The ocean bottom -a region nearly 2.5 times greater than the

Question

The ocean bottom -a region nearly 2.5 times greater than the total land area of the Earth -- is a vast frontier that even today is largely unexplored and uncharted. Until about a century ago, the deep-ocean floor was completely inaccessible, hidden beneath waters averaging over 3,600 meters deep. Totally without light and subjected to intense pressures hundreds of times greater than at the Earth's surface, the deep-ocean bottom is a hostile environment to humans, in some ways as forbidding and remote as the void
of outer space.

Although researchers have taken samples of deep-ocean rocks and sediments for over a century, the first detailed global investigation of the ocean bottom did not actually start until 1968, with the beginning of the National Science Foundation's Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP). Using techniques first developed for the offshore oil and gas industry, the DSDP's drill ship, the Glomar Challenger, was able to maintain a steady position on the ocean's surface and drill in very deep waters, extracting samples of sediments and rock from the ocean floor.

The Glomar Challenger completed 96 voyages in a 15-year research program that ended in November 1983. During this time, the vessel logged 600,000 kilometers and took almost 20,000 core samples of seabed sediments and rocks at 624 drilling sites around the world. The Glomar Challenger's core samples have allowed geologists to reconstruct what the planet looked like hundred of millions of years ago and to calculate what it will probably look like millions of years in the future. Today, largely on the strength of evidence gathered during the Glomar Challenger's voyages, nearly all earth scientists agree on the theories of plate tectonics and continental drift that explain many of the geological processes that shape the Earth. The cores of sediment drilled by the Glomar Challenger have also yielded information critical to understanding the world's past climates. Deep-ocean sediments
provide a climatic record stretching back hundreds of millions of years, because they are largely isolated from the mechanical erosion and the intense chemical and biological activity that rapidly destroy much land-based evidence of past climates. This record has already provided insights into the patterns and causes of past climatic change --information that may be used to predict future climates.  1.The author refers to the ocean bottom as a "frontier" in line 2 because it
(A)is not a popular area for scientific research
(B)contains a wide variety of life forms
(C)attracts courageous explorers
(D)is an unknown territory

2.The word "inaccessible" in line 3 is closest in meaning to
(A)unrecognizable
(B)unreachable
(C)unusable
(D)unsafe

3.The author mentions outer space in line 7 because
(A)the Earth's climate millions of years ago was similar to conditions in outer space.
(B)it is similar to the ocean floor in being alien to the human environment
(C)rock formations in outer space are similar to those found on the ocean floor
(D)techniques used by scientists to explore outer space were similar to those used in ocean exploration

4. Which of the following is true of the Glomar Challenger?
(A) It is a type of submarine.
(B) It is an ongoing project.
(C) It has gone on over 100 voyages
(D) It made its first DSDP voyage in 1968

5. The word " extracting " in line 13 is closest in meaning to
(A) breaking
(B) locating
(C) removing
(D) analyzing

6. The deep Sea Drilling Project was significant because it was
(A) an attempt to find new sources of oil and gas
(B) the first extensive exploration of the ocean bottom
(C) composed of geologists form all over the world
(D) funded entirely by the gas and oil industry

7. The word " strength " in line21 is closest in meaning to
(A)basis
(B)purpose
(C)discovery
(D)endurance

8.The word " they " in line26 refers to
(A)years
(B)climates
(C)sediments
(D)cores

9.Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage as being a result of the Deep Sea Drilling Project?
(A) Geologists were able to determine the Earth's appearance hundreds of millions of years ago.
(B) Two geological theories became more widely accepted
(C) Information was revealed about the Earth's past climatic changes.
(D) Geologists observed forms of marine life never before seen.

Pansi · Answer

Reserved for posting the offficial answers for the above questions

jlgdr · Answer

6 min.

This is what I had

DBBECBDCD

OA please
Many thanks, nice passage though only 4 answer choices was a bit weird.

roopika2990 · Answer

DBBDCBDCD ...

Can you please post OAs? ... Is this a GRE passage?

jlgdr · Answer

No, looks like an IBT Toefl passage. My calls are DBDDCBDCD Looking forward to the OA's Cheers! J

vijayann · Answer

IMO 
DBDADBACD

Please post the OA

Paris75 · Answer

Answers IMO

DBDACBACD

For answer 5, you said D. But look at the sense of "extracting". When you extract something its when you remove it from another basis.

What do you think?

pretzel · Answer

Oh dear I took 12 mins. Am I too slow?

DBDDBBACD.

Regards
pret

jlgdr · Answer

Yes you are. Shouldn't take more than 6 min. GIVE THE FREAKING OA!!! Cheers J

carcass · Answer

At all. What you said is wrong. the passage in pretty much convoluted (not the topo notch but quite).

The average per question is always 2 minutes, so both passagge and questions, you should take 18 minutes. well, even considering 15 or 12 minutes (but is really quite difficult being under this threshold).

jlgdr · Answer

Carcass, with all the respect you deserve, I would agree 100% with you if this were a GMAT RC. Now, given that this is a TOEFL passage in which case each question should be fairly easy, I think that giving all of you the benefit of the doubt, the aftermentioned passage deserves no more than 8 minutes. Peace J

carcass · Answer

But I didn't say that is not a TOEFL passage, indeed it is. :-)

As a matter of fact, one of the question is : the word is closest to the meaning to which of these words?? This is a typical TOEFL question. There is not a strictly relation between a passage and the time you have to answer to. I means: gmat like passage, the time is this and toelf passage is that. In my experience certain passage on the TOEFL test are a bit more difficult than a gmat passage, at least to digest. Then what is really different is the strategy : in the TOEFL test, no matter how much is the passage difficult you can even not read it because the answer are in progressive order and the paragraph on wich the answer is based on is just in front of you. On the gmat this is not possible and the strategy to read the first and last sentence of each paragraph doesn't work. You should read the entire passage and engage with a lot... At least for me :-)

ronr34 · Answer

Hey guys. Does anyone have the OA for this?

carcass · Answer

Nope

Infact I ' m going to lock

The ocean bottom -a region nearly 2.5 times greater than the

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