挖到了兵马俑？他们一定很害怕吧！

The farmers were digging a well and hit a terracotta warrior? They must have been really scared!

是啊，那些农民不知道那是什么，就告诉了别人，所以大家才知道那口井下面还有几千个兵马俑。

Yeah, those farmers didn't know what it was, so they told other people, and that's how everyone found out there were thousands more terracotta warriors below that well.

几千个？真奇怪，这么多兵马俑，每个人的脸怎么可能都不一样？

Thousands of them? That's really strange. With that many terracotta warriors, how could every single face possibly be different?

我一开始也这么问。那里的人说，做兵马俑的时候，士兵的脸是一个一个做的，没有两个做得一样。所以到现在，还没有人找到两个脸一样的兵马俑。

I asked the same thing at first. The people there said that when they made the Terracotta Army, each soldier's face was made individually, and no two were made the same. So even now, nobody has found two terracotta warriors with the same face.

这真的很有意思。那些兵马俑现在还在挖吗？

That's really interesting. Are they still digging up more terracotta warriors now?

还在挖。他们说地下可能还有很多，只是现在还没有都挖出来。

Yes, still digging. They say there might be many more underground, just not all dug up yet.

那我也想去西安看看那些脸都不一样的士兵。

Then I want to go to Xi'an too, and see those soldiers whose faces are all different.

好啊，下次我们一起去那座城市，你自己去看那些脸，就知道我说的是不是真的了。

Sure, next time let's go together to that city. Once you see those faces yourself, you'll know whether what I said is true.