英语阅读强化训练：Eight Below

　　《南极大冒险》以壮观美丽却又危机四伏的南极冰原为背景，讲述了一个人狗情深的动人故事；勇敢与冒险、友谊与忠诚、坚韧与希望均在这里得到了体现。

　　(Words: about 240; Time: 3 minutes)

　　There are eight “working dogs” in Eight Below. The dogs live in Antarctica, “the bottom of the world,” as Jerry Shepard puts it. Shepard serves as a guide at the US National Science Research Base. He works with the dogs, feeds them, plays with them and talks to them.

　　Also on site is map-maker Charlie, and pilot Katie. Then scientist Davis McClaren arrives, weighed down with equipment. McClaren wants to find a piece of a meteorite （陨石） from Mars that crashed to Earth. He will do anything and sacrifice anyone to accomplish his mission.

　　“You’ve got to take chances for the things you care about,” Davis declares.

　　The opening section of Eight Below, centers on Jerry, Davis and the dogs’ journey across Antarctica in search of the meteorite.

　　Then a storm blows in and things go wrong. Jerry and the other humans must leave immediately, leaving behind Jerry’s beloved dogs. Chained up, the eight dogs can do nothing but wait for their master to return. How will the dogs survive on their own? The dogs show incredible sympathy and empathy for one another. They have the ability to communicate with each other and lay elaborate plans to hunt down a flock of birds.

　　In the end, held together only by unwavering bonds of friendship, the humans and the dogs alike make a remarkable journey of courage, endurance and belief to find one another in this spectacular but dangerous land.

　　Help:

　　weigh down to make somebody feel heavy (with a load) 使感到（负荷、负担）沉重

　　empathy n. the ability to understand another person’s feelings, experience, etc. 同感；共鸣

　　elaborate adj. carefully prepared and organized 精心制作的

　　unwavering adj. not changing or becoming weaker in any way坚定的；始终如一的

　　True (T) or False (F):

　　1. The scientist Jerry Shepard is a selfish man, and he sacrifices the eight sled dogs for his own life.

　　2. Eight Below shows a moving story between humans and dogs through a hard long journey to find one another in the frozen wilds.