<span>A) The only way to defeat the South was to take control of Maryland.
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The correct answer is A) The space shuttle program has come to an end.
The author thinks that the time may now be right to focus on ocean research because the space shuttle program has come to an end.
The main argument for the author to support ocean exploration is that he considered that the space shuttle program of NASA had already ended in 2011. Too much money -billions of dollars- had been invested in the space program, and now it was time to enter the unknown territories of the oceans.
The author is probably right. We do not much about oceans and what could be under the sea. That is a real mystery. We have explored enough about the space, according to our possibilities and limitations, but practically the ocean is unknown. So ocean exploration would be a real challenge.
