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The idea may hit you once or twice a year. You come home on a hot summer day, hoping to have a cool bath, and find out there is no water. Then you see how important water is in your everyday life. However, in many parts of the world, water is not just about one’s everyday needs.

In countries like Tanzania, water is hard to get, and the job of collecting water falls on women’s shoulders. Girls are often kept home from school to collect water while their brothers stay at school studying. Studies show Tanzanian girls who live 15 minutes from clean water spend 12% more time at school than those who live an hour away. More time spent collecting water means less time for learning. For these girls, “Knowledge is power” is not just words; it is a sad fact in real life. With less time spent at school, their chances of getting well-paid jobs are small, and they often have no voice in important matters, like who to marry. These girls are often married into poor families. They have little money or knowledge to take care of their children, who often end up dying young. For the baby girls who are lucky enough to live, their life may still center around “water,” just like it did for their mothers.

Englishman Robert Scott is known for leading two trips to Antarctica. The first one made him a star; the second 39.

After his first successful trip, Scott decided to be the first person to stand on the South Pole. However, 40. He would be in a race with Roald Amundsen, from Norway. Both left their countries by ship in June of 1910 and arrived in Antarctica in January of 1911.

About ten months later, both teams started their trips down to the South Pole. 41. Amundsen’s team used dogs, and Scott’s team used horses. Because horses weren’t good at traveling on snow, it took Scott’s team 77 days to arrive at the South Pole. They got there on January 17, 1912, and were surprised to find that Amundsen was ahead of them. The news hit Scott very hard, but what he didn’t know was that 42. His team began their long trip home with broken hearts. After days of terrible weather and little food, Scott lost his men one after another, and he himself was the last one to meet the end of his life. No one on his team lived to go back home and tell their story. It was only learned through Scott’s diary.