Complete the following tasks based on the news.
Step 1 Words in this story.
thrive –v. to grow and develop successfully
compartment –n. a separate area within a vehicl
Step 2 Listen and fill in the missing words.
A team of scientists plans to explore a little-known part of the ocean to search for new sea life and to 1__________________ the effects of pollution and climate change.
The scientists will enter 2__________________ the 「Midnight Zone」 of the Indian Ocean. It is an area 3__________________about 1,000 meters below the surface where light does not reach but life still 4__________________. The project is expected to begin 5__________________and to last about five weeks. The scientists aim to explore huge underwater mountains also 6__________________seamounts.
The scientists involved in the project are part of Nekton, an ocean research group that works with the University of Oxford in Britain. They are 7__________________the Seychelles' and Maldives' governments in an effort to protect ocean areas.
Oliver Steeds is 8__________________of the Nekton effort. He told the Associated Press that the area his team will explore 9__________________ many forms of life. 「What we do know is that beneath 1,000 meters, there’s no light down there, but a lot of animals…are bioluminescent (生物螢光的). It’s life that glows,」 he said.
Speaking to AP in Barcelona, Spain, Steed 10______________that this team was going into an unknown part of the ocean.
A submarine unlike any other
The Nekton scientists will be using one of 11__________________ deep sea submarines in the world. It is named Limiting Factor.
Last August, the Limiting Factor completed 12__________________: to dive to the deepest point in each of the world’s five oceans. That effort 13__________________ the Five Deeps Expedition. The deepest of these dives took the submarine to nearly 14________________________________.
The Limiting Factor is built to withstand the 15__________________ that exists in the ocean’s deepest places. The compartment for the crew of two people is 16__________________ titanium(鈦) nine centimeters thick. The submarine also carries enough 17__________________ oxygen for up to 96 hours.
Robert McCallum is the leader of the expedition. He said vehicles that can dive deep into the ocean are 18_______________.
The scientists will use sensors and mapping technology 19_____________________________ and landforms deep beneath the sea. But, they also 20_______________________ the effects humans have on the deep sea environment. They will be trying to measure the presence of 21______________________ and possible effects of climate change.
Limiting Factor crew already have seen 22__________________ that pollution is affecting places considered untouched. In May, they saw 23__________________at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the world’s oceans.
Dan Laffoley is a marine expert for the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a group based in Switzerland. He said 24__________________ of the Earth’s living space is 25__________________. He added, 「…over 90 percent of that living space is in the ocean and most of that ocean is unexplored.」
Laffoley said it is 26__________________, during a time of change, 「…that we get people down there, we get eyes in the ocean and we see what’s happening.」
The Nekton scientists will 27____________________________________ an earlier study of the deep Indian Ocean last year. They plan to present their findings in 2022.
I’m Mario Ritter, Jr.