How Big Is the Amazon River?

The River Amazon is the second longest river in the world, and the largest in terms of the volume of water it carries to the sea, the area of land that drains into it and the number of tributaries[支流]. The Amazon and its tributaries flow through Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. The huge watershed[分水岭] includes the largest tropical rainforest in the world as well as areas of dry grassland, or savannah[大草原].

How did the Amazon get to be so big?

The first reason has to do with its location  right on the equator[赤道]. Around the-elt line of the Earth lies a warm, tropical zone where over 1016 centimeters of rain falls every year. That averages out to more than three centimeters of rain, every day! The sheer[完全的] volume of rain in the Amazon jungle, as well as the slope[斜坡] of the surrounding land, combine to create the enormous[巨大的] river known as the Amazon.

What about the freshwater fish in the Amazon?

The catfish that live in the world’s greatest river  the River Amazon  have all the room in the world to grow as big as nature will allow  some have been captured[捕获]  weighing over 200 pounds! Catfish are pretty creepy[毛骨悚然的] looking fish with big flat heads and “Whiskers[腮须]”on either side of their heads (hence the name, catfish). They’re usually found in the warm, slow moving waters of lakes and streams. The River Amazon is definitely home to many “extremes” of the natural world.
　　亚马孙河有多大？
　　亚马孙河的长度在世界上处于第二位，其入海水量、流域面积以及支流数目均居世界首位。亚马孙河及其支流流经秘鲁、玻利维亚、委内瑞拉、哥伦比亚、厄瓜多尔和巴西，然后流入大西洋。其巨大的分水岭包括世界上最大的热带雨林以及干草原，即南美大草原。
　　
　　亚马孙河为什么如此之大？
　　原因一是其位置—亚马孙河坐落在赤道之上。在地球这条“腰带”上有一个温暖的热带区，年降雨量超过1016厘米，平均每天就会有3厘米以上的降雨！亚马孙森林的全部雨量与森林附近的坡地合起来就构成了巨大的河流，那就是闻名遐迩的亚马孙河。
　　
　　亚马孙河里的淡水鱼又是怎样的呢
　　生活在世界上最大的河流—亚马孙河中的鲶鱼拥有天下最宽敞的生长空间，体积达到它所能长到的最大值—一些被捕的鲶鱼体重超过200磅（约90公斤）！鲶鱼的样子长得挺让人毛骨悚然的，鱼头大大的，头两边长须（像猫，鲶鱼的名字由此得来）。人们通常在温暖且水流慢的湖泊和小溪里可以找到它们。亚马孙河绝对拥有大自然世界里的许多“之最”。