单项选择题

When I was thirteen, my family moved from Boston to Tucson, Arizona. Before the move, my father gathered us together after dinner on a freezing January night. My sisters and I clustered around the fire, unaware that the universe was about to suddenly change its course. "I’ve been transferred. In May, we’re moving to Arizona."
The words--so small, just two sentences--didn’t seem big enough to hold my new fate, But without any further ceremony, the world changed and I awoke on a train moving across the country. I watched the landscape shift like a kaleidoscope from green trees to flat dusty plains to soaring mountains as I glimpsed strange new plants that hinted of mysteries yet to come. Finally, we arrived and settled into our new one-story adobe home.
While my older sisters grieved the loss of friends, schools, dances, and trees, I eagerly explored our new surroundings. I never realized there could be such a variety of cacti: saguaro, pincushion, prickly pear, barrel, cholla. Nor could I ever have imagined trees as stranger as the Joshua trees that grew in our yard. And the mountains! I had never seen mountains before, and now they surrounded me.
One afternoon, I was out exploring as usual and espied a new kind of cactus. It looked like a green ball covered in soft white fur. I crouched down for a closer look. "You’d better not touch that. That white stuff may look like harmless fur, but they’re actually spines and they’re devil to get out. "
I turned around to see a woman who seemed to have emerged from the desert itself. Everything about her was brown--boots, skirt, skin--except for her startling white hair and eyes of a blue that matched the color of the sky.
"Are you new to this neighborhood I haven’t, seen you before." I explained that I was, in fact, new to the entire state.
"My name is Ina Thorne. I’ve lived here since I was eight years old. How are you adjusting to life in desert It must be quite a shock after living in Boston." How could I explain how I found the desert I tried, haltingly, to tell her how the desert affected me, but I couldn’t seem to find the right words.
"It’s the freedom," she offered. "That vastness when you stand on the mountains overlooking the desert you can sense how little you are in comparison with the world that surrounds you. At the same time, you feel that the possibilities are limitless."
It was as if she had read some inner diary. That was it. That was the feeling I’d had ever since I’d first seen the mountains of my new home. I trembled inside, hoping that this woman who captured the essence of the desert itself wouldn’t just send me away with a pat on the head, as adults do. I saw in her a true friend. Again, my life would change with just a few simple words.
"Would you like to come to my ranch tomorrow afternoon--if your parents don’t mind someone should teach you which plants you should and shouldn’t touch.\
The author was attracted by the desert because of the following factors EXCEPT ______.