第8章 Lesson 8 A Taste for Adventure

Ernest Shackleton was always encouraged by his father to go to medical school, but he always had a taste for adventure. He also loved to travel, and joined British naval officer and explorer Robert Falcon Scott on an expedition to the South Pole. Shackleton got sick on this trip and had to return home, but the South Pole had captured his imagination. Along with Scott, he had been closer to the South Pole than any human had before.

He made a second trip in 1907, but fell short by 155 kilometres because of extremely harsh weather conditions. Shackleton wanted to be the first human to set foot on the South Pole, but in 1911, Norweigian explorer Roald Amundsen beat him to it. After this, Shackleton set himself a new goal — to cross Antarctica via the South Pole.

He set out in August 1914 on a ship called the Endurance. They made it to Antarctica, but in January 1915, the ship became trapped in ice. Shackleton and his crew abandoned ship and set up camp on the floating ice. Quickly running out of supplies, they crowded onto three lifeboats and headed for Elephant Island on the southern tip of South America. It took them seven brutal days to get there. And once there, they were still not safe because it was so far from shipping lanes that they were unlikely to be rescued. So Shackleton and five others set out in a lifeboat for South Georgia. It took sixteen days to get there, but they managed to make contact with a whaling station and arrange for the other men to be rescued. Amazingly, all 28 men survived the nearly two years of being stranded.

Three years later, Shackleton set out for Antarctica once again — this time in the hopes of circumnavigating the continent. Sadly, he never made it there — on January 5, 1922, he had a heart attack and died. He was buried in South Georgia. Today he is considered a leading figure in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

I. Word List

abandoned: left forever

brutal: extremely difficult

stranded: trapped, can not get away

circumnavigating: going around in a circle

II. Short Answers—Find these details in the reading.

1. the man who got to the South Pole first: A _ _ _ _ _ _ _

2. the name of Shackleton's ship: E _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

3. where Shackleton's father wanted him to go: m _ _ _ _ _ _ s _ _ _ _ _

4. where Shackleton is buried: S _ _ _ _ G _ _ _ _ _ _

5. the first man Shackleton went to Antarctica with: S _ _ _ _

III. Answer the following questions.

1. How close did Shackleton make it to the South Pole?

___________________________________________________________.

2. Why do you think Shackleton kept going back to Antarctica?

___________________________________________________________.

3. Why is it amazing that Shackleton and his crew all survived being stranded?

___________________________________________________________.

4. Would you like to go to the South Pole? Why or why not?

___________________________________________________________.

5. What would you like to be the first human to do?

___________________________________________________________.

IV. Opposites—Find words in the reading that are opposite to these ones.

1. North Pole - S _ _ _ _ P _ _ _

2. healthy - s _ _ _

3. peaceful - b _ _ _ _ _

4. in danger - s _ _ _

5. following - l _ _ _ _ _ _