If bottom layer of Gondwana was ice for example, does it mean that at one stage in time the whole continent was made of ice, and if so how did the animals living there live?

During the Carboniferous and Permian, much of Gondwana was covered by ice. During those times we have little evidence of animals actually living there. Once the ice melted, in the Late Permian (240 million years ago) and the Triassic, animals were able to colonise most of Gondwana again.

Gondwana stayed warm until about 40 million years ago, when the part of it now known as Antarctica froze over again.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.