Crossing Texas and Mexico, the Big Bend region is high in biodiversity(生物的多样性). It’s a place so untamed that if something doesn’t bite, stick, or sting, it’s probably a rock.
You know you have arrived in the heart of the Chihuahuan Desert when it feels as if you have fallen off the edge of the earth and into the rabbit hole. Nothing is as it appears. Moths (蛀虫) are the size of birds. Are those twin pillars (柱) of black rock (a landmark known as Mule Ear Peaks) ten miles (16 kilometers) away or fifty (80 kilometers)? Visibility (能见度) reaches more than a hundred miles on a clear day, and since there are few roads or buildings to use as milestones, distance is difficult to judge.
This is a place where water runs uphill, where rainbows have to wait for rain. The line between myth (虚构的故事) and reality is unclear. Stare long enough at the Chisos Mountains or the Sierra del Carmen, the two mountain ranges, known as sky islands, which lie on the land, and they rise and float above the plain.
The vast Chihuahuan Desert is a land of no people. There is always the chance you’ll die of thirst. The “You Can Die”possibilities are endless, and keep some visitors — 350,000 a year to Big Bend National Park, built in 1944 — from coming back. Those who do return are left to think of the remarkable courage of the brave few who have managed to survive in this terrible environment.
小题1:The underlined word“untamed”in Paragraph 1 means“________”.
A．untouched
B．wild
C．unchanged
D．fresh小题2:Why do the twin pillars of black rock seem ten or fifty miles away?
A．They were put so far away.
B．They lie across the Chihuahuan Desert.
C．It is difficult to judge the distance, with few milestones.
D．One lies in the Chisos Mountains, the other in the Sierra del Carmen.小题3:How many years are there since the Big Bend National Park was built?
A．350,000 years.
B．350 years.
C．66 years.
D．44 years.小题4:What is the passage mainly about?
A．The natural wonders of the Chihuahuan Desert.
B．Everything you see is not what it seems in the Chihuahuan Desert.
C．The terrible environment of deserts in Texas and Mexico.
D．A special place where none who go can return.小题5:What can we learn from the last paragraph?
A．There are all kinds of living things in the Chihuahuan Desert.
B．No people live in the Big Bend region.
C．Nothing is as it appears in the Big Bend region.
D．Traveling in the Big Bend region is dangerous.
