Antarctica is the highest, driest, and coldest place on Earth. It is also the remotest, a fact which demystifies its unspoiled environment. It is difficult for people to get there, and not a comfortable place for people to stay once they arrive. 【小题1】

【小题2】 .They never melt. Even though Antarctica receives more sunlight than the equator, the temperatures are lower because the ice sheet reflects the heat back into space. Thus, the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was in Antarctica in July, 1983. Soviet scientists shivered (瑟瑟发抖) through temperatures that fell to minus 89.2 degrees Celsius.

Once completely inaccessible, 【小题3】 gold, uranium and oil are just some of the valuable resources which lie beneath the continent’s icy covering.

For centuries, Europeans wondered about the existence of a South-pole continent, but no one actually knew for certain Antarctica was there until 1820 when European explorers “discover” it. Since then, men have gone to Antarctica in search of adventure, testing their abilities. 【小题4】

【小题5】 Damage to the environment occurs as people come looking for resources beneath the ice, or carelessly leave their garbage behind. Currently, countries are working to ensure that the damage to Antarctica’s environment is minimized, and that the last wilderness on Earth will remain an unspoiled place.