COMPREHENSION QUESTION
Read the passage below and answer questions following it.
The Alaska pipeline starts at the frozen edge of the Arctic Ocean. It stretches southward across the largest and northernmost state inthe United States, ending at a remote ice-freeseaport village nearlyLine800 miles from where it begins. It is massive in size and extremely complicated to operate.The steel pipe crosses windswept plains and endless miles ofdelicate tundra that tops the frozen ground. It weaves throughcrooked canyons, climbs sheer mountains, plunges over rockycrags, makes its way through thick forests, and passes over or under hundreds of rivers and streams. The pipe is 4 feet in diameter,and up to 2 million barrels (or 84 million gallons) of crude oil can be pumped through it daily.Resting on H-shaped steel racks called"bents," long sections ofthe pipeline follow a zigzag course high above the frozen earth.Other long sections drop out of sight beneath spongy or rockyground and return to the surface later on. The pattern of thepipeline's up-and-down route is determined by the often harshdemands of the arctic and subarctic climate,the tortuous lay of theland, and the varied compositions of soil, rock, or permafrost (permanently frozen ground). A little more than half of the pipelineis elevated above the ground. The remainderis buried anywhere from 3 to 12 feet, depending largely upon thetype of terrain andthe properties of the soil.One of the largest in the world, the pipeline cost approximately $8 billion and is by far the biggest and most expensive construction project ever undertaken by private industry. In fact, no singlebusiness could raise that much money, so 8 major oil companiesformed a consortium in order to share the costs. Each company controlled oil rights to particular shares of land in the oil fields and paid into the pipeline-construction fund according to the size of itsholdings. Today, despite enormous problems of climate, supply shortages, equipment breakdowns, labor disagreements, treacherous terrain, a certain amount of mismanagement, and even theft, the Alaska pipeline has been completed and is operating.
QUESTIONS
1 From the passage, the writer primarily discusses the pipeline's
2. The word "it" in line 4 refers to? Explain your answer.
3. According to the passage, for how long 84 million gallons of oil travel through the pipeline?
4. What is the closest meaning of the phrase "Resting on" as used in line 13 of the passage?
5. Has the author mentions "local vegetation" as important in determining the pipeline's route? Identify any two important factors that determine the pipeline's route.
6. How many companies shared the costs ofconstructing the pipeline.
7. What determined the percentage of the construction costs each member of the consortium would pay?