珠穆朗玛峰：大自然千宠万爱于一身

　　The summit ridge of the mountain marks the border between Nepal and Tibet. In Nepali the mountain is called Sagarmatha （Sanskrit for "forehead of the" sky） and in Tibetan Chomolangma or Qomolangma （"mother of the universe"）。 Although it was named Everest by Sir Andrew Waugh， the British surveyor-general of India， in honour of his predecessor Sir George Everest， the popular pronunciation of Everest （Ev-er-est） is different from how Sir George pronounced his own last name （Eve-rest）。

　　They all battled freezing temperatures. Winds up to one-hundred-sixty-kilometers per hour. Dangerous mountain paths. And they all risked developing a serious illness caused by lack of oxygen. All for the chance to reach the top of the world.

　　The first and most famous of the climbers to disappear on Mount Everest was George Mallory. The British schoolteacher was a member of the first three trips by foreigners to the mountain. In nineteen-twenty-one， Mallory was part of the team sent by the British Royal Geographical Society and the British Alpine Club. The team was to create the first map of the area and find a possible path to the top of the great mountain.

　　At the time， scientists believed that a person at the top of the mountain would only have enough oxygen to sleep. Scientists believed that Messner and Habeler would die without oxygen. Scientists now know that two conditions make climbing at heights over eight-thousand meters extremely difficult. The first is the lack of oxygen in the extremely thin air. The second is the low barometric air pressure.

　　Today， scientists say a person lowered onto the top of the mountain would live no more than ten minutes. Climbers can survive above eight-thousand meters because they spend months climbing on the mountain to get used to the conditions. Climbing to the top of Mount Everest is a major victory for any person， but imagine if the climber could not see. Two years ago， the first blind man successfully reached the top of Everest. Erik Weihenmayer （WINE-may-er） was a thirty-two-year-old American. He climbed to the summit with the help of his team.