丝绸之路是什么？
What was the Silk Road?
Name: ________________ Date: ________
两千一百多年前，一个叫张骞的年轻官员从长安出发，一路向西。跟随他的有一百多个人，他们带着汉武帝交给的使命：找到远在西边的大月氏，说服他们和汉朝联手，一起对付北方的匈奴。没想到，他们出发不久就遭遇了匈奴骑兵，全部成了俘虏，在匈奴那里一待就是十年左右。这期间，张骞娶了妻子，还有了孩子，可他始终没有忘记自己的使命。后来，他终于找到机会逃离，继续往西，吃尽了苦头，真的抵达了大月氏。可是，大月氏人已经在富饶的新土地上过上了安稳的日子，再也不想打仗了。
回来的路上，张骞又一次落入匈奴手中。十三年后，他终于回到长安，当初出发的一百多人，只剩下两个。从结果来看，这次使命彻底失败了。然而，他带回来的消息，却让中原的人第一次清楚地了解到：在遥远的西方，还有那么多国家和城市，那里的人怎样生活，出产什么，喜欢什么。皇帝听了，眼界大开。从那以后，一批又一批的汉朝使臣和商人向西出发，一条连接东方和西方的通道，渐渐被打通了。
在这条路上来来往往的，远远不只是丝绸。中国的丝绸，还有后来造纸的技术，一站一站地传到了中亚、西亚，甚至欧洲。反过来，葡萄、骏马和玻璃，也从西边进入了中国。比货物影响更深的，是宗教和思想：佛教就是沿着这条路传入中国的。其实，它并不是一条路，而是由许多条路组成的一张网，有的穿过茫茫沙漠，有的翻越高原和雪山。几乎没有商人能从起点一直走到终点，一匹丝绸往往要经过许多人的手，价格也越来越高，最后才到达遥远的罗马。
有意思的是，古代在这条路上走过的人，谁也没听说过“丝绸之路”这个名字。直到1877年，德国地理学家李希霍芬在书中第一次用了这个说法，它才渐渐流传开来。2014年，从长安到天山的一段路网被列入了世界遗产名录。张骞没有完成皇帝交给他的使命，却在无意之中，为世界打开了一条路。
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 一路 | yílù | all the way; throughout the journey |
| 说服 | shuōfú | to persuade; to convince |
| 期间 | qījiān | period; time; during |
| 始终 | shǐzhōng | from beginning to end; all along; always |
| 土地 | tǔdì | land; soil; territory |
| 彻底 | chèdǐ | thoroughly; thorough; complete |
| 批 | pī | to approve (as in 批准) |
| 商人 | shāngrén | merchant; businessman |
| 连接 | liánjiē | to connect; to link; to join; connection; link |
| 渐渐 | jiànjiàn | gradually; little by little |
| 官员 | guānyuán | official; officer |
| 跟随 | gēnsuí | to follow |
English (for the teacher)
More than twenty-one centuries ago, a young official named Zhang Qian set out from Chang'an and headed west. More than a hundred people went with him, carrying a mission from Emperor Wu of Han: to find the Yuezhi, far away in the west, and persuade them to join forces with the Han against the Xiongnu in the north. But soon after they set out they ran into Xiongnu horsemen and were all taken prisoner, and they stayed among the Xiongnu for about ten years. During that time Zhang Qian married and even had a child, but he never forgot his mission. In the end he found a chance to escape, kept going west through great hardship, and really did reach the Yuezhi. But the Yuezhi had settled into a peaceful life on rich new land and no longer wanted any war.
On the way back, Zhang Qian fell into Xiongnu hands once more. Thirteen years later he finally made it back to Chang'an, and of the hundred-odd people who had set out, only two were left. Judged by its result, the mission was a complete failure. Yet the news he brought back let the people of the Central Plains learn clearly, for the first time, that in the distant west there were so many more countries and cities, and how the people there lived, what they produced and what they liked. Hearing it, the emperor saw the world anew. From then on, group after group of Han envoys and merchants set out west, and a passage linking East and West was gradually opened up.
What came and went along this road was far more than silk. China's silk, and later the art of making paper, passed from stop to stop to Central Asia, West Asia and even Europe. In the other direction, grapes, fine horses and glass came into China from the west. What left a deeper mark than any goods were religions and ideas: Buddhism came into China along this very road. In fact it was not one road at all, but a web made of many roads, some crossing vast deserts and some climbing over high plateaus and snowy mountains. Almost no merchant went all the way from start to finish; a bolt of silk usually passed through many hands, growing more and more expensive, before it finally reached faraway Rome.
The interesting thing is that none of the people who walked this road in ancient times ever heard the name “Silk Road”. Only in 1877, when the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen first used the term in a book, did it slowly begin to spread. In 2014, a stretch of the network from Chang'an to the Tianshan mountains was added to the World Heritage List. Zhang Qian never finished the mission the emperor gave him, yet without meaning to, he opened a road for the world.