创新英语-Virgin Voyage to the Bottom of the Ocean

The boss of the Virgin group Richard Branson has unveiled his latest adventure project. He plans to explore the deepest parts of the ocean in a high-tech submarine. Virgin Oceanic will conduct five test dives over two years. His team plans to explore the deepest part of any ocean – the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench. At a depth of almost 11,000 metres, the trench is deeper than Mount Everest is high. Branson showed the specially-built vessel to reporters at a news conference in California. He plans to pilot one of the dives himself. Branson also said he hoped Virgin Oceanic would one day take wealthy passengers on deep sea dives to explore the ocean depths.

Branson is a famed entrepreneur. He started off by selling used music records at university, which led to his opening of the Virgin Records stores. He has since become well known for pushing things to the limit. He has used his wealth to finance such feats as hot-air ballooning around the world and has set sailing records. As well as his Virgin airline company, he also operates Virgin Galactic, which will allow tourists to fly into space. He told reporters: "There is just so much to explore, so much to discover. We are going to obviously come across some fascinating creatures and learn some fascinating things that will hopefully be useful for mankind."