英语听力精选进阶版 13180（在线收听）

ReportThey've selected prospective sites under the Pacific Ocean where the crust is at its thinnest - just six kilometres. 

Dr Damon Teagle, of the UK's National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, is leading the quest. He likens the bid to the retrieval of Moon rocks by the Apollo programme and says samples from the mantle will tell us how our planet was formed and how it's changing. 

Dr Damon Teagle: Just as the Moon rocks told us about the composition of the Moon and how that relates to the early formation of the Earth itself, so will these samples as well.

Reporter: Next month, the team will begin a bid to drill nearly two kilometres down through the ocean floor off the coast of Costa Rica. They say an attempt to reach the mantle could begin as early as 2018, funds and technology permitting.

Neil Bowdler, BBC News