Задание 12 из ЕГЭ по английскому языку: задача 17

Nine-Year-Old Girl Discovers 15-Million-Year-Old Shark Tooth

On Christmas morning 2022, nine-year-old Molly Sampson got the presents she had asked for: special tools for shark tooth hunting. That same day, the young aspiring paleontologist found a 5-inch-long megalodon shark tooth in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. “I went closer, and in my head, I was like, ‘Oh, my, that is the biggest tooth I’ve ever seen!'” Molly exclaimed in an interview. “I reached in and grabbed it, and dad said I was shrieking.”

According to the Washington Post, hunting fossils is one of the Sampson family’s favorite activities. After Molly and her older sister Natalie had received their archeological tools for Christmas, their father, Bruce, took them to the Chesapeake Bay near the Calvert Cliffs to look for shark teeth.

Molly announced that she was “looking for a Meg,” and then waded fearlessly into the water despite the rather cool 10-degree weather. Before long, that’s exactly what Molly found — a megalodon tooth. The tooth of a prehistoric shark is much larger and much rarer than any of the shark teeth in her father’s collection. “She told me she was wading in knee deep water when she saw it and dove in to get it,” Molly’s mother Alicia shared. “She has always wanted to find a ‘Meg’, but for whatever reason, her wish came true exactly on Christmas morning.”

The Sampson family took Molly’s find to the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Maryland. The staff there knew the family well, as they’ve shared other fossil finds with the museum before. But the shark tooth that Molly had found, according to the curator of paleontology Stephen Godfrey, was a “once-in-a-lifetime kind of find.”

“It’s a spectacular specimen,” Godfrey said. “It’s one of the larger ones that’s probably ever been found here.” Godfrey determined that Molly’s megalodon tooth was approximately 15 million years old, and probably sat in the upper jaw of a megalodon that was between 45 and 50 feet long. The megalodon would have used its impressive teeth to hunt prey like whales and dolphins. “It basically evolved those kinds of teeth so that it could cut out pieces, just like great white sharks do,” Godfrey explained. He added: “They sort of chomp the carcass of their prey.” Godfrey explained that megalodon teeth are found on a “fairly regular basis” near the Calvert Cliffs though rarely as large as the megalodon tooth that Molly Sampson found. “People should not get the impression that teeth like this one are common along Calvert Cliffs,” he told the journalists. “And [Molly] didn’t have to dig into the cliffs to find the tooth, it was out in the water.”

For now, Molly plans to keep the megalodon tooth among the others in her collection. Though she’s found multiple shark teeth before, the newest one dwarfs all the others. And despite its rarity, Molly has no plans to sell the tooth. “I am sure she will always keep it with her — to her, this tooth is priceless!” Alicia Sampson said. Indeed, the greatest prize for the Sampson family seems to be how Molly’s story has inspired other young aspiring paleontologists. Molly hopes that it will show others “how fun it is to explore.” “It’s kind of cool that she was motivating other kids to get outside and explore,” her mother added.

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What did Molly Sampson get as a present for Christmas?

1. A shark tooth.
2. Books on paleontology.
3. Tools for tooth hunting.
4. A trip to Chesapeake Bay.