Translation | Comprehension Questions
Text B     Beijing
        Beijing first achieved prominence during the Warring States Period(476¡ª221 BC),when it became the capital of the Kingdom of Yan and was called Ji (meaning ¡°reeds¡±, because of the marshy nature of the terrain).The Mongolian emperor, Kublai Khan, renamed it Dadu (great capital)when he made it the base for his Yuan Dynasty(1271¡ª1368 AD),but the first emperor of the succeeding Ming Dynasty moved his court to Nanjing (Nanking),where it remained until the third emperor returned the royal seat to Beijing.
      Hence the name, Beijing, meaning ¡°northern capital¡±, was used as opposed to Nanjing, which mean¡¯s ¡°southern capital¡±. Since then, Beijing has always been the capital of the nation, except for a brief period during the civil war in the first half of this century, when Chiang Kai-shek¡¯s commanding army again moved the government to Nanjing.
      It was from the rostrum in Beijing¡¯s Tian¡¯anmen Square that, on October 1,1949, the late Chairman Mao Zedong formally proclaimed the founding of the People¡¯s Republic of China.
   
 
<1>  <2>  <3>  <4>
 
             
sp;