Karen in America

By Karen Zhang

读万卷书不如行千里路，旅游是增长见识、开阔视野的最佳途径之一。暑假来临，你是否已经作好准备外出旅游了呢？下面我们来看看Karen的假期之旅——丹佛。丹佛是美国科罗拉多州的首府和最大城市，位于紧邻落基山脉的平原上，在历史上曾被称为“草原上的女王城（Queen City of the Plains）”，可见丹佛在该地区农业的重要地位。

Summer is here now！ We all look forward to our summer trips. Well， let me take you to a western city in America. When I hear the word Denver， I immediately think of their NBA team， the Nuggets[丹佛掘金队]. But my first visit to Denver tells me this city is more than just the Nuggets.

As the plane descended， I saw the white land plastered in snow as level as an endless bedspread[床单]. I did not believe that Denver was still hibernating[冬眠] in late winter while the trees had turned green along the East Coast.

“Denvers weather is strange this year. Bring all your layers！” Thats what I was told by my host in Denver. Wearing a T-shirt and a big coat， I watched mile after mile of grassland on the way to the house of my host. Flat and sprawling， Denver reminded me of the Tibetan Plateau[高原]. I was stunned by the big blue sky and the vastness on both sides of the highway. There were neither visible livestock nor pedestrians[行人] outdoors.

Denver does have a peculiar animal called

A Prairie Dog[土拨鼠]！ You wont find it along the East Coast. Why call them dogs？ They are too small to be dogs. They look more like squirrels. It turns out the animal stands up like a dog with a wiggling tail. The prairie dogs pop out of their holes on the boundless prairie[大草原]. Ha！ What an imaginative name！

As for Denver cuisine， dont expect too much. I was introduced to Rocky Mountain Oysters[牡蛎]. Just as I was exhilarated[振奋的] for my finding of seafood， my host revealed，“Theyre not real oysters but buffalo[水牛] testicles[睾丸]. Wanna try？” Uh—no thanks！

I assumed Denver people must like wild game. One of the famous local steakhouses is called the Buckhorn Exchange which showcases[陈列柜] countless huge buck[雄鹿，雄兔] heads on the interior walls. The restaurant became uncanny[不可思议的] in the dim[昏暗的] lighting. So you could imagine how intimidated[惊吓的] I was while eating and feeling the buck heads glaring over my shoulders.

Denvers downtown is like an oasis[绿洲] of skyscrapers amidst deserted land. The streets are straight， criss crossing like a grid[格子]. If only I could drive in this city—a country of GoStraight-With-No-Turns for miles！

Now whenever I think of Denver， my memory lingers over a picture of the modern city against the backdrop of snow-capped Rocky Mountains. Denver is a jewel of Colorado， which Id like to associate with the pronunciation of a musical tune， co-lo-ra-do.