1 . Sharks aren't the scariest things in the ocean for scientists who dive to work. Powerful currents, created where the ocean floor drops away, can be just as deadly. “You can get sucked down by the pressure within minutes, ” notes Marcel Jaspars. He's a chemist who once saved himself from such a current. He came across it while taking photos of a sea sponge near Indonesia, in Southeast Asia. Luckily, he inflated his dive vest in time. He was able to float to the surface and escape the potentially deadly current.
Diving has risks. But the scientists who work underwater are trained to deal with these dangers. For Jaspars, the rewards of research and underwater adventure are greater than the risks. He searches for unusual chemicals made by ocean life. Then he analyzes them for components that might serve as medicines for people.
The sea may seem like a strange place to look for new drugs. But organisms （生物体）in the ocean have had to adapt to a tough environment. Some of the chemicals they make for survival might help people, too. More than 50 years ago, scientists discovered a new anti-cancer drug in a sea sponge. Since then, researchers have been hunting the seas for more of such useful natural products.
With the help of underwater robots and small submarines（潜水艇），Jaspars and other scientists are searching the seas— from the shallow to the oceans' great depths. Their goal: finding chemicals made by marine life for use in one day treating human disease.
Now Jaspars directs the Marine Biodiscovery Center. It's at the University of Aberdeen， in Scotland. There he focuses on microbes （微生物）living in very cold environments, such as the Arctic Ocean. “It's too cold and deep to dive there,” he says. So scientists on research ships pull up buckets of mud from the seafloor. Later, they send him small samples of what they've pulled up.
1. Why is Jaspars' experience mentioned in Paragraph 1?| A．To advise ways of surviving in the sea. |
| B．To explain his ability and luck in the sea. |
| C．To show the danger of deadly current to divers. |
| D．To tell us the value of his underwater adventure. |
| A．Secure. | B．Unique. |
| C．Unbearable. | D．Rewarding. |
| A．To find chemicals for new medicines. |
| B．To study all kinds of ocean creatures. |
| C．To be trained to deal with ocean dangers. |
| D．To look for new medicines for marine life. |
| A．The risks of searching the seas |
| B．Risky diving for new medicines |
| C．The most dangerous things in the sea |
| D．Jaspars, a chemist inventing medicines |
