沙漠的英语短文

Do you think of a desert as a hot, dry place where sand stretches as far as you can see? The Sahara in North Africa is like that, but most deserts are not. All deserts are dry, but some deserts are very cold. Plants and animals live in most deserts. People have learned to live in deserts all over the world.Most deserts form because of air movements over the planet. Masses of dry air create deserts. For example, deserts can form where air currents go over mountains. Water gets squeezed out of the air as it passes over the mountains, and a desert forms on the other side of the mountains. Deserts can also form along some seacoasts where there are currents of cold water. There are two main bands of desert areas, one north of the equator and one south of the equator. The equator is an imaginary line that goes around Earth’s middle.MAJOR DESERTS OF THE WORLDThe largest desert in the world is the Sahara. It covers a land area as big as the United States. Huge waves of sand called dunes cover most of the Sahara. The Sahara is very hot during the day, but it cools off at night because sand does not hold heat well.The Gobi Desert in Asia is the largest cold desert. The Gobi covers parts of Mongolia and China. The Gobi gets very cold in the winter, but it can be hot during the summer.A large desert covers parts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. There are also big desert areas in the Middle East, Australia, and South America.DESERT PLANTSDeserts get very little rain, but cactuses, trees, shrubs, and even wildflowers still manage to grow in some desert areas. These plants have special features, or adaptations, that help them get and store water. They have small leaves to keep water from escaping into the air. Some desert plants have long roots that reach water deep underground. Other plants, called succulents, can store water from a desert rainstorm in thick roots, stems, and leaves. Some desert plants grow for only a few days. They sprout after a rainfall. Then they die, and their seeds lie in the soil until the next rain comes. The Sahara and deserts in the Middle East are so dry that they have few plants.DESERT ANIMALSMany kinds of animals also live in the desert. They include birds, insects, snakes, lizards, and some kinds of mammals. Desert animals have adaptations that help them survive. In hot deserts, centipedes, scorpions, and rattlesnakes burrow into the ground during the day to stay cool. Some foxes and rabbits that live in the desert have large ears that let body heat escape.The camel is a large mammal with a hump on its back that lives in the Sahara and Middle East deserts. Camels can go for days without food or water. Camels use the fat in their hump for energy.PEOPLE OF THE DESERTSMillions of people live in deserts around the world. Some people mine copper or other metals in desert mines. Some people work on desert farms. Shepherds in the Middle East go from place to place looking for food and water for their animals.People who live in deserts usually live near a source of water. They live on the banks of rivers that flow through deserts. They live on oases, places that have underground springs or wells. Water is so important to life in the desert that it must be used sparingly and be carefully protected.People sometimes bring water to deserts. They dig canals to bring in water from rivers. They use the water for drinking and for growing crops. In the southwestern United States, people bring water from the Colorado River into the desert for people to drink and to grow crops.

The desert surface is covered by a thick layer of fine sand-like sand (it has been to the seaside �0�3and the beach is the same.'s Just a different reason, the water is a long-term, and the other is the wind Long-term role.) Desert is a peaceful land, the desert surface will change and movement of their own, of course, is the role of the wind. Because the sand will run with the wind. Layers of sand dunes will move over and change into different forms. Temperature difference between the desert areas, the average annual temperature up to 30-50 ℃, the temperature difference greater, summer afternoon, the ground temperature can reach more than 60 ℃, if the beach Limai an egg and soon the Shaoshu. The night temperature also dropped to below 10 ℃. As the temperature difference between day and night, is conducive to the storage of sugar, so the desert oasis of fruits are particularly sweet. Desert wind and sand, and strong winds. - Largest wind up 10-12. Strong wind over the large number of Fusha, a ferocious wind and sand flow, constantly blowing pitting the ground so that the landscape changes dramatically. Value to people's vigilance is that some form of the desert is not natural, but man-made causes. Such as the United States between 1908-1938 due to 900 million mu of deforestation, the destruction of vast grassland, with the result that large green space into a desert. The Soviet Union in 1954-1963, the movement of Reclamation, the Central Asian steppe was severely damaged, has not been cultivated land, the desert has brought disaster. Sub great harm to human beings, it engulfing farmland, villages, buried railways, highways and other transportation facilities. According to historical records, China on the Silk Road Loulan city, is engulfed by the desert. Now, mankind is doing everything possible to prevent desertification, such as afforestation, planting grass sand, set up sand barrier and so have received a very good results.