【正文】 at a price, though. The building’s first electric bill reportedly totaled $115,000. Pyramid Palace Wadsworth, Illinois The United States isn’t known for having pyramids ( 金字塔 ) or pharaohs (法老 ). But one Illinois family decided to switch things. Jim and Linda Onan built a sixstory pyramid house plete with a replica of King Tut’s burial chamber, and enough gold plating to please the pickiest pharaoh. Even the family’s cars get the ancient Egyptian royal treatment — the garage is shaped like three pyramids. Hobbit Home Pembrokeshire, Wales Not all hobbit houses are located in Middle Earth. Simon Dale constructed a family home that looks as if it came straight from The Lord of the Rings movies. Costing less than $5,000, the grasscovered house was made from wood and tree branches. Inside, floortoceiling tree trunks hold up the roof. Dale built the home in four months. 25. It can be learned that the Sea Creature Shack _____. A. has lots of shells B. is located in a garden C. has the basic conveniences D. was designed by an Indian architect 26. The underlined word “boasts” can be replaced by “_____”. A. adds B. has C. needs D. lacks 27. What do the Tower Power and the Pyramid Palace have in mon? A. Both are for personal use. B. Both are expensive to live in. C. Their owners are both businessmen. D. They have the same number of stories. C ★★★★☆ Limestone caves (石灰?guī)r溶洞 ) often have some unusual rock formations. Rain runs through the soil and rocks on land to bee groundwater. Sometimes the groundwater is located above a limestone cave. Drops of water find their way through tiny openings in the roof of the cave. Small particles of limestone from the roof are worn away as the drops of water travel. The water carries the particles along with it. Eventually the water evaporates (蒸發(fā) ), leaving the limestone deposit (沉積物 ) behind. Over time, many drops follow the same path and add to the limestone formation bit by bit. By the time thousands of years have passed, all the tiny deposits add up to a large stalactite, which hangs down from the roof of the cave and points toward the ground. If the drops of water fall to the ground before they evaporate, the limestone formation starts to build from the floor of the cave upward instead and it is called a stalagmite. The rarest of all the cave formations occurs when a stalactite and a stalagmite form separately over time, but then meet in the middle and join together. This kind of formation is known as a single column. Carlsbad Caverns in the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico is a worldfamous collection of limestone caves. The vast 46,766acre collection of caves is home to some of the most amazing stalactites and stalagmites on Earth. About 1898 a cowboy named Jim White saw smoke rising from the ground. When he went to find out the truth, he found it was not smoke but a large formation of bats (蝙蝠 ) flying upward from the caves. He began to explore the caves and saw the amazing rock formations. Later, the caves were photographed, and visitors began to e from all over the world to see their natural beauty. Carlsbad Caverns became a national park in 1930. In 1995, it was named a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization. 28. Paragraph 1 is mainly about _____. A. how a limestone cave forms B. how a stalactite es into being C. the water movements in a limestone cave D. the great influence of rain on a limestone cave 29. A stalactite differs from a stalagmite in _____. A. the way of formation B. the speed of formation C. the size of rock formations D. the number of rock formations 30. What led to Jim White’s discovery of the caves? A. He mistook the bats leaving the caves for smoke. B. He herded the cows to the caves accidentally. C. He tried to find somewhere to avoid the bats. D. He smoked the bats out of the caves. 31