Humans have observed and explored the oceans since ancient times.But it wasn’t until the 19th century that the scientific study of oceans began.The first major scientific expedition,and the one that firmly established the field of oceanography,was the around-the-world voyage of H.M.S. Challenger.Setting out from England in 1872,the Challenger spent almost three and a half years gathering a wealth of information about seawater,sea life,and the ocean floor.Major oceanographic expeditions since then have included the South Atlantic voyage of the German ship Meteor in 1926 and the Deep-Sea Drilling Project from 1968 to 1983.Many individuals also have played important roles in advancing our understanding of oceans,beginning with Matthew Fontaine Maury in the mid-1800s;his work on oceanography and navigation led to a uniform system of weather reporting at sea.Since Maury’s time,oceanography has progressed rapidly.Early oceanographers had to contend themselves with tossing buckets overboard to see what they might haul in.Today’s oceanographers are equipped with space images,supercomputer models,and deep-sea robots that can crawl along the seafloor.As they set goals for the future,some oceanographers even dream of doing research in permanently manned stations on the bottom of the oceans.
小题1:Which of the following statements is true?
A．Humans didn’t explore the oceans until the 19th century.
B．Maury first established the field of oceanography.
C．Maury spent a lot of time in studying seawater,sea life,and the bottom of the ocean.
D．Many individuals also plays a very important part in advancing our understanding of oceans,such as Maury.小题2:How many expeditions are mentioned in this passage?
A．Four.
B．Three.
C．Five.
D．Two.小题3:What can we infer from the passage?
A．The process of the oceanography has stopped at one time.
B．Maury’s work on oceanography contributes a lot to weather reporting at sea.
C．Nowadays the equipment for studying the oceans needs improving,because it is out of date.
D．The expeditions in the past had great difficulty and made a lot of efforts in order to study the oceans.
