In the sea there are many islands(岛). In its warm waters, there are some little ones. We call them coral（珊瑚)islands. A coral island is very nice to look at. It looks like a ring of land with trees, grass, and flowers on it. One part of the ring is open to the water.

There is a little round lake inside the island. If you look into this lake, you will see beautiful coral. You may think they are flowers.

If you look at a piece of coral, you will see many little holes(洞) in it. In each of these holes a very small sea animal has lived. These sea animals make the coral.

They began to build under the water. Year after year, the coral grew higher and higher. At last it grew out of the water.

Then the sea brought to it small trees and something else. After some years, these things changed into earth. Sometimes the wind brought seeds(种子) to this earth. Sometimes birds flew over it and brought seeds to the island. The little seeds grew. In a few years, there were plants all over the island. In a few more years there were trees growing there.

So, you see, these islands were built little by little. The workers were very small. Don’t they teach us a lesson? Can you think what the lesson is?

Welcome to Brazil. It is the largest country in South America. The country attracts tourists with its special culture. Read on.

【小题1】

The Amazon Rainforest is the biggest forest in the world. It is in the northern part of the country and covers half of Brazil. It is home to hundreds of thousands of animals. Many visitors go there every year.

【小题2】

Brazilians are fun and easygoing. We can see that from their famous Carnival. People call it “the world’s biggest party”. It happens in Rio de Janeiro every February or March. Everyone wears beautiful clothes and dances samba.

【小题3】

Barbecue is a traditional Brazilian dish. If you eat at a restaurant, you can see people cooking meat on ling skewers（串肉杆） over an open fire. Then waiters hold the skewers and move from table to table.

【小题4】

In Brazil, soccer is more than just a sport. It is a national pastime（消遣）. Many children begin to learn how to play soccer at an early age. They often play it in the street or on the beach.

【小题5】

The Amazon is the world’s second longest river. Over 3000 kinds of fish live in the river. If you’re lucky, you can see pink dolphins. But be careful when you swim. The biggest snake, the anaconda（蟒蛇）, and the most terrible fish, the piranha（食人鱼）, live there.

A rooftop garden is just a garden that you keep on your roof（屋顶）. Rooftop gardens are very popular in cities. Putting a garden on your roof is a nice way to turn an empty space into something pretty and relaxing.

Rooftop gardens are not a new idea. About 2, 600 years ago, people in Ancient（古代的）Mesopotamia planted rooftop gardens. There were similar gardens in Ancient Rome and Ancient Egypt. They had these gardens for a very important reason. Many ancient cities had walls. The enemy army usually tried to destroy（摧毁） the city’s food, so the people in the city kept their gardens on top of their walls. That way they could go on growing food.

Today’s rooftop gardens don’t keep us alive, but they still have nice benefits（好处）. If there are a lot of plants on a rooftop, they make the whole building cooler. As a result, people in the building use their air conditioning less, which means they use less electricity（电）. One study said that if every roof in Tokyo had a garden, the city would save more than a million dollars a day on electricity.

Rooftop gardening is harder than normal gardening. Here are a few tips. First of all, be safe. Build a fence（篱笆） around your garden if you don’t want the wind to blow plants off your roof! Also, remember that rooftop gardens get more sun. If you have a plant that shouldn’t get too much sun, remember to put it in the shade sometimes.

There are many other things that you need to know before you start a rooftop garden. Do some research and then give it a try. You’ll make your little part of the city much nicer.