Max04032003

18.06.2020 13:03 •  Английский язык

Составить 10 вопросов к тексту: Seeing an iceberg for the first time may arguably be the experience of a lifetime. As the white flecks begin to appear, you cannot stop yourself from reaching for your camera. The journey south would be better by boat of course. In the aircraft cabin we cannot feel the chill wind However, as we approach we hear a shrill bell from the cockpit followed by the announcement: "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Antarctica." We are on the way to the scientific research station at Rothera. The base is on an island on the western side of the Antarctic peninsula. It is almost on the edge of a massive floating ice sheet, and every year it slides closer to the open water. As the aircraft bursts through the clouds, it feels as if we are somehow intruding. Our arrival at the research base comes as a shock. The metal prefabricated buildings on the slopes are a triumph of substance over style. The summer research season is in full swing when we arrive. Scientists with impressive qualifications live alongside the carpenters, electricians and mechanics. The base's medical facilities are a fair size and the resident doctor has an office which can be converted into an operating theatre. It was difficult to know exactly what to expect at Rothera, but it still came as a surprise to find the former, very influential, BBC weatherman, David Lee here. He receives images from the weather satellites that pass overhead and combines these with air pressure system diagrams to come up with weather forecasts. Rothera is a fully active research base, and it is also a staging post for field parties carrying out research in the heart of the continent. Of the very few people who have visited the continent, most have never made it as far south as our present position The scientists and support workers here live in a very hostile Soon this base environment have to be rebuilt before the ice it rests on breaks away from the main continent. Perhaps then the ice will form an iceberg, drifting north to welcome someone else to the spectacular, hostile white continent that is Antarctica.