Вариант 16

You are going to read a text on the life of a famous person. For questions 1-15, read the text below and decide which answer (А, В, or С) best fits each gap.

‘Scott of the Antarctic’ was a naval officer and explorer, who died attempting to be the first (1) the South Pole.

Robert Falcon Scott was born on 6 June 1868 in Devonport. He became a naval cadet at the age of 13 and served on a number of Royal Navy ships in the 1880s and 1890s. He attracted the (2) of the Royal Geographical Society, which appointed him to command the National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-1904. The expedition – which included Ernest Shackleton – reached (3) than anyone before them and Scott returned to Britain a national hero. He had caught the exploring (4) and began to plan an expedition to the South Pole. He spent years (5) funds for the trip.

The whaling ship Terra Nova left Cardiff, Wales in June 1910 and the expedition (6) off from their base the following October, with mechanical sledges, ponies and dogs. (7) , the sledges and ponies could not cope with the conditions and the expedition (8) without them, through appalling weather and increasingly tough terrain. In mid December, the dog teams turned back, leaving the rest to face the (9) of the Beardmore Glacier and the polar plateau. By January 1912, only five remained: Scott, Wilson, Oates, Bowers and Evans.

On 17 January, they reached the pole, (10) to find that a Norwegian party led by Roald Amundsen (11) them there. They started the 1,500 km journey back. Evans died in mid-February. By March, Oates was suffering (12) severe frostbite and, knowing he was holding back his companions, walked out into the freezing conditions never (13) again. The remaining three men died of starvation and exposure in their tent on 29 March 1912. They were in fact only 20 km from a (14) supply depot.

Eight months later, a search (15) found the tent, the bodies and Scott’s diary. The bodies were buried under the tent, with a cairn of ice and snow to mark the spot.