On Antarctica(南极洲）, the world's coldest continent, the average high temperature is -49 degrees Celsius. In the summer, the sun never sets, and in the winter it never rises. Keeping sane（保持理智） there is its own special challenge. The McMurdo Station is a research base perched on （坐落于）the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf（罗斯冰棚）, the world's largest body of floating ice. The station is administered（管理） by the United States and is the largest community （社区）in Antarctica. Capable of supporting（能够支撑） more than 1200 residents, the population of the station drops to 150 brave( perhaps foolish )people when winter begins in March. Their task is to maintain the station during the months of total night. The biologists, astronomers, geologists, and climate scientists who were there before, have gone, as any research is impossible in the brutal winter. Every day the remaining staff of maintenance personnel （维修人员）perform their routine tasks（执行日常任务） and make repairs when needed.
Sometimes they peer（凝视） through the darkness toward their friends from New Zealand, at Scott Base，about two miles away. Though most of the time they're just voices on the radio, it's nice to have neighbors not too far away. Together, they share a power grid(电网)and one coast of a dark forbidding(令人生畏的) continent. Though the days are dark and freezing cold in the depths of winter, the moon will rest above the horizon for weeks at a time. Its pale light illuminates(照明) the cold, craggy landscape （崎岖的景观）as if acknowledging（承认） a companion and reaffirming（重申） the bonds of life. So even for those who live in the darkest part of the Earth there's light.
