The Antarctic is actually a desert. It’s the only continent on the earth without a river or lake.
The Antarctic is all ice all year round. The warmest temperature ever recorded there is zero, at the South Pole. Explorers used to think that a place so cold would have a heavy snowfall. But less than ten inches of snow falls each year. That is less than half an inch of water. The times that much water falls in parts of the Sahara.
The little snow that falls never melts. It continues to pile up deeper and deeper year after year and century after century. When the snow gets to be about 80 feet deep it is turned to ice by the weight of the snow above it.
1. Antarctic is called a desert because it _______.
A. is sandy B. is cold C. has little water D. is high
2. The snow there is very deep because it _______.
A. never stop falling B. piles up year after year
C. never melts D. falls often
3. The best title for the passage is ______.
A. Waterfall at the South Pole B. The Antarctic ------An Ice Desert
C. Snowfall at the South Pole D. The world’s Great Desert
