Located on a huge rock in the forests of central Sri Lanka, Sigiriya is an     1     (attract) sight now as it must have been when it was first built by a great king in the     2     (five) century A. D. Meaning “lion’s rock”, Sigiriya is entered by way of passageways cut into the rock face.

The castle was later covered by the forest, and only familiar to local villagers. Outsiders used knowledge of its past, mentioned in Buddhist texts, to search     3     the ancient site. In1827, a Scottish officer, Jonathan Forbes, on     4     (hear) local stories about the castle, decided     5     (look) for it. In 1831, he set off to where locals told him and found the remains of the ancient city.

Sigiriya     6     (build) by Kashyapa I, the king     7     ruled the native Sinhalese dynasty, the Moriya. The impressive castle was     8     capital of the Sinhalese kingdom until Kashyapa was defeated (击败) in A. D. 495.

After Kashyapa, dynasties rose and fell, their fortunes shaped by internal (内部的) power struggles and conflicts between native Sinhalese and outside forces from India.

Various     9     (city) held the status (地位) of capital after Sigiriya, such as Polonnaruwa. By the 12th century, however, overall control of Sri Lanka progressively weakened. Sinhalese power retreated (撤退) to the southwest of the island, and the former administrative (行政的) centres, including Sigiriya,     10     (start) to fall into disuse.

The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications (防御工事) built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China.

In 221 BC, Emperor Qin Shihuang     1     (order) the walls of the Qin, Zhao and Yan kingdoms in the north to be joined after he united China. The new wall stretched (延伸) from Lintao to Liaodong, with a total     2     (long) of over 20, 000 li.

With the rise of the Tang Dynasty, the Great Wall lost     3     (important) as a fortification. During the Song Dynasty, the Chinese     4       (force) to withdraw (撤退) under threat from the Liao and Jin peoples in the north,     5     took over many areas on both sides of the Great Wall. The powerful Yuan Dynasty     6       (establish) by Genghis Khan finally controlled all of China.

The Great Wall became again a military fortification for Mongolians. It was during the Ming Dynasty that the Wall took on     7     (it) present form. At that time, it stretched some 6, 300 kilometers from the Yalujiang River in the east to Jiayuguan Pass in the west, and is known     8     the Ten Thousand Li Wall.

Today, the Great Wall is     9       (general) recognized as one of the most impressive     10       (wonder) in the world. It is the only man-made structure that is visible from space.