2014届高三英语二轮专题复习拔高训练：政治经济文化类阅读理解14.docVIP

2014届高三英语二轮专题复习拔高训练：政治经济文化类阅读理解14 1. Angkor Wat (City Temple) is a vast temple complex near Siem Reap, about 200 miles from the capital of Phnom Penh in Cambodia. After the city of Angkor fell to invaders, Angkor Wat fell into the jungle but continued as a Buddhist temple and a pilgrimage(朝圣) site over the centuries. Angkor Wat is the best preserved example of Khmer architecture in Cambodia and is so grand in design that some rank it among the Seven Wonders of the World. It appears on the Cambodian national flag, a very rare instance of a flag incorporating an image of a building. The “lost city” of Angkor first attracted the interest of Europeans in the 1800s after Cambodia was colonized by the French. In addition to many tourists, Buddhist monks are daily visitors to Angkor Wat, their bright orange robes making a vivid contrast with the grey stone of the temple. The city of Angkor was capital of the Khmer Empire from the 9th to the 15th centuries. The city of Angkor was founded on political and religious ideas adapted from India, and the temples of Angkor were intended as a place of worship for the king. Angkor Wat was built by King Suryavarman II in the 12th century as a vast funeral temple that would hold his remains, and as a royal temple dedicated to a Hindu God. During its six centuries as imperial capital, Angkor went through many changes in architectural styles and in religion. By the late 13th century, the once crazy pace of Angkor’s architectural pursuits had begun to die down, and a more restrained type of religion was on the rise under the growing influence of Theravada Buddhism. At the same time, Angkor and Khmer Empire were increasingly threatened and attacked by invading armies. By the 16th century , the golden age of Angkor was over and many of the great temples began to recede into the jungle. From the 15th to 19th centuries, Theravada Buddhist monks cared for Angkor Wat, and it is thanks to them that the temple remains most