托福精选阅读真题.docVIP

121页 TOEFL95-05阅读真题 1995.08 4 1995.10 14 1995.12 25 1996.01 36 1996.05 47 1996.08 58 1996.10 68 1996.12 80 1997.01 92 1997.05 103 1997.08 115 1997.10 127 1997.12 139 1998.01 150 1998.05 160 1998.08 170 1998.10 181 1999.01 191 1999.05 204 1999.08 215 1999.10 226 2000.01 238 2000.05 250 2000.08 261 2000.10 273 2001.01 283 2001.05 294 2001.08 305 2001.10 317 2002.01 328 2002.05 339 2002.08 350 2002.09 360 2002.10 371 2003.01 383 2003.08 395 2003.10 407 2004.01 418 2004.05 429 2004.08 439 2004.10 450 2005.01 461 2005.05 472 2005.08 482 1995.08 Question 1-9 Investigation of the Deep-Ocean Keywords: ocean, researchers, techniques, samples, rocks The ocean bottom – a region nearly 2.5 times greater than the total land area of the Earth – is a vast frontier that even today is largely unexplored and uncharted. Until about a century ago, the deep – ocean floor was completely inaccessible, hidden beneath waters averaging over 3,6000 meters deep. Totally without light and subjected to intense pressures hundreds of times greater than at the Earths surface, the deep – ocean bottom is a hostile environment to humans, in some ways as forbidding and remote as the void of outer space. Although researchers have taken samples of deep – ocean rocks and sediments for over a century, the first detailed global investigation of the ocean bottom did not actually start until 1968, with the beginning of the National Science Foundations Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP). Using techniques first developed for the offshore oil and gas industry, the DSDPs drill ship, the Glomar Challenger, was able to maintain a steady position on the oceans surface and drill in very deep waters, extracting samples of sediments and rock from the ocean floor. The Glomar Challenger completed 96 voyages in a 15 – year research program that ended in November 1983. During this time, the vessel logged 600,000 kilometers and took almost 20,000 core samples of seabed sediments and rocks at 624 drilling sites around the