In 1997, a group of twenty British women made history. Working in five teams with four women in
each team, they walked to the North Pole. Apart from one experienced female guide, the other women
were all ordinary people who had never done anything like this in their lives before. They managed to
survive in an environment which had defeated several very experienced men during the same time period.
The women set off as soon as they were ready. Once on the ice, each woman had to ski along while
dragging a sledge (雪橇) weighing over 50 kilos. This would not have been too bad on a smooth surface, but for long distances, the Arctic ice is pushed up into huge piles two or three metres high, and the sledges had to be pulled up one side and carefully let down the other so that they didn’t become damaged. The
temperature was always below the freezing point and sometimes strong winds made walking while pulling
so much weight almost impossible. It was also very difficult for them to put up their tents when they
stopped each night.
In such conditions, the women were making good progress if they covered fourteen or fifteen
kilometres a day. But there was another problem. Part of the journey was across a frozen sea with moving water underneath the ice and at some points the team would drift (漂流) back more than five kilometres
during the night. That meant that after walking in these very severe conditions for ten hours on one day,
they had to spend part of the next day covering the same ground again. Furthermore, each day it took
three hours from waking up to setting off and another three hours every evening to set up the camp and
prepare the evening meal.
So, how did they manage to succeed? They realized that they were part of a team. If any one of them
didn't pull her sledge or get her job done, she would endanger the success of the whole expedition (探险). Any form of selfishness could result in the efforts of everyone else being completely wasted, so personal
feelings had to be put to one side. At the end of their journey, the women agreed that it was mental effort
far more than physical fitness that got them to the North Pole.
1. What was so extraordinary about the expedition?
A. There was no one to lead it.
B. The women did not have any men with them.
C. It was a new experience for most of the women.
D. The women had not met one another before.
2. On the expedition, the women had to be careful to avoid ________.
A. falling over on the ice
B. being left behind
C. damaging the sledges
D. getting too cold at night
3. It was difficult for the women to cover 15 kilometres a day because ________.
A. they got too tired
B. the ice was moving
C. they kept getting lost
D. the temperatures were too low
