Lessons-from-the-Titanic

1、文檔可能無(wú)法思考全面，請(qǐng)瀏覽后下載! Lessons from the TitanicFrom the comfort of our modern lives we tend to look back at the turn of the twentieth century as a dangerous time for sea travellers. With limited communication facilities, and shipping technology still in its infancy in the early nineteen hundreds, we con

2、sider ocean travel to have been a risky business. But to the people of the time it was one of the safest forms of transport. At the time of the Titanics maiden voyage in 1912, there had only been four lives lost in the previous forty years on passenger ships on the North Atlantic crossing. And the T

3、itanic was confidently proclaimed to be unsinkable. She represented the pinnacle of technological advance atthe time. Her builders, crew and passengers had no doubt that she was the finest ship ever built. But still she did sink on April 14, 1912, taking 1,517 of her passengers and crew with her.36

4、/ 38The RMS Titanic left Southampton for New York on April 10, 1912.On board were some of the richest and most famous people of the time, who had paid large sums of money to sail on the first voyage of the mostluxurious ship in the world. Imagine her placed on her end: she was larger at 269 metres t

5、han many of the tallest buildings of the day. And with ninedecks, she was as high as an eleven storey building. The Titanic carried 329 first class, 285 second class and 710 third class passengers with 899 crew members, under the care of the very experienced Captain Edward J. Smith. She also carried

6、 enough food to feed a small town, including 40,000 fresh eggs, 36,000 apples, 50,000 kilos of fresh meat and 1,000 kilos of coffee for the five day journey.RMS Titanic was believed to be unsinkable because the hull was divided into sixteen watertight compartments. Even if two of these compartments

7、flooded, the ship could still float. The ships owners could not imagine that, in the case of an accident, the Titanic would not be able to float until she was rescued. It was largely as a result of this confidencein the ship and in the safety of ocean travel that the disaster could claim such a grea

8、t loss of life.In the ten hours prior to the Titanics fatal collision with an iceberg at 11.40pm, six warnings of icebergs in her path were received by the Titanic's wireless operators. Only one of these messages was formallyposted on the bridge; the others were in various locations across the s

9、hip. If the combined information in these messages of iceberg positions had been plotted, the ice field which lay across the Titanics path would have been apparent. Instead, the lack of formal procedures for dealing with information from a relatively new piece of technology, the wireless, meant that

10、 the danger was not known until too late. This was not the fault of the Titanic crew. Procedures for dealing with warnings received through thewireless had not been formalized across the shipping industry at the time.The fact that the wireless operators were not even Titanic crew, but rather contrac

11、ted workers from a wireless company, made their role in the shipsoperation quite unclear.Captain Smiths seemingly casual attitude in increasing the speed on this day to a dangerous 22 knots or 41 kilometers per hour, can then bepartly explained by his ignorance of what lay ahead. But this only partl

12、y accounts for his actions, since the spring weather in Greenland was knownto cause huge chunks of ice to break off from the glaciers. Captain Smith knew that these icebergs would float southward and had already acknowledged this danger by taking a more southerly route than at other times of the yea

13、r. So why was the Titanic travelling at high speed when he knew, if not of the specific risk, at least of the general risk of icebergs in her path? As with the lack of coordination of the wireless messages, it was simply standard operating procedure at the time. Captain Smith wasfollowing the practi

14、ces accepted on the North Atlantic, practices which had coincided with forty years of safe travel. He believed, wrongly as we nowknow, that the ship could turn or stop in time if an iceberg was sighted by the lookouts.There were around two and a half hours between the time the Titanic rammed into th

15、e iceberg and its final submersion. In this time 705 people were loaded into the twenty lifeboats. There were 473 empty seatsavailable on lifeboats while over 1,500 people drowned. These figures raise two important issues. Firstly, why there were not enough lifeboats toseat every passenger and crew

16、member on board. And secondly, why the lifeboats were not full. The Titanic had sixteen lifeboats and four collapsible boats which could carry just over half the number of people on board her maiden voyage and only a third of the Titanics total capacity. Regulations for thenumber of lifeboats requir

17、ed were based on outdated British Board of Trade regulations written in 1894 for ships a quarter of the Titanics size, and had never been revised. Under these requirements, the Titanic was only obliged to carry enough lifeboats to seat 962 people. At design meetings in 1910, the shipyards managing d

18、irector, Alexander Carlisle,had proposed that forty eight lifeboats be installed on the Titanic, but the idea had been quickly rejected as too expensive. Discussion then turnedto the ships décor, and as Carlisle later described the incident we spent two hours discussing carpet for the first cla

19、ss cabins and fifteen minutes discussing lifeboats.The belief that the Titanic was unsinkable was so strong that passengers and crew alike clung to the belief even as she was actually sinking. This attitude was not helped by Captain Smith, who had notacquainted his senior officers with the full situ

20、ation. For the first hour after the collision, the majority of people aboard the Titanic, including seniorcrew, were not aware that she would sink, that there were insufficient lifeboats or that the nearest ship responding to the Titanics distress calls would arrive two hours after she was on the bo

21、ttom of the ocean. As a result, the officers in charge of loading the boats received a very half-hearted response to their early calls for women and children to board thelifeboats. People felt that they would be safer, and certainly warmer, aboard the Titanic than perched in a little boat in the Nor

22、th Atlantic Ocean.Not realizing the magnitude of the impending disaster themselves, the officers allowed several boats to be lowered only half full.Procedures again were at fault, as an additional reason for the officers reluctance to lower the lifeboats at full capacity was that they feared the lif

23、eboats would buckle under the weight of 65 people. They had not been informed that the lifeboats had been fully tested prior to departure. Such procedures as assigning passengers and crew to lifeboats and lifeboat loading drills were simply not part of the standard operation of ships nor were they i

24、ncluded in crew training at this time. As the Titanic sank, another ship, believed to have been the Californian, was seen motionless less than twenty miles away. The ship failed to respond to the Titanics eight distress rockets. Although theofficers of the Californian tried to signal the Titanic wit

25、h their flashing Morse lamp, they did not wake up their radio operator to listen for adistress call. At this time, communication at sea through wireless was new, and the benefits not well appreciated, so the wireless on ships was oftennot operated around the clock. In the case of the Californian, th

26、e wireless operator slept unaware while 1,500 Titanic passengers and crew drownedonly a few miles away. After the Titanic sank, investigations were held in both Washington and London. In the end, both inquiries decided that no one could be blamed for the sinking. However, they did address the fundam

27、ental safety issues which had contributed to the enormous loss of life. As a result, international agreements were drawn up to improve safety procedures at sea. The new regulations covered 24 hour wireless operation, crew training, proper lifeboat drills, lifeboat capacity for all on board and the c

28、reation of an international ice patrol.Reading task type one: summary completionTask descriptionThe input for this type of question will be a summary of all or part of thereading text. The summary will contain a number of gaps. All of theinformation in the summary will be contained in the reading te

29、xt, althoughthe words used will be different. You will also be provided with a list ofwords to use to fill the gaps. There will be more words than gaps. Thesewords have been chosen so that only one word will be suitable for eachgap (the answer) but other words may appear suitable (distracters).Your

30、task is to complete the summary using one word from the list foreach gap. Because the summary is a paraphrase of the reading text(rather than an edited version), you will need to have a goodunderstanding of the overall meaning and main points of the sectionsummarised, rather than a detailed understa

31、nding of the text.What is being tested is your ability to:= skim the text for information= paraphrase the original text© 1999 Holmesglen Institute of TAFE 7Sample taskComplete the summary below. Choose your answers from the box at thebottom of the page and write them in boxes 1-8 on your answer

32、 sheet.NB There are more words than spaces so you will not use them all.You may use any of the words more than once.List of Wordspassengers happy float advancedlifeboats confident dangers oceanworried inadequate enormous excitementfast handbook water afloatrecord fast procedures ordersdrown size sin

33、k safetyThe Finest Ship Ever BuiltThe North Atlantic Ocean crossing on the Titanic was expected to set anew standard for (1) travel in terms of comfort and (2) Theshipping industry had an excellent safety (3) on the North AtlanticCrossing over the previous forty years and the Titanic was the finest

34、andsafest liner ever built. The Titanic combined the greatest technology of theday with sheer (4), luxury and new safety features. The Titanicsowners were (5) that even if the Titanic were letting in (6) shewould (7) indefinitely until help arrived. In hindsight we know that theTitanic was not unsin

35、kable and that technology alone could not save liveswhen facilities were (8) and humans did not follow safe (9)whether because of arrogance or ignorance.Answer key1. ocean2. safety3. record4. size5. confident6. water7. float8. inadequate9. procedures© 1999 Holmesglen Institute of TAFE 8Answer k

36、ey: The Finest Ship Ever BuiltThe North Atlantic Ocean crossing on the Titanic was expected to seta new standard for ocean travel in terms of comfort and safety. Theshipping industry had an excellent record on the North AtlanticCrossing over the previous forty years and the Titanic was the finestand

37、 safest liner ever built. The Titanic combined the greatesttechnology of the day with sheer size, luxury and new safety features.The Titanics owners were confident that even if the Titanic wereletting in water, she would float indefinitely until help arrived. Inhindsight we know that the Titanic was

38、 not unsinkable and thattechnology alone could not save lives when facilities were inadequateand humans did not follow safe procedures whether because ofarrogance or ignorance.© 1999 Holmesglen Institute of TAFE 9How to approach summary completion questionsStep 1: Read the instructions carefull

39、y. Note that in this case youhave to choose your answers from the words provided. Alsonote that in this case you can use any word more than once.Remember though that every IELTS test is different. Somake sure that you read the instructions carefully even if youhave practised the type of question bef

40、ore.Step 2: Skim through the summary to get an idea of the topic. In thiscase the summary refers generally to peoples views aboutthe Titanic in terms of safety.Step 3: Decide which section of the text the summary covers in thiscase mainly paragraphs A and C. In some cases thesummary may cover the wh

41、ole text.Step 4: Read through the summary, referring to the list of wordseach time you reach a gap. Select one or more possiblewords from the list to fill each gap. Reject any words that donot fit grammatically, even if the meaning seems correct.Confirm your choice by referring to the relevant secti

42、ons ofthe text.Step 5: Quickly read through your completed summary to check thatit makes sense.© 1999 Holmesglen Institute of TAFE 10Reading task type two: matching headings to paragraphsTask descriptionIn this type of question, you will be given a list of headings. Theinstructions will also in

43、dicate around 4 to 6 paragraphs from the readingtext. The task is to find the most suitable heading for each of theparagraphs. There will be more headings than paragraphs, and youshouldnt use any heading more than once unless the instructions tell youthat you can.To complete this task well, you will

44、 need to be able to identify eachparagraphs main focus. The correct heading will sum up the main idea ofthe paragraph.What is being tested is your ability to:= Identify the main idea of a paragraphSample taskChoose the heading which best sums up the primary cause of the problemdescribed in paragraph

45、s D, E, G, H and I of the text. Write the appropriatenumbers (i x) in the boxes on your answer sheet.List of Headingsi Ignorance of the impending disasterii Captains orders ignorediii Captains over-confidenceiv Rough sea conditionsv Faulty designvi Iceberg locations not plottedvii Low priority place

46、d on safetyviii Number of lifeboats adequateix Inadequate trainingx Ice warnings ignoredAnswer keyParagraph D viParagraph E iiiParagraph G viiParagraph H iParagraph I ix© 1999 Holmesglen Institute of TAFE 11How to approach matching headings to paragraphsStep 1: Read the instructions carefully.

47、Note that the heading youchoose should sum up the main idea of the paragraph. Alsonote which paragraphs you need to look at, as you are oftennot required to do them all.Step 2: Familiarise yourself with the list of paragraph headings byskimming through them quickly.Step 3: Read through the first par

48、agraph for which you have to find aheading. Remember that you are reading to find out the mainidea of the paragraph. Concentrate on the main idea or focusof the paragraph and try not to be distracted by details or byunfamiliar vocabulary.Step 4: Choose the heading from the list which best sums up th

49、emain point of the paragraph you have just read. If you cantchoose between two headings, go on to the next paragraph you can come back to that question later. But dont forgetto make a choice before the end of the test because if youleave a blank or you have marked two answers on youranswer sheet, yo

50、u will be graded as incorrect for thatquestion.© 1999 Holmesglen Institute of TAFE 12Reading task type three: identifying the writers viewsTask descriptionIn this task type you will be given a number of statements. You will have todecide if these statements agree with the writer's views.To

51、complete this task well you will often need to be able to recognise thewriters views not only from what is said directly, but also from what isimplied. For example, we do not need the writer to state directly thathe/she disapproves of zoos. We can infer this disapproval if the writerstates his/her d

52、isapproval of the following: animals being taken from thewild, animals being caged, people paying money to see animals, animalsnot having any privacy. However, if the writer simply describes theproblems with zoos this does not necessarily imply disapproval.Also, we should not try to guess the writer

53、s views. In statement 5 of thesample task on the following page, we should not assume that becausewe think that the lifeboats should have rescued more people, or becauseeverybody thinks that the lifeboats should have returned to rescue morepeople, that this is the writers view. In this case the writ

54、er does notexpress any view on this issue; she simply states the fact that the lifeboatswere not full and so the answer must be Not Given.What is being tested is your ability to:= identify opinion and attitude= skim for detailed information= make inferences© 1999 Holmesglen Institute of TAFE 13

55、Sample taskDo the following statements agree with the views of the writer in thereading passage? In boxes 1-7 on your answer sheet write:Yes If the statement agrees with the writerNo If the statement contradicts the writerNot Given If it is impossible to say what the writer thinks aboutthis1. The en

56、ormous loss of life on the Titanic was primarily caused byinadequate equipment, training and procedures.2. Nobody had thought of installing enough lifeboats to accommodateall the passengers and crew in the event of an emergency.3. Captain Smith didnt inform his officers of the true situation because

57、he didnt want to cause a panic.4. The lifeboats would have buckled if they had been fully loaded.5. After the Titanic sank the lifeboats which were not full should havereturned to rescue as many people from the water as they could.6. The Captain of the Californian could have brought his ship to ther

58、escue if he had realised that the Titanic was sinking.7. The sinking of the Titanic prompted an overhaul of standardoperating procedures which made ocean travel much safer.Answer key1. Yes2. No3. Not Given4. No5. Not Given6. Yes7. Yes© 1999 Holmesglen Institute of TAFE 14How to approach questions requiring you to identify the writer'sviewsStep 1: Read the instructions car