共用题干第三篇The SaharaThe name Sahara

共用题干

第三篇

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.

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