Tonight I 'm going to talk to you about that remarkable continent Antarctica remote, hostile and at present uninhabited on a permanent basis.
今晚，我将向你介绍非凡的南极洲，一个遥远、环境恶略、目前没有常住居民的地方。
For early explorers, it was the ultimate survival contest; for researchers like me, it remains a place of great intellectual challenge;
对于早期的探险家来说，这是一场终极的生存竞赛；对于像我这样的研究者，这是一片充满智力挑战的地方；
while for the modern tourist, it's simply a wilderness of great beauty.
然而对于现代旅行者来说，这仅是一片极美的荒芜之地。
First, some facts and figures.
首先来看看一些准确的资料。
Antarctica is a place of extremes the highest, coldest and windiest continent and over fifty eight times the size of the UK.
南极洲有几个极值。它是最高、最冷和风最大的洲，它是英国面积的58倍多。
The ice cap contains almost 70% of the world's fresh water and 90% of its ice,
冰盖富含世界上几乎70%的淡水资源和90%的冰雪，但是降雪量非常低。
but with very low snowfall, most of the continent technically falls unbelievably into the category of desert!
难以置信的是，大洲的多数地区是沙漠地貌！
Huge icebergs break off the continent each year, while in winter half the surrounding ocean freezes over, which means its size almost doubles.
巨大的冰山每年从大洲脱离，冬天的时候，周围一半的大洋被冻住，这使它的面积几乎增加了双倍。