Part 5

You are going to read an article about diving. For questions 31-36, choose the answer (А, В, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

Exploring the oceans

I guess the sea has always been a part of my life. I grew up on the coast and spent hours as a kid playing on the beach, although I was never that keen on being in the water. I had friends who were into surfing, and who urged me to join them, but somehow, I never shared their fascination with the sea. But everything changed when my uncle came to stay one summer, when I was about 15. Hearing him talking with passion about the joys of diving and the amazing things he had seen underwater awakened something in me. I started watching old TV documentaries and fell in love with the mystery of the oceans.

The basic training for your first dive is fairly straightforward. After an afternoon in a swimming pool learning how to use the breathing equipment, you head for the sea for your first real-life experience. That first moment of feeling the water close over your head, leaving you with just a little tube of air to keep you alive, is slightly alarming, and I thought at first that I might panic. Although we were in quite shallow water, it was still easy to feel disoriented and lose track of which way was up and which was down, but luckily the instructor stayed right beside us to make sure we were OK.

After building up some experience in my local area and getting more qualifications under my belt, I was completely hooked on the thrill of diving and keen to explore some of the more challenging and exciting diving locations around the world. I booked onto an organised trip and headed to Indonesia, home to tropical seas, amazing underwater scenery and exotic fish. From there, I’ve gone on to explore the oceans all over the world, from the Caribbean to Australia and the Pacific Islands.

When you spend time under water, you can’t help but be amazed by the whole other world that exists below the waves, invisible to us most of the time. From huge, elegant creatures that move slowly and effortlessly through the water, to tiny fish that you notice only as brief flashes of colour as they turn with lightning speed and head off in different directions. And what really fascinates me is their attitude to you as you travel through their world, seeing you not as a threat but almost as one of them, to be quickly inspected and then rejected as of no further interest.

I have only once had a moment of fear, when I suddenly came face to face with an enormous shark while diving in the Caribbean. I recognised it at once and knew that this species could be dangerous. My first instinct was to ignore it, in the hope that it might not notice me and swim off in search of a more suitable food source. But the oxygen tank on my back obviously caught its eye and it moved in to investigate, swimming backwards and forwards above me until two other divers swam towards me and it decided it was time to leave.

After 15 years of diving, I have seen some wonderful and inspiring sights. But, in recent years, I have also seen first-hand the growing problem of damage to the oceans from pollution. More and more divers now give their time to help clean up the oceans that they love. I spent last summer working on a series of conservation projects in Portugal, working with a team of divers to remove all kinds of unwanted objects from the sea bed, including thousands of small pieces of plastic. These cause problems with the underwater ecosystem and are particularly dangerous as fish and other creatures can eat them and then, feeling that their stomachs are full, starve to death. Let’s hope the world takes action in time and manages to preserve these magical environments.

31 What first led to the writer’s interest in diving? mainly because
A living by the sea as a child
B watching TV programmes
C listening to a family member’s exp
D taking up a challenge from friends

32 During the training, the writer felt mainly
A relieved that the teacher was close to him.
B confident about using the breathing equipmen
C excited at thought of doing a real dive.
D disappointed that they didn’t go very deep.

33 What does ‘under my belt’ in Paragraph 3 mean?
A planned
B achieved
C discovered
D created

34 What does the writer find most surprising about sea creatures?
A their amazing colours
B the speed with which they move
C their lack of fear of humans
D the way they interact with each other

35 When the shark saw the writer, it
A took no interest in him.
B became aggressive.
C showed that it was frightened.
D was curious about his equipment.

36 The word ‘these’ (in bold) in the last paragraph refers to
A small pieces of plastic.
B divers.
C unwanted objects.
D conservation projects.

For this task: Answers with explanations :: Vocabulary