Life in Death Valley National Park（一）

领略美国国家公园死亡谷的神奇。...



Today, we visit a place of strange and silent beauty. As beautiful as this place is, its name provides evidence ofvery real danger. We are exploring Death  Valley National Park.

今天，我们来欣赏一处充满神奇和静谧美的地方。尽管地方很美，但极其危险，其名字是最好的证据。我们将要探索美国国家公园死亡谷。

Death Valley is a land of beautiful yet dangerous extremes. It has nearly 1.4 million hectares of desert and mountains.

死亡谷是个既美丽又极其危险的地方。它拥有近140百万公顷的沙漠和群山。

There are mountains that reach more than3,000 meters into the sky. The valley's BadwaterBasin area is the lowest land in the Western Hemisphere. It lies 86 meters below sea level.

许多山脉高达3000米，直冲云霄。谷中的恶水盆地是西半球陆地最低点。低于海平面86米。

Death Valley can be dangerously cold during the winter months. Storms in the mountains can causesudden floods on the floor of the valley. But, during summer months, the airtemperature has been as high as 57 degrees Celsius.

死亡谷在冬季极其寒冷。山间暴雨可急速在谷底形成山洪。但是在夏季，空气气温可高达57摄氏度。

The extreme heat of Death Valley has killed people in the past. Death Valley does not forgive those who are not careful.

死亡谷的极端高温在过去已经造成人的死亡。死亡谷从来不会原谅那些不小心的人。

Within Death Valley National Parkis evidence of several ancient volcanoes that caused huge explosions. Evidenceof one of these explosions is called Ubehebe Crater.The explosion left a huge hole in the ground almost a kilometer and a halfwide.

在死亡谷内可以找到数个古火山引起巨大爆炸的证据。爆炸的其中一个证据就叫做Ubehebe火山口。爆炸在地面引起一个大约1.5千米宽的巨大洞。

In many areas of Death Valley, it is easy to see where the ground has been pushed upviolently by movement deep in the Earth. This has created unusual and beautiful rock formations, with colors of red, brown, gray, yellow and black.

在死亡谷的许多地方都能容易地看到地面是由地壳深部运动而猛烈隆起形成的。这就造成了谷内红色，棕色，灰色，黄色和黑色的不寻常又美丽的岩石形状。

In other parts of Death Valley, there are lines in the rock. The lines are evidence of thepast presence of water. The area was deep under an ocean for many thousands of years.

在死亡谷的其他一些地方，在岩石上有许多线状纹路。这些线状纹路是这里曾经有水的证据。这片地区在数千年前处在海洋深处的底部。

Much of Death Valley is flat and extremely dry. In fact, scientists believe itis the driest place in theUnited  States. In some areas the ground is nothingbut salt. Nothing is able to grow in this salty ground.

死亡谷的许多地方平坦并极其干燥。实际上，科学家认为这里是美国最为干燥的地方。这里一些地方除了盐什么都没有。在这种地方寸草不生。

However, it would be wrong to think thatnothing lives in Death Valley. The valley isfull of life. Wildflowers grow very quickly after even a small amount of rain.Some desert plants can send their roots down more than 18 meters to reach waterdeep in the ground.

然而，如果就这样认为死亡谷里没有生命就错了。谷里生机满满。即便是一点小雨过后野花也会快速的生长。一些沙漠中的植物可以把根扎18多米以吸收地面中的深层水。

Several kinds of birds live in Death Valley, as do mammals and reptiles. Visitors mightsee the dog-like animal called the coyote, or wild bighorn sheep, or otheranimals like the desert jackrabbit, the desert tortoise, and a large reptilecalled a chuckwalla. Many different snakes live there too. Some are dangerous,like the one sidewinder rattlesnake. It is an extremely poisonous snake withlong sharp teeth, or fangs.

死亡谷内还有一些鸟类，还有一些哺乳类和爬行类。游客可以看到像狗一样的小野狼，或野生的大角羊，或者其他动物如沙漠长耳大野兔，沙漠龟，爬行动物大型蜥蜴。这里还有许多不同种类的蛇。有些很危险，如响尾蛇，有极其锋利的牙齿，毒性极大。

Throughout history, Native Americansfound ways to survive in Death Valley. Rockart and other remains show that humans lived in the valley as far back as 9,000years ago.

纵观历史，土著美洲人也能在死亡谷内生存下来。岩石上的艺术和其他一些遗留物证明早在9000年以前就有人类在谷内生活。

Death Valley is a huge place. It extends more than 225 kilometers across the southern part of California into the neighboring state of Nevada. The valley is part of the Mojave Desert.

死亡谷是个非常大的地方。它从加利福尼亚州南部延伸到内华达州，长225多千米。死亡谷是莫哈维沙漠的一部分。

    关注 夏夏英语