Antarctica is the coldest continent on Earth. It's also among the driest.     1    (cover) about 14 million square kilometers around the South Pole, it is the fifth     2     (large) continent in the world. A high mountain range, the Transantarctic Mountains,     3     (run) from east to west, cutting the continent into two. There are    4    (volcano) too, but they are not very active. Antarctica holds about 90% of the world's ice, and most of its fresh water is in a frozen state, of course. Approximately 98% of the surface is covered     5     (permanent) by the ice cap. On average it is around two kilometers thick, but in some places it reaches a     6     (deep) of about five kilometers. Strong winds driven by gravity blow from the pole to the coastline, while other winds blow round the coast. It is difficult     7     (imagine) a more inhospitable place.

Yet Antarctica is full of wildlife, which has adapted     8     its extreme conditions. But the Antarctic winter,     9     involves a period of over three months of complete darkness, as well as the extreme cold and lack of rainfall, means that few types of plants can survive there. Only two types of flowering plants are found,     10     there are no trees on the large continent.