000 HOURS, MORE THAN SEVEN MONTHS, UNDER WATER. FROM HER EARLIEST YE...

6,000 hours, more than seven months, under water. From her earliest years,

she took her first plunge into

the open sea as a teenager. In the years since then, she has taken part in a(n)

(33)______ of landmark

underwater projects, from exploratory expeditions around the world to her

celebrated "Jim dive" in 1978,

which was the deepest solo dive (34)_____made without cable connecting

the diver to a support vessel

at the surface of the sea.

(35)_____in aJim suit, a futuristic suit of plastic and metal armor, which was

secured (36)

_____a manned submarine, Sylvia Earle plunged vertically into the Pacific

Ocean, at times at the speed

of 100 feet per minute. (37)_____reaching the ocean floor, she was released

from the submarine and

from that point her only connection to the sub was an 18-foot tether. For the

next two and a half hours,

Earle (38)_____the seabed, taking notes, collecting (39)_____, and painting

a U.S. flag. Consumed by a

desire to descend deeper still, in I981she became involved in the design and

manufacture of deep-sea

(40)______ one of which took her to a depth of 3000 feet. This did not end

Sylvia Earle's accomplishments.