The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon Written by Mike Stark Focus Question What is the Grand Canyon, and why is it special?

科罗拉多大峡谷 作者：迈克·斯塔克 焦点问题 科罗拉多大峡谷是什么？它为什么如此特别？

A canyon so grand. The Grand Canyon, located in the Arizona desert, is so big that we can see it from space.

这座峡谷雄伟壮丽。 科罗拉多大峡谷坐落于亚利桑那州的沙漠中， 它大到我们在太空中都能看到它。

A canyon is a big, steep valley that is usually formed by a river. The Grand Canyon National Park covers about 1 ,900 square miles, 4 ,921 square kilometers. In some places, the canyon is more than a mile, 1 .6 kilometers, deep. It can take two weeks to go through the canyon on a river raft.

峡谷是通常由河流冲刷形成的又大又陡峭的山谷。 科罗拉多大峡谷国家公园占地面积约1900平方英里，合4921平方公里。 有些地方的峡谷深度超过1英里，合1.6公里。 乘坐漂流艇横穿整个峡谷需要花费两周时间。

The Grand Canyon became a national park in 1919. National parks are special places. The land and the animals that live there are protected.

科罗拉多大峡谷于1919年成为国家公园。 国家公园是很特别的地方。 那里的土地和栖息的动物都受到保护。

Formation. Time and erosion helped form the Grand Canyon. Erosion happens when bits of the ground are worn away. For millions of years, the Colorado River ran over and wore away the earth until a canyon was made. The rocks at the bottom of the canyon are almost two billion years old.

形成过程 时间和侵蚀作用共同塑造了科罗拉多大峡谷。 侵蚀指的是地表的碎屑被逐渐磨损冲走的过程。 数百万年来， 科罗拉多河不断冲刷、侵蚀地表，直到峡谷最终形成。 峡谷底部的岩石已经有近20亿年的历史了。

The Grand Canyon is striped with colors. The stripes are layers of sediment that stacked on top of each other over many years. Each layer helps us learn how Earth has changed over time.

科罗拉多大峡谷布满了彩色的条纹。 这些条纹是长年累月层层堆积的沉积物层。 每一层都能帮助我们了解地球的演变过程。