номер 7, страница 109 - гдз по английскому языку 9 класс (starlight) учебник Баранова, Дули

Exercise seven, page one hundred and nine.

Trip to the Titanic.

Rob McCollum goes on an eerie underwater journey to see the world's most famous ship.

My chance to view the wreckage of R M S Titanic came thanks to my job with the company Deep Ocean Expeditions.

We work with the P P Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, part of the Russian Academy of Science.

They own two Mir submersibles, which can dive to depths of twenty thousand feet.

These are among the very few that can reach the Titanic, which rests deep beneath the surface of the icy North Atlantic Ocean.

The dive begins in the morning.

At a depth of about eight hundred feet, the submersible descends into darkness, for this is the maximum depth to which the sun's rays can reach.

As we travel further down, the blackness is broken only by the sub's lights.

It takes about two hours to reach the ocean floor.

As the craft glides through the freezing depths, more than two miles below the surface, I stare out through the thick glass window.

It looks almost like a lunar landscape.

Then suddenly there it is.

A sight I shall never forget.

Rising before my eyes is the prow of the R M S Titanic, which collided with an iceberg and plunged to a watery grave in April nineteen twelve.

I gaze at the famous grand staircase and the promenade deck, where the wealthy passengers once enjoyed themselves.

Even in her broken, decaying state, surrounded by the darkness, the colossal size of the ship is striking.

The Titanic was the largest ship of its time, and one of the most beautiful ever created.

Its wreck still has the ability to inspire and overwhelm.

The ship broke as it sank, and the two parts lie about six hundred meters apart.

The stern of the ship is badly damaged because it hit the ocean bed so hard.

However, it is fascinating to see the vast engine rooms down there, full of massive machinery.

There is, however, no sign of the four enormous funnels, which would have been ripped off and scattered over a wide area as the Titanic began her descent.

It is also possible to glimpse the interiors of some of the cabins.

Although the woodwork and fabrics have long gone, the metal walls and bronze and brass fittings remain.

Particularly moving are the three rooms of Captain Smith, who heroically went down with his ship.

His bathroom is clearly visible, with his porcelain bathtub still in remarkably good condition.

Even more astonishing are all the bottles, crockery, cutlery, even suitcases and shoes on the seabed nearby.

Indeed, the number of shoes is surprising.

This is because the ship went down just before midnight, at a time when many passengers would have returned to their cabins, undressed and put their shoes outside the door, ready to be cleaned by the staff.

There are no remains from any of the one thousand five hundred and fourteen victims who died in the disaster.

Their bodies were spread over a huge area, and many of them drowned or died of hypothermia in the freezing ocean.

Others, dragged down with the ship, would eventually have drifted away or been claimed by the sea life that hides in these depths.

Indeed, there is still life on board the Titanic.

In fact, the existence of other animal life so deep in the ocean is one of the most amazing features of our visit.

As you travel down below ten thousand feet, it almost seems impossible that any organism could survive in this hostile environment.

But the decks and rooms are home to a diverse range of fish, crabs, and shrimp.

Even so, nothing can beat the awesome image of the Titanic itself.

The tragedy was a turning point in history.

The moment when man realized that nature could not always be tamed by technology, that no ship could ever be unsinkable.

The trip to see her was unlike anything I had experienced or ever will again.