单选题
The Alaska pipeline starts at the frozen edge of the Arctic Ocean. It stretches southward across the largest and northern most 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 operating.
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 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 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 8 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 mismanagements and even theft the Alaska pipeline has been completed and is operating.
单选题 The passage primarily discusses the pipeline's ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】综观全文，本文主要讨论了管道的建造。
单选题 The word "it" (Line 3, Para. 1 ) refers to ______.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】从第1句“The Alaska pipeline starts at the frozen edge of the Arctic Ocean．”可知，本段后面的几个it指的都是管道。
单选题 The author mentions all of the following as important in determining the pipeline's route EXCEPT the ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】从文中内容可知，在决定管道路线时，只有C项不是重要因素。
单选题 How many companies shared the costs of constructing the pipeline?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】根据第4段的“In fact，no single business could raise that much money，so 8 major oil companies formed a consortium in order to share the costs．”可知，C项为正确答案。
单选题 Which of the following determined what percentage of the construction costs each member of the consortium would pay?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】根据第4段的“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”可知，A项为正确答案。