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第十六篇 The Sahara

　　The name Sahara derives from the Arabic word for “desert” or “steppe”. At 3. 5 million square miles, an area roughly the size of the United States, the Sahara Desert in northern Africa is the largest desert in the world. It spans the continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. Daytime temperatures can reach as high as 130°F. The humidity sometimes gets into the teens. But it can also be as low as 2.5 percent, the lowest in the world. Most of the Sahara receives less than five inches of rain per year, while large areas sometimes have no rainfall at all for years.

　　At the heart of the Sahara is the landlocked north African country of Niger. Here the sand dunes can be 100 feet tall and several miles long. Here sand plains stretch over an area larger than Germany where there is neither water nor towns. Yet sitting in the midst of the surrounding desert is the town of Bilma. Suddenly there are pools of clear water. Surprisingly, there are groves of date palms. Underground water resources, or oases, sufficient to support irrigated agriculture are found in dry stream beds and depressions. Irrigation ditches run off a creek to water fields. Corn, cassava, tea, peanuts, hot peppers, and orange, lime, and grapefruit trees grow in these fields. Donkeys and goats graze on green grass.

　　The Sahara of Niger is still a region where you can see a camel caravan of 500 camels tied together in loose lines as long as a mile, traveling toward such oasis towns. There a caravan will collect life-sustaining salt, which is mined from watery basins, and transport it up to 400 miles back to settlements on the edges of the desert. The round trip across the vast sands takes one month.

　　練習：

　　1. This passage is mostly about________.

　　A) life in the Sahara

　　B) the deserts of Africa

　　C) Bilma

　　D) how camels travel in the desert

　　2. Rainfall in most of the Sahara is________.

　　A) less than five inches per year

　　B) less than ten inches per year

　　C) less than twenty inches per year

　　D) zero

　　3. The Sahara can be described as________.

　　A) a place of contrasts

　　B) a place where no one lives

　　C) an area where the winters are cold

　　D) an area that appeals to many tourists

　　4. The phrase “an area roughly the size of the United States” gives an indication of the size

　　of________.

　　A) northern Africa

　　B) Niger

　　C) the Sahara

　　D) all of Africa

　　5. In this passage caravan means________.

　　A) traveling circus

　　B) group traveling together through difficult country

　　C) railroad train

　　D) a small, fast sailing ship

　　【答案】

　　1. A 2. A 3. A 4. C 5. B

　　【譯文】

　　第十六篇撒哈拉沙漠

　　撒哈拉這個名字起源于阿拉伯語單詞“沙漠”或“干草原”。位于北非的撒哈拉沙漠是世界上最大的沙漠，占地350 萬平方英里，大概相當于美國的大小。它橫跨大西洋與紅海間的大陸。日間氣溫可高達華氏130 度。濕度有時會在13％～19％，但也可低達2．5％，為世界最低濕度。撒哈拉沙漠的絕大多數地區每年的降雨量低于5 英寸，但多年來大面積地區根本沒下過雨。

　　位于撒哈拉沙漠中心的是北非的內陸國尼日爾。這里的沙丘可高達100 英尺，長至幾英里。在這里，被沙漠覆蓋的地區沒有水和城鎮，其面積大于德國。然而有一個叫做比爾馬的鎮子坐落于環繞的沙漠中間。忽然間可看見好多個清澈的水潭。令人驚奇的是，那里還有椰棗林。在干河床和洼地處可找到充足的地下水資源或者綠洲來支持灌溉農業。灌溉溝渠通過一條小溪到達水田中。在這些田地里種植著玉米、木薯、茶葉、花生、辣椒、橘子樹、酸橙樹和柚子樹。青草上放養著驢和山羊。

　　在尼日爾的撒哈拉地區，你仍然可以看到 500 只被系起來的駱駝排成一條寬松的隊伍，組成一個長達l 英里的駝隊，朝這樣的綠洲城鎮走去。在那里，駝隊會收集從潮濕的盆地中開采出來用于維持生命的鹽，然后運回到位于400 英里開外的、沙漠邊緣的居住地。這種穿過廣闊沙漠的往返行程需要一個月的時間。

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