2017年电大 2013年11月北京地区学士学位英语考试真题与答案和详解.docVIP

北京地区成人本科学士学位英语统一考试 2013.11.2 Part I Reading Comprehension (30%) Passage 1 Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage: For 20 months the wrecked Costa Concordia has been lying on its side near the coast of Giglio, a small Italian island. But on Tuesday, as part of the largest salvage ( 打捞 ) operation ever conducted, the large ship was finally moved to the upright position. The next step is for the vessel to be removed from the area entirely. The Costa Concordia is twice the weight of the Titanic. The ship itself didn t budge （稍微移动) for the first three hours of the operation, Sergio Girotto told reporters. He and other engineers worked for 19 hours before Concordia was declared completely upright. The Costa Concordia capsized on January 13, 2012, after its captain, Francesco Schettino, brought the ship too close to the shore. The ship hit coastal rocks, which caused serious damage and allowed water to pour in. (76) Most of the 4200 people on board made it to land safely, but more than 30 people were killed in the disaster. Two people remain missing. The Concordia s captain is currently on trial for causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship. The operation to right the ship is called parbuckling. While parbuckling is a standard operation to right capsized ships, it has never before been used on such a large ship. (77) Workers had been waiting for favorable weather condition to undertake the operation. On Monday, authorities gave the final go-ahead. The process was expected to take no more than 12 hours. But problems with the large system of steel chains caused delays. Engineers worked through the night using cables and metal water tanks to roll the ship onto special platforms. The Concordia is expected to be pulled away from Giglio in the spring of 2014 and turned into scrap metal (废金属). The ships owner, Costa Cruises, will pay for the recovery, which has already cost more than $800 millio