为什么长城在渐渐消失？

Around 30 percent of China's Ming-era Great Wall has disappeared over time as adverse natural conditions and reckless human activities -- including stealing the bricks to build houses -- erode the UNESCO World Heritage site, state media reported.天津翻译公司推荐阅读
据官媒报道，中国的明长城大约有30%随着时间的推移已经消失，这是由于不利的自然条件和不计后果的人类活动（包括偷长城上的砖盖房子）侵蚀了这座由联合国教科文组织认定的世界文化遗产。
In places it is so dilapidated that estimates of its total length vary from 5,600 to 13,000 miles, depending on whether missing sections are included. Despite its length it is not, as is sometimes claimed, visible from space.
长城有些地方破旧不堪，所以对它长度的估算从5600英里到13000英里不等，这取决于是否把消失的部分涵盖在内。尽管长城很长，但不像有时人们说的那样从太空里能看见它。
Of that, 1,200 miles has melted away over the centuries, the Beijing Times reported.
《京华时报》报道称：“几个世纪以来，其中有1200英里已经消失了。”
Some of the construction weathered away, while plants growing in the walls have accelerated the decay, said the report Sunday, citing a survey last year by the Great Wall of China Society.天津翻译公司推荐阅读
周日的报道引用了中国长城学会去年的调查，说一部分长城风化掉了，还有的城墙里植物疯长加速了损毁。
"Even though some of the walls are built of bricks and stones, they cannot withstand the perennial exposure to wind and rain," the paper quoted Dong Yaohui, a vice president of the society, as saying.
《京华时报》引用学会的副会长董耀会的话说：“即使部分城墙用砖石砌成，也禁不住常年风吹雨淋。”


Tourism and local residents' activities are also damaging the longest human construction in the world, the paper added.
报纸补充说：“旅游业和当地居民的活动也正在破坏这个世界上人类最长建筑。”

Poor villagers in Lulong county in the northern province of Hebei used to knock thick grey bricks from a section of wall in their village to build homes, and slabs engraved with Chinese characters were sold for 30 yuan ($4.80) each by local residents, it said.天津翻译公司推荐阅读
据报道，位于华北的河北省的卢龙县里村民很穷，过去经常敲下村里部分城墙上青灰色的厚砖拿去盖房，而且刻有汉字的砖被当地居民卖到30元（4.80美元）一块。