The great Alaskan explorer John Muir once wrote that to have dinner with a glacier (冰川) on a sunny day is an excellent thing. It is better to sleep beside one, on an Antarctic island, with just a sleepifig bag for warmth and the sky as your tent. Our camp-out was in early January of this year on Danco Island, along the Antarctic Peninsula. Midway through a 10-day Antarctic journey, conditions were near perfect. We started our voyage from the Akademik Ioffe in Zodiacs, landing on the wide beach with its fist-sized rocks. At the height of the Antarctic summer, the shore was clear of snow, with plenty of room for the 40 adventurers to spend the night. Danco Island was charted in 1898 by the Belgian explorer Adrien de Gerlache, who was the first to prove that you could overwinter in Antarctica and survive. De Gerlache paved the way for Lt. Robert Scott's first expedition in 1901. De Gerlache mapped the archipelago (群岛). He later named the island after his team member mile Danco, a geophysicist who died that winter. For one year in the mid-1950s, Danco was known as Base O by the British, who kept a scientific research station there, although all that. remains of it is a foundation and a pile of coal. Our expedition was organized by Australian tour operator Peregrine Adventures. The weather was extraordinary -- sunny with daytime temperatures of about 1't2. The camping was easy and accessible to all ages. Sleeping under the stars in Antarctica, in just a sleeping bag is pretty amazing. 1. Whom did Adrien de Gerlache have a direct effect on?  A. John Muir. B. Lt. Robert Scott. C. The tourists. D. The author. 2. What was Danco Island named after? A. A place. B. A glacier. C. A person. D. An ocean. 3. It can be inferred from the passage that . A. old people can't go 'camping in Antarctica B. the author went to the Antarctica in winter C. John Muir might have visited an Antarctic island D. Lt. Robert Scott built a station in the Antarctic 4. What would be the best title for the passage? A. Danco Island B. An expedition to Antarctica C. Explorers of Antarctica D. Sleep under the stars in Antarctica |