Question

read the passage, listen to the audio clip, and then choose the best answer to each question.
passage 1: rescued antarctic group aren’t heroes
by david roberts
(1)when the russian research ship akademik shokalskiy got stuck in the ice off the antarctic coast on christmas eve, it created a drama that quickly grabbed the world’s attention.
why they got so much attention is another question. the 52 scientists, journalists, and tourists on the ship acted entitled instead of being embarrassed by their entirely avoidable predicament.
(3)the members of the australasian antarctic expedition 2013–2014 (aae)—who intended to re - create a very small part of sir douglas mawson’s original monumental expedition of 1911 - 14—seemed strangely blasé—even giddily upbeat—during their ten days stranded in the ice. (related: “antarctic ship rescue: 5 lessons from the trapped vessel drama”)
(4)they recorded a new year’s eve sing - along for youtube and chatted about yoga classes and knot - tying lessons to while away the time.
(5)on their “spirit of mawson” expedition blog, one passenger signed off on december 28: “it’s saturday and it’s beer - time (just after 4: 6 pm), so i am going to leave it here.”
(6)they even seemed to relish their crisis. the bbc quoted tracy rogers, the team’s marine ecologist, as saying, “it’s fantastic—i love it when the ice wins and we don’t. it reminds you that as humans, we don’t control everything... we’ve got several penguins watching us, thinking ‘what the hell are you doing stuck in our ice?’ the ice is beautiful grey—it looks like it wants to have a bit of a snow. it’s the perfect
in paragraph 8 of passage 1, the author claims that the members of the australasian antarctic expedition did nothing but twiddle their thumbs. which sentence from passage 1 provides evidence that supports this claim?
○ they recorded a new year’s eve sing - along for youtube and chatted about yoga classes and knot - tying lessons to while away the time. (paragraph 4)
○ for many seasoned adventurers, the team’s attitude was hard to swallow. (paragraph 7)
○ on january 7 on pri, new york times blogger andrew revkin dismissed the aae’s work as “boutique science.” (paragraph 10)
○ on his dot earth blog, revkin quoted several scientists whose own work was severely compromised by the rescue effort. (paragraph 12)

Explanation:

To solve this, we analyze each option:

• Option 1: Describes their activities (singing, chatting) which shows they were occupied but not working, supporting the claim they did nothing productive.
• Option 2: Talks about adventurers' attitude, not the expedition members' actions.
• Option 3: Discusses the AAE's work being dismissed, not their inactivity.
• Option 4: Focuses on work being compromised by rescue, not their lack of action during the situation.

So Option 1 provides evidence as it shows they spent time on non - productive activities (singing, chatting about yoga and knot - tying) instead of working.

Answer:

A. They recorded a New Year’s Eve sing - along for YouTube and chatted about yoga classes and knot - tying lessons to while away the time. (paragraph 4)