很多同学在英语阅读里遇到地形地势类文章就觉得难。其实，把祖国的地形地势用英语讲清楚，不但是中考阅读理解的高频考点，也是我们向世界介绍中国的底气。
今天给大家带来一篇标准中考难度阅读理解，认真读完，既能练阅读，又能掌握核心英语表达。
一、中考阅读理解原文
China’s Terrain and Topography
China’s land is very different. There are high mountains, large basins (盆地), rolling plateaus (高原), low hills, and flat, fertile (肥沃的) plains.
If you look down at China from above, you will see that the land goes down in four steps from west to east.
The top step is the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It is more than 4,000 meters above sea level (海拔), so people call it the “roof of the world”. Mt. Qomolangma, the world’s highest peak (山峰) at 8,848 meters, is part of the Himalayas here.
The second step has plateaus like Inner Mongolia, Loess, and Yunnan-Guizhou, and basins like Tarim, Junggar, and Sichuan. The average elevation (高度) here is between 1,000 and 2,000 meters.
The third step is about 500 to 1,000 meters high. It starts at the Greater Hinggan, Taihang, Wushan, and Xuefeng mountains and goes east to the coast. Here you can find the Northeast Plain, the North China Plain, and the Middle-Lower Yangtze Plain. Hills are also mixed with these plains.
To the east, the land goes into the sea as a continental shelf (大陆架), the fourth step. The water here is less than 200 meters deep.
China has many rivers. More than 1,500 rivers cover areas of 1,000 square kilometers or larger. Most of these big rivers start in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, so China has rich hydropower (水力发电) resources and leads the world in hydropower potential.
二、阅读理解练习题
1. 细节理解题
What is the average elevation of the second step?
A. More than 4,000 meters
B. Between 1,000 and 2,000 meters
C. About 500 to 1,000 meters
D. Less than 200 meters
2. 词义猜测题
What does the underlined word “fertile” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?
A. Good for growing crops
B. Very high and steep
C. Dry and sandy
D. Cold and snowy
3. 推理判断题
What can we infer from the passage?
A. China has the most rivers in the world.
B. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the lowest part of China.
C. China’s hydropower resources mainly come from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
D. The third step is mainly made up of mountains.
4. 细节理解题
Where is the fourth step of China’s terrain?
A. In western China
B. In the middle of China
C. To the east of the third step
D. In the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
5. 主旨大意题
What is the main idea of the passage?
A. The world’s highest peak
B. China’s terrain and its four steps
C. The rivers in China
D. The plains in China
三、词汇学习（文末附）
- basin n. 盆地
- plateau n. 高原
- sea level 海拔
- peak n. 山峰
- elevation n. 高度，海拔
- continental shelf 大陆架
- hydropower n. 水力发电
