The Atlantic Ocean is one of the oceans that separate “the Old World” from the New. For centuries it kept the Americas from being discovered by the Europeans.
Many wrong ideas about the Atlantic made early sailors unwilling to sail far out into it. One was that it reached out to “the edge of the world”. Sailors feared that they might sail off the earth. Another idea was that at the equator the ocean would be boiling hot.
Actually, the Atlantic is only half as big as the Pacific, but it is still very large. It is more than 4,000 miles (6,000 km) wide where Columbus crossed it. Even at the narrowest it is about 2,000 miles (3,200 km) wide.
Two things make it rather unusual. For so large an ocean it has very few islands, and it is the world’s saltiest ocean.
There is more water in the Atlantic than you can ever imagine. But suppose no more rain fell and no more rivers flew into it, it would take the ocean about 4,000 years to dry up. On the average (平均) the water is a little more than 2 miles (3.2 km) deep, but in places it is much deeper, with the deepest spot near Puerto Rico, measuring 30.246 feet ----almost 6 miles (9.6 km).
One of the longest mountain ranges of the world, which runs north and south down the middle of the ocean, rises from the floor of the Atlantic. The tops of some of the mountains reach up above the sea and make islands.
Several hundred miles eastward from Florida there is a part of the ocean called the Sargasso Sea. Here the water is quiet because of little wind. In the days of sailing vessels (船) the crew were afraid they would be prevented from going forward here. Sometimes they were, indeed.
Today, the Atlantic is a great highway. However, it is not always a smooth and safe one. Storms sweep across it and pile up great waves. Icebergs (冰山) float down from the Far North across the paths of ships.
We now have such fast ways of traveling that this big ocean seems to have grown smaller. Columbus sailed for over two months to cross it. A fast modern steamship can make it in less than four days. Airplanes fly from New York to London in only eight hours and from South America to Africa in four!
66. What does the “Old World” in the first paragraph refer to?
A. Africa. B. Europe. C. Asia. D. All of the three above.
67. What caused people to be unwilling to explore the Atlantic?
A. There were no ships big enough to get across the ocean.
B. Sailors were afraid of being lost in the ocean.
C. The Atlantic was very unusual because it was the saltiest ocean.
D. Many incorrect ideas made people think the ocean was full of danger.
68. What is the topic of the fifth paragraph?
A. How long the mountain is? B. How to measure the water?
C. How much water the ocean holds? D. How rain affects the ocean water?
69. We can learn from the text that _________ .
A. the Atlantic is the largest ocean on earth.
B. one of the longest mountain ranges lies in the Atlantic.
C. the Atlantic has a lot of islands in it.
D. sailing on the Atlantic Ocean is always quiet, smooth and safe.
70. What does the underlined word “highway” imply?
A. High road. B. Broad way. C. Fast road. D. Main water way.