C. “white cosmos”

Members of Russian Antarctic expedition carried out large-scale plans from seven stations of the icy continent. The 30th Antarctic expedition included scientists who were engaged in special medical research, the purpose of which was to get a better understanding of man's adaptation to an environment with extreme conditions.

This is a highly complicated psycho-physiological process, which is affected by two main groups of factors, — climatic and social. At the Vostok intercontinental station a maximum of cold — minus 89,2°C — was registered. But the influence of climate on man is determined not only by temperature. There is such an indicator as coefficient of weather severity which takes into account temperature, wind velocity and humidity.

On the coast of the Antarctic, frosts are not so severe as in the depths of the continent. But because of hurricane winds (their velocity reaches 60 or more meters per second) the coefficient of weather severity is very high.

On high ground to climatic factors one has to add hypoxia — shortage of oxygen — because of lowered atmospheric pressure. Long periods of polar day and, especially, polar night have a considerable affect on a person's psychological state.

Things are much more complicated as regards the system of human relations, which is under strong pressure from subjective factors. Moreover, the pressure is the stronger, the smaller, the isolated group. Conditions in winter in the Antarctic can be likened to a long-term space flight. Therefore expedition members are also carefully selected according to the criterion of psychological compatibility.

The Antarctic, the earth's giant fridge, may be called “white cosmos”: its environment is sterile. In normal conditions, especially in big cities, the human organism is constantly under attack by viruses and other patho-genes. The continuous defense against invasion by infections leads to a corresponding immunity. But in the sterile environment of the Antarctic the organism's resistance lowers which results in an untypical flow of diseases, especially at the end of the winter. It takes a longer time for wounds to heal and for fractures to knit.

Hypoxia at a high altitude also affects the flow of diseases and postoperation treatment. For instance, in the conditions of hypoxia pneumonia can be effectively treated only with a supply of oxygen.

And yet these difficulties and dangers detract little from the desire of scientists to visit the white continent. Many people go there over and over again. In 1985 Dmitry Maksutov who headed the 30th expedition went to the Antarctic for the sixth time and he was then 60 years old.

приложение 1

Транскрипция имен собственных

Звуки, отсутствующие в русском языке:

[w] буквами “в”, “уа”, “уо”, “уэ”, например, Уэльс (Wales), Вебстер (Webster)

[, ] буквами “т”, “ф”, “с”, например, Голсуорси (Galsworthy), Смит (Smith)

[h] буквами “х”, “г”, например, Грейт Холл (Great Hall), Гарри (Harry)

[] буквами “нг”, например, Силвер Спринг (Silver Spring)

Если имя собственное не является широко известным для русского читателя, рекомендуется также указать в скобках его английское написание.

Звуки, отсутствующие в английском языке:

[йа] буквами “ya”, например, Yakutiya (Якутия)

[йе] буквами “yе”, например, Yekaterinburg (Екатеринбург)

[йу] буквами “yu”, например, Yury Gagarin (Юрий Гагарин)

[х] буквами “kh”, например, Kharkov (Харьков)

[тс] буквами “ts”, например, Lipetsk (Липецк)

[ч] буквами “ch”, например, Shevchenko (Шевченко)

[ш] буквами “sh”, например, Shevchenko (Шевченко)

[щ] буквами “shch”, например, Roshchino (Рощино)

приложение 2