BBC 6分钟英语学习 人类会生活在水下城市吗？

From BBC, learning English. Hello. This is 6 min English from BBC Learning English.

I'm Neil, and I'm Rob. From the ancient romancy God Neptune

to myths of Mermaids to modern Hollywood films like Finding Nemo.

People throughout history have been fascinated by the idea of living underwater.

In this program, we'll be hearing about projects to create livable underwater habitats, and the challenges they face.

Will be finding out how realistic it is to believe that in a few years, we could be eating breakfast whilst watching fish swim outside the kitchen window before heading off to work in an office under the ocean.

And will be learning some related vocabulary as well.

But 1st its time for our quiz question.

One of the 1st adventure stories to fire the public's imagination about the underwater world was the 1870 novel 20000 Leagues under the Sea.

But who wrote this underwater classic?

Was it A-H-G Wells? B Arthur Conan, doyle or C Jewels Ver Oh, why?

I think I know this one, neil, wasn't it?

A-H-G Wells? OK, rob, we'll find out later if you're right.

Now, one of the most ambitious designs for an underwater city is ocean spiral, a huge transparen't globe attached to the sea bed, the solid ground, which lies deep below the sea level.

The top of the globe stands above the surface of the ocean, and running through the center is a tower to add strength and to provide space for homes, offices and even an amusement park for 5000 underwater residents.

Ocean Spiral has been dreamt up by the Japanese Shimizu Corporation.

Here is Shimizu engineer Maksaki Takuchi explaining to BBC World Service program Crowd Science, the motivation behind the idea.

At the moment, the world is facing a lot of serious problems regarding food, energy, water, natural resources.

However, we are trying to solve these shoes just by using our land.

Our idea is to connect the sea surface and deep sea vertically, and that way, we believe that we can utilize the capability of the deep sea, and that's the purpose of this whole project.

The effects of human activity on the land have led some to look to the oceans for natural resources, naturally existing, things such as minerals, oil, coal and other energy sources that can be used by people.

This search deep underwater is happening vertically, at a 90 degree angle, straight up or down from the ground, as opposed to horizontally or flat across the earth's surface.

But as yet, shimizu Corporations plans for an underwater city are still in the planning stages.

No part of the project has yet been built, and the total cost is thought to exceed 26 billion.

In fact, the longest anyone has spent living under the sea is only 73 days.

That record was set by Roger Garcia, x military diver and head of the Aquarius, currently the world's only underwater research station.

Here's Roger Garcia explaining to BBC World Service program Crowd Science, what happens to the human body after living underwater for so long?

Perhaps a change in their voice.

Not much, because we're not very deep.

That's because the air becomes denser physiologically.

The most important thing, though, is that since you are, in this case, at two and a half times atmospheric pressure, you do take on more inner gas.

And in this case, since inside the Aquarius, we just breathe normal air, you're going to take on more nitrogen.

And depending on how long you stay in the Aquarius, that's going to encourage some sort of decompression obligation.

In addition to engineering challenges, living underwater for long periods of time, also affects the human body.

One example is the bends, or decompression sickness, a serious medical disorder created by nitrogen bubbles in the muscles when returning to the surface of the sea too quickly.

The bends and changes to the voice are examples of how underwater living changes the body, physiologically, relating to how the bodies of living humans and animals function.

As divers descend deep below the ocean's surface, there is an increase in atmospheric pressure, the normal air pressure within the earth's atmosphere.

The deeper they dive, the higher the pressure.

Physiological reactions, like the bends, are caused by divers incorrectly re adjusting to normal atmospheric pressure.

Well, neil, with so many difficulties, it's no surprise that H-G world is fantasy of living under the sea is still science fiction.

Ah, but are you sure it was H-G Wells?

Rob In my quiz question, I asked you, who wrote the classic underwater adventure 20000 Leagues under the Sea.

Yes. And I said,

A-H-T Wells, which was the wrong answer.

It was,

in fact, c Jewels Verne, the French author who also wrote Around the World in 80 Days.

In this program, we've been discussing the challenge of living underwater, going down vertically at a 90 degree angle to the sea bed, the solid ground.

Hundreds of meters under the sea.

Ocean. Explorers search underwater for natural resources, useful materials like coal and oil, but they face many physiological problems, problems relating to how the human body functions, such as the bends, a painful medical condition caused by returning too quickly to atmospheric pressure, the earth's usual air pressure.

That's all for this program, but we hope you'll be diving back into six minute English very soon.

Bye for now. Bye,

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