I'm not going to do the short response for you because you should do it in your own words, but I will give you the answer and knowledge on it so you will be able to write your own answer off of it. Hope it helps!
The diver would be at more of a hazard as they ascend up to the surface. When they dive down, the pressure just continues to increase. Think about soda in an unopened can, the pressure remains until you open it. When a diver goes deeper, the nitrogen stays in the bloodstream. The nitrogen can only be relived when they ascend to lower pressures. You'd think then it would be actually safer to ascend, correct? Well it's untrue as sometimes if the diver ascends too quickly there is a rapid formation of bubbles that <em>causes</em> "the bends." As the diver goes down and the pressure increases, the solubility of nitrogen also increases. (Henry's Law) It says in the paragraph you provided that if the solubility decreases quickly, then it causes the bends. If you know that the solubility increases as the pressure does, then you will get the answer that it would be more hazardous to ascend. To prevent it you would just ascend to the surface slower. Bubbles will still form but they will encounter less pain because there are fewer.
Well the target audiences are very different, because at the political party the speaker is trying to persuade the audience to agree with him/her where as the target audience for the academic paper are trying to tech their audience on the topic, also the thesis is more clearly stated in the academic paper.
