Read the text and answer the questions.
- The Alaska pipeline starts at the frozen edge of the
- Arctic Ocean. It stretches southward across the largest
- and northernmost state in the United States, ending at
- a remote ice-free seaport village nearly 800 miles from
- where it begins. It is massive in size and extremely
- complicated to operate.
- The steel pipe crosses windswept
- plains and endless miles of delicate tundra that tops
- the frozen ground. It weaves through crooked canyons,
- climbs sheer mountains, plunges over rocky crags,
- 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 of the pipeline follow a zigzag course high
- above the frozen earth. Other long sections drop out of
- sight beneath spongy or rocky ground and return to the
- surface later on. The pattern of the pipeline's up-and-
- down route is determined by the often harsh demands
- of the arctic and subarctic climate, the tortuous lay of
- the land, and the varied compositions of soil, rock, or
- permafrost (permanently frozen ground). A little more
- than half of the pipeline is elevated above the ground.
- The remainder is buried anywhere from 3 to 12 feet,
- depending largely upon the type of terrain and the
- 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 single
- business could raise that much money, so eight major oil
- companies formed 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 its holdings. 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.