Read the following passage and blacken the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
Until recently, hunting for treasure from shipwrecks was mostly fantasy; with recent technological advances, however, the search for sunken treasure has become more popular as a legitimate endeavor. This has caused a debate between those wanting to salvage the wrecks and those wanting to preserve them.
Treasure hunters are spurred on by the thought of finding caches of gold coins or other valuable objects on a sunken ship. One team of salvagers, for instance, searched the wreck of the RMS Republic, which sank outside the Boston harbor in 1900. The search party, using side-scan sonar, a device that projects sound waves across the ocean bottom and produces a profile of the sea floor, located the wreck in just two and a half days. Before the use of this new technology, such searches could take months or years. The team of divers searched the wreck for two months, finding silver tea services, crystal dinnerware, and thousands of bottles of wine, but they did not find the five and a half tons of American Gold Eagle coins they were searching for.
Preservationists focus on the historic value of a ship. They say that even if a shipwreck's treasure does not have a high monetary value, it can be an invaluable source of historic artifacts that are preserved in nearly mint condition. But once a salvage team has scoured a site, much of the archaeological value is lost. Maritime archaeologists who are preservationists worry that the success of salvagers will attract more treasure-hunting expeditions and thus threaten remaining undiscovered wrecks. Preservationists are lobbying their state lawmakers to legally restrict underwater searches and unregulated salvages. To counter their efforts, treasure hunters argue that without the lure of gold and million-dollar treasures, the wrecks and their historical artifacts would never be recovered at all.
What is the main idea of this passage?
A. Searching for wrecks is much easier with new technologies like side-scan sonar.
B. Maritime archaeologists are concerned about the unregulated searching of wrecks.
C. The search of the RMS Republic failed to produce the hoped-for coins.
D. The popularity of treasure seeking has spurred a debate between preservationists and salvagers.
Đáp án D.
Key words: main idea
Clue: Until recently, hunting for treasure from shipwrecks was mostly fantastic; with recent technological advances, however, the research for sunken treasure has become more popular as a legitimate endeavor. This has caused a debate between those wanting to salvage the wrecks and those wanting to preserve them: Mãi đến gần đây, săn lùng của cải từ những con tàu chìm vẫn còn kì lạ; tuy nhiên với công nghệ tiên tiến hiện nay, việc tìm kiếm những của cải bị chìm đã trở nên phổ biến như là một hoạt động hợp pháp. Điều này đã gây nên một cuộc tranh cãi giữa những người muốn vớt khai thác tàu và những người muốn bảo tồn chúng.
Phân tích đáp án:
A. Searching for wrecks is much easier with new technologies like side-scan sonar: tìm kiếm tàu chìm trở nên dễ dàng hơn nhiều với những công nghệ mới như thiết bị quét phát hiện tàu ngầm
B. Maritime archaeologists are concerned about the unregulated searching of wrecks: các nhà khảo cổ hàng hải lo ngại về việc tìm kiếm tàu chìm một cách trái phép
C. The search of the RMS Republic failed to produce the hoped-for coins: cuộc tìm kiếm RMS Republic đã thất bại trong việc sản xuất những đồng xu được mong đợi
D. The popularity of treasure seeking has spurred a debate between preservationists and salvagers: sự phố biến của việc tìm kiếm của cải đã dấy lên một cuộc tranh cãi giữa những người muốn bảo tồn và những người muốn khai thác.
Việc tìm kiếm tàu chìm đã trở nên phổ biến như là một hoạt động hợp pháp nên đã có một cuộc tranh cãi giữa những người muốn bảo tồn và những người muốn khai thác do đó đáo án chính xác là D