A woman smells wildflowers near Badwater Basin in Death Valley, California, on February 24. Death Valley National Park, the hottest and driest place in North America, is experiencing a rare “super bloom(盛开)” of the flowers.
Imagine the driest, hottest place in North America suddenly being covered with thousands of bright-yellow wildflowers. That is exactly what is happening now in Death Valley National Park, in California. The region is experiencing a rare “super bloom,” attracting tourists from all over the world to get a close-up look at the sea of golden flowers.
The park is a difficult place for flowers to grow. It holds the world record for hottest temperature ever recorded: 134 degrees Fahrenheit, set on July 10, 1913. On average, Death Valley receives 2 inches of rainfall per year. Sometimes, it gets no rain at all.
This season, however, was different. In early October, Death Valley got three rainstorms with an accumulation of more than 3 inches of rain in some parts of the valley. This rare abundance of water caused the growth of millions of wildflower seeds that had been dormant in the ground.
This kind of “super bloom” only happens about once every decade. Death Valley last had a bloom this size in 2005, and the one before that happened in 1998. During the 2005 bloom, flowers that had never been seen before in the area began to blossom, suggesting that the seeds had been dormant for years.
This year, the park’s most abundant wildflower is the desert gold, a large, bright-yellow, daisy(雏菊一样的) bloom. Its stems are growing about waist high, with the flowers covering hillsides and wide areas of the valley floor.
The colorful attraction won’t last much longer, though. As temperatures rise over the next few weeks, the flowers will begin to whither and fade and the bloom will move north, to higher elevations.
32. The bloom of flowers in Death Valley National Park is rare because of its _______.
A. lack of flower seeds B. lack of proper gardening
C. terrible natural conditions D. terrible pollution caused by humans
33. What resulted in this year’s “super bloom” in Death Valley National Park?
A. Plenty of rain B. More seeds sown there
C. Flowers planted there D. More travelers
34. The underlined word “dormant” in Paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to “____”.
A. active B. asleep C. various D. beautiful
35. What will happen to the park if the temperature rises?
A. No flowers can be seen in or near the valley
B. The stems of the flowers will grow stronger
C. The flowers will be seen higher north of the valley
D. The flowers in the valley floor still bloom for a long time