The seasons in Australia are opposite（相反）to ours. 1 it is winter here, it is summer there. Australia is 2 the south of the world. June, July and August are the winter months. The summer is in December, 3 and February. The north of the country is4  than the south. Australia's main（主要的） problem is water. A 5 large part of the country has no rain at all. But the east coast（海岸） has rain6 the year round. There are no dry months here. In March, 1982, there was a terrible drought（干旱） in Australia. The summer rain didn't 7. There were 138 million sheep in Australia that year. This was 14% of all the sheep in the world. Because there was not 8 rain and the grass didn't grow well, the farmers 9 to sell many of their sheep and many sheep 10, too. It was a great disaster（灾难）for Australia farmers.

Australia celebrates many Western holidays, such as Easter and Christmas. However, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} also celebrate some holidays of their own. Melbourne Cup is one of them. It's a well-known horse racing competition. On the first Tuesday in November every year, it is held in Melbourne that is not only a {#blank#}2{#/blank#} city in the state of Victoria but also its capital. 

Last year, I visited my friend Peter that lived in Melbourne. We went to watch the horse race after one of his {#blank#}3{#/blank#} gave him two tickets. When we arrived there, the number of people really surprised me. Peter told me all the people in Melbourne have a day {#blank#}4{#/blank#} and that schools and most businesses are closed on Melbourne Cup Day. At the scene(现场), we also saw a lot of women wearing beautiful hats and dresses. 

What we liked most was certainly the horse race itself, It started at 3 pm and every rider had to try his best to keep the horse energetic in the 3, 200-me tre race. Finally, a horse named Cross Counter arrived at the finishing line {#blank#}5{#/blank#} than any other horse. According to Peter, the first race was held in 1861 and a horse named Archer became the winner that year.