1 . The five passengers on board the Titan submersible (潜水器) traveling to the Titanic wreckage (残骸) are believed to be dead, the vessel’s operator and the US Coast Guard said.
They reached the conclusion after a days-long search for the wreckage from the submersible on the ocean floor, indicating a failure of the vessel’s body that would be impossible to survive.
“The wreckage, found not far from the remains of the Titanic, was consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber and there was a catastrophic implosion (内爆),”said US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger.
OceanGate Expeditions, which operated the submersible, gave a statement of its own confirming the deaths.
Five men were on board: the British billionaire Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman, former French navy diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.
The Titan submersible, a 21-foot-long vessel, set off Sunday to explore the remains of the Titanic located nearly 13,000 feet underwater, hundreds of miles off the coast of North America.
But after an hour and 45 minutes into the expedition, the Titan lost communications with its mothership at the surface.
Eight hours passed before OceanGate contacted the Coast Guard, which launched a wide-ranging rescue effort that lasted until Thursday.
Hoping the vessel was still intact, Coast Guard officials estimated the submersible had 96 hours of breathable oxygen when it first left for its destination. That deadline passed without resolution on Thursday morning, though the wreckage was located later that day.
Evidence shows that the implosion took place within hours of the submersible setting off, meaning the passengers would have been dead before anybody really started looking for them.
Hopes were raised on Wednesday after searchers said they detected a big sound in the general search area. But it was a false lead. The Coast Guard said on Thursday there didn’t seem to be any connection between the noise and the location on the sea floor.
1. What is paragraph 3 mainly about?| A．The impact of the disaster. | B．The reasons of the disaster. |
| C．The structure of the submersible. | D．The victims on the submersible. |
| A．Its wreckage was located on Thursday morning. |
| B．It dived as deep as 13,000 feet underwater. |
| C．Only one passenger survived. |
| D．It lost touch an hour and 45 minutes after its journey began. |
| A．At risk. | B．On the road. |
| C．Beyond control. | D．In good condition. |
| A．They found a big noise in the search area. | B．They received some wireless signals. |
| C．They got governments’ support wholly. | D．They made advanced tools to detect the vessel. |
