China’s 71-metre-tall Leshan Buddha (佛像), the largest stone Buddha in the world, re-opened to the public after experts carried out emergency restoration on the 1,300-year-old statue. The repair (修理) project started in October last year and the scaffolding (脚手架) was removed in late March after experts mended the cracks (裂纹) on the statue. Tourists are once again able to see the entirety of the towering (高耸的) sitting Buddha from the Min River by the mountain.
The Buddha was built in 713 AD during the Tang Dynasty at the meeting point of three rivers, the Min River, Qingyi River and Dadu River. The statue is based on the image of Maitreya, which is regarded as the future Buddha. It is next to the Lingyun Temple on Lingyun Mountain in Leshan. Lingyun Temple means the “cloud side” temple in Chinese, and the name means the high altitude (海拔高度) of the huge statue. It is said that in ancient times, many boats sailed past Leshan, and therefore the monks at the Lingyun Temple decided to build a Buddha statue to save living creatures. It took them about 90 years to complete the religious and artistic masterpiece. The statue is so great that people from all over the world come to visit and admire (欣赏) the wonderful work.
A worker said the Buddha had some cracks on its face, chest and stomach after being out in nature for more than a thousand years. The damage could have caused rocks to fall and endanger the tourists. An expert said the latest repair was not “systematic restoration”, but a “scientific and research project”. The repair project could lay foundation for the future overall protection of the Buddha, the expert told Xinhua News Agency.
【小题1】How long did it take to repair the Buddha?
| A．Three months or so. | B．About half a year. | C．About seven months. |
【小题2】Where can the tourists enjoy the whole Leshan Buddha?
| A．Under the scaffolding. |
| B．On the Min River by the mountain. |
| C．At the top of the Lingyun Mountain. |
【小题3】What does the second paragraph mainly tell us?
| A．The background of building the Buddha. |
| B．The main time to build the Buddha. |
| C．The reason for building the Buddha. |
【小题4】The underlined word “masterpiece” in Paragraph 2 means “________”.
| A．great work | B．a large stone | C．a high mountain |
【小题5】From the passage, we can know that ________.
| A．it’s hard work to repair the Buddha |
| B．people can do anything to the Buddha |
| C．the Buddha isn’t strong enough to climb |
