四川省金堂县土桥中学2018届九年级上学期期末考试英语试题（含听力音频）

    One of the hottest places on the earth is Death Valley. It's a desert valley in North America. The animals in Death Valley don't use technology to keep cool. They have special abilities that help them live there.

    The kangaroo rat is one animal that lives in Death Valley. During the day in Death Valley, it gets hotter than 100°F. The kangaroo rat rests all day in a hole in the ground. It covers the hole with grass to keep out the heat. The kangaroo rat comes out at night when it is cooler. This little rat is also very good at conserving (节约) water. It gets all the water it needs from the food it eats. Some kangaroo rats never take a drink of water in their whole lives!

    The sun makes the desert sand very hot. Animals, like snakes, get too hot if they lie on the hot sand too long. One snake, called the sidewinder, can solve this problem. When it travels, the sidewinder bends (使弯曲) its body into a“W”shape. Then it uses the bottom (底部的) parts of the“W”like legs and walks sideways (向一侧). That way it touches only a little of the sand at a time, so the hot sand doesn't burn the snake. This strange way of moving is how the sidewinder got its name.

    A lot of water in the desert is too salty for most animals to drink. All water has some salt in it. As the desert heat dries up pools of water, the salt is left behind. The remaining water in these pools can be much saltier than the ocean. One kind of fish, the desert pupfish, can live in these salty pools because it can drink the salt water.