Reading Passage for Questions 1-10
The Unsinkable Ship: The Design and Destiny of the Titanic
RMS Titanic, built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, was the largest ship of its time and was considered a marvel of maritime engineering. Launched in 1911, the ship was designed to be the pinnacle of luxury and safety, earning the nickname "unsinkable." Its creators believed it was virtually indestructible due to its advanced safety features, which included a double-bottomed hull and 16 watertight compartments. The idea was that even if a few compartments were breached, the others would contain the flooding, allowing the ship to stay afloat.
The Titanic was a floating palace of opulence and class distinctions. The first-class accommodations were lavish, featuring grand staircases, a swimming pool, a gymnasium, and private promenade decks. They catered to the wealthiest passengers, including prominent businessmen and socialites. In stark contrast, second-class passengers enjoyed more modest but still comfortable facilities, while third-class passengers were housed in the lower decks with basic amenities, reflecting the social hierarchy of the era. The ship's luxurious design was intended to showcase the wealth and power of the White Star Line, the company that owned it.
On April 10, 1912, the Titanic embarked on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City. The journey was smooth until the night of April 14. Despite receiving multiple ice warnings, the ship maintained a high speed. Just before midnight, a lookout spotted an iceberg directly in the ship's path. The crew attempted a sharp turn, but it was too late. The ship struck the iceberg along its starboard side, creating a series of gashes below the waterline. This collision breached several of the "watertight" compartments. Instead of containing the flooding, the weight of the water in the breached compartments pulled the bow of the ship down, causing water to spill over the top of the internal bulkheads and into the next compartments, a design flaw that doomed the vessel.
The disaster unfolded in the early morning hours of April 15. The evacuation was chaotic, exacerbated by the fact that the ship only carried enough lifeboats for about one-third of the people on board—a number that still exceeded the legal requirement at the time. The principle of "women and children first" was applied, but the limited number of lifeboats and the slow, disorganized loading process meant that many, particularly men from the lower classes, were left behind. At approximately 2:20 a.m., the Titanic broke apart and sank, taking with it more than 1,500 lives.
The tragedy of the Titanic had a profound and lasting impact. It shattered the illusion of human invincibility in the face of nature and led to immediate changes in maritime safety regulations. Key outcomes included the establishment of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) in 1914, which mandates modern safety standards, and the creation of the International Ice Patrol to monitor icebergs in the North Atlantic. The story of the Titanic remains a powerful lesson in the balance between human achievement, hubris, and the unpredictable forces of the natural world.