中国文化英语概论(吉红卫) 第2课Test A.docVIP

Text A Geographical Inequalities by John Bryan Starr AS A FIRST STEP toward understanding China, one can hardly do better than to spend some time with a good atlas1. It is vital to understand Chinas diversity, and a key element in that diversity is its geography. Superimposing2 an outline of the United States on an outline of China shows us two important geographical similarities between the two countries. China, covering some 3.7 million square miles, is nearly identical in size to the United States, which covers just over 3.6 million square miles. The two countries are located at more or less the same latitude; New York and Beijing are at roughly the same latitude, as are New Orleans and Shanghai. A topographical3 map, on the other hand, shows us important geographical differences between China and the United States. Only about a third of the United States is taken up with mountains and desert, and the remainder is reasonably flat and easily habitable, but in China, these proportions are reversed. The difference in the amount of land available for cultivation in the two countries is even more striking: 40 percent in the United States versus only 10 percent in China. Another striking difference between the North American and the Chinese landmasses is found in the nature of their western borders. In the United States, of course, it is an ocean coast, while in China it is marked with mountains, plateaus4, and deserts. This difference accounts for major dissimilarities in the prevailing climates of the two landmasses. Americas weather is governed by the movement of the jet stream carrying moisture-laden5 Pacific storms across the continent. Chinas weather is determined by monsoon winds that between December and March blow northwest to southeast; coming from the Siberian landmass, the air crossing the northwestern provinces is very dry and provides little rainfall. Then, during the summer months from April to November, the monsoon6 winds reverse themse