英语听力：自然百科 秦兵马俑第三次考古挖掘

Chinese archaeologists have started to excavate more of the life-size terracotta warriors at the famed ancient tomb of the country's first emperor. China state TV on Sunday showed archaeologists uncovering more of the elaborately carved soldiers, to add to the 1000 plus statues already excavated.

From this site, we can see in one hole, two horses. We already knew that these two horses existed here. In the last two excavations, we never came across these two horses. Of course, perhaps, there might be more unsolved mysteries.

The new dig which started on Saturday is the third undertaken since the tomb was first uncovered in 1974, and will focus on the 2100-square-foot patch within the tomb's main pit that holds the bulk of the warriors. Exhibited where they were found and protected inside a massive building, the tomb and its museum are among China's biggest tourist draws. An exhibition of 15 figures and dozens of artifacts from the tomb broke ticket sale records when it traveled to London and California. The exhibit is now at the Huston Museum of Natural Science and in November, moves to the NationalGeographic Museum in Washington D.C.

At between five feet eight inches and six and a half feet tall, the statues weigh between 300 and 400 pounds each. In all, the tomb's three pits are thought to hold 7,000 life-size figures. It is believed that they were created by Emperor Qin Shihuang to protect him in the afterlife. No two figures are alike and craftsmen are believed to have modeled them after a real army. A forth pit of tomb was apparently left empty by its builders while Qin's actual burial chamber has yet to be excavated.