IV - READING COMPREHENSION Read the following text and answer the following questions. EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT: SCOTT'S HUT Brita Harding is a scientist and she's been in Antarctica for five weeks. She is working in a small building called Scott's Hut and helping to preserve it. The British explorer Captain Robert Scott used the hut as a base camp in 1911.The Antarctic is the driest, coldest and windiest continent in the world. It's dark for six months of the year and not many animals live here, apart from penguins. There are no native people like the Inuits, and tourists never stop off to explore. It's easy to understand why. It isn't the best place to live and work and it's freezing at the moment - we've had temperatures of -73°C since Monday! Every day, I go down to Ross Island and work in Scott's Hut with other scientists. Inside there are books, wooden skis, biscuits, penguins' eggs and many other interesting things. All these things have been here for a hundred years and they're completely frozen. That's why we want to save the hut- it brings Scott's expedition to life! The race to the South Pole is a famous story. Captain Scott and a Norwegian explorer called Roald Amundsen both wanted to get there first. They both prepared for many months, but in the end their expeditions were very different: Amundsen used dogs to pull his sleds and Scott used motorized sleds and horses. Amundsen had good weather during his expedition, but Scott had bad weather. When Scott's team set out from the but on 1 November 1911, there were terrible snow storms and the sleds broke down. After a few weeks, the horses died and most of his team turned back. In the end, only five men carried on to the South Pole: Scott, Oates, Evans, Bowers and Wilson. 1. What job does Brita do? _____________________________________________________________ 2. What animal can survive in Antarctica? _____________________________________________________________ 3. Where does Brita work every day? _____________________________________________________________ 4. How many people wanted to reach the South Pole first? _____________________________________________________________ 5. What animals were used in the explorers' expedition? ____________________________________________________________
