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Practice Exam No.1
Read the unseen:
Future Ocean Exploration and It’s Benefits
Dr. Bob Ballard is an aquanaut. He has explored the deck of
the Titanic and the bridge of Bismark. He is also interested in the
towering mountains and hot-water volcanoes that make up the MidAtlantic Ridge, a 64,000-kilometre range that spans the ocean bed.
Ballard is planning a future where world problems such as
energy shortages and over-crowding are solved by exploiting the
shallow plains of the continental shelves for living and farming.
Ballard has been a visitor to the deeps, descending alone in small
steel submersibles, since he joined the Oceanographic Institute in
Massachusetts in 1967.
Ballard is not always present at the site of the exploration; he
sends electronic eyes and hands down in his place. Because manned
mini-subs take over two hours to reach the sea-bed and can only stay
three hours, he has pioneered the Argo-Jason system. A pair of robot
submersibles operating 24 hours a day carry a remote human
presence five kilometers down, where the pressure is half a tonne per
each square centimetre.
The Argo is towed by a cable from a surface ship and is
capable of “terrain following”, maintaining a constant height above
the sea-bed. It was the Argo that found the battleship Bismark in her
Atlantic grave.
Argo is the mothership to the smaller submersible, Jason.
“Jason is a true robotic system, “ says Ballard “able to operate
independently on the ocean floor. Although still attached by a wire to
the surface ship, it can move freely – and actually went inside the
Titanic.”
Jason’s control systems are flexible, ranging from a
completely manual mode, in which the pilot is responsible for every
movement, to a totally computer-controlled independent path. The
vehicle can be tracked and positioned to within one centimetre – an
ability that enabled it to be driven through the hull of the Titanic
using directions from the builder’s original drawings.
But Jason is only the beginning. The quality of the pictures it
sends back up its wire cable is limited. But a new fibre-optic link
with more than 100 times the information-carrying capacity will give
full-colour, high-resolution TV images. The operator will sit at a pilot
station aboard a surface ship, surrounded by TV screens. Ballard says
it will feel like being in a glass submarine.
Ballard is now working on the next generation of underwater systems
– for instance, underwater lighting. By using two robots lighting from
the sides, and a separate camera robot, one could avoid light backscattering from sediments in the water, Which masks the view, like a
thick fog. Ballard’s latest design concept is ABE, a submersible
capable of roaming autonomously without a tether. ABE will be
equipped with some artificial intelligence and will be able to “decide”
when to communicate or return to its underwater terminal. Among
the projects that ABE will support is a digital map of the US coastal
sea-floor – out to a distance of 320 kilometres.
ABE and its successors will carry a suite of overlapping
sensors to give an unprecedented, clear picture of the underwater
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environment. Ballard’s team has designed a 2000-by-1000-pixel
electronic camera which gives pictures that are too detailed for any
display currently available; a sonar using sound waves to paint a
picture of the smallest underwater objects; and a thermal scanner
capable of picking out hot spots.
“We’ve still explored less than one-tenth of one per cent of
the sea-floor,” says Ballard. “For example, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a
huge underwater mountain range, is the planet’s largest geographical
feature, but Neil Armstrong had walked on the moon before we even
knew it existed.”
Just as the great land explores of the past went into the
unknown, Ballard believes that in the early 21st century new pioneers
will colonise the continental shelves or shallow waters around the
coasts. “The shelves, which stretch for hundreds of miles out to sea,
and are no more than 60 metres under water, represent a similar land
area to the continents themselves. What we need is the development
of the sea-borne equivalent of the covered wagon, and log cabin.
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Referents:
What do the following words refer to?
1. her, line 20 ___________________________________
2. it, line 25 _____________________________________
3. the vehicle, line 29 _____________________________
4. its, line 46 ____________________________________
5. it, line 60 _____________________________________
Comprehension Questions:
In the True/False questions, circle the correct answer and justify it by
giving line numbers and quoting from the text.
In the multiple choice questions, circle the letter preceding the best
completion.
1. According to the text, Dr. Ballard is not a novice in his
profession.
True/False
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
2. State whether the following is True or False according to the
text. No justification is necessary.
Dr. Ballard believes that exploration of the ocean floor
a. can help resolve the problem of over-population.
True/False
b. has a potential for the future of agriculture. True/False
c. no longer requires physical human presence.
True/False
d. has enriched the world energy resources. True/False
e. should be limited to shallow waters. True/False
3. Which of the following does the text cites as Dr Ballard’s
motives to use robot rather than manned submersibles?
Write yes or no next to each completion.
a. _____ They can descend deeper.
b. _____ They can be lowered down quicker.
c. _____ They move faster on the ocean floor.
d. _____ They have more sophisticated electronic
equipment.
e. _____ They can operate without rigid time
restrictions.
4. Unlike Jason, Argo can operate underwater independently of
any other vessel.
True/False
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
5. Jason could move inside the Titanic because
a. it could be automatically controlled.
b. it could be precisely directed to a specific location.
c. the original plans of the Jason’s designers were
available.
d. both a and b.
e. both a and c.
6. ABE
a. is already commercially available.
b. will be utilized for making computerized maps.
c. will be particularly advantageous for marine
archeology.
d. will explore the 320-kilometre coastal zone around the
USA.
7. Artificial intelligence will be enable ABE to submerge or
surface, when the situation requires, without receiving any
specific instructions.
True/False
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
8. The article mentions two days which can enhance the quality
of images sent by the robot submersibles.
a. ____________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________
9.
Complete the following sentence using information from the
text:
Although the advanced camera designed by Ballard’s team
can give _____________________, it cannot be used yet
because __________________________.
10. The reader can infer that Dr. Ballard considers space research
to be a more advanced stage than oceanography.
True/False
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
Words in Context:
What do the following words mean in the context of the article?
1. FLEXIBLE, line 27, means
a. elastic
b. changeable
c. easily managed
2. VEHICLE, line 29, means
a. tool
b. medium
c. means of transport
3. MANUAL, line 28, means
a. instruction book
b. operated by hand
c. requiring strength
4. PICK OUT, line 55, means
a. remove
b. select
c. collect