【课文】

The salvage operation had been a complete failure. The small ship, Elkor, which had been searching

the Barents Sea for weeks, was on its way home. A radio message from the mainland had been received by

the ship's captain conducting him to give up the search. The captain knew that another attempt would

be made later, for the sunken ship he was trying to find had been carrying a precious cargo of gold

bullion.

Despite the message, the captain of the Elkor decided to try once more. The sea bed was scoured

with powerful nets and there was tremendous excitement on board when a chest was raised from the

bottom. Though the crew were at first under the impression that the lost ship had been found, the

contents of the chest proved them wrong. What they had in fact found was a ship which had been sunk

many years before.