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    TOEFL - Reading

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    Gabriela Hernandez
    The passage describes the construction of the Alaska pipeline. It begins at the Arctic Ocean and stretches nearly 800 miles south to a seaport village. The pipeline is massive in size and complex to operate. It crosses difficult terrain like tundra, canyons, mountains, and forests. Up to 2 million barrels of oil can travel through the 4 foot diameter steel pipe daily. Over half the pipeline is elevated on supports above the ground, while the rest is buried 3 to 12 feet deep depending on the terrain. Costing $8 billion, it was the largest and most expensive private construction project ever. Multiple oil companies formed a consortium to share the costs based on the size of their land holdings in the oil fields. Despite

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    TOEFL - Reading

    Uploaded by

    Gabriela Hernandez
    59 views6 pages
    The passage describes the construction of the Alaska pipeline. It begins at the Arctic Ocean and stretches nearly 800 miles south to a seaport village. The pipeline is massive in size and complex to operate. It crosses difficult terrain like tundra, canyons, mountains, and forests. Up to 2 million barrels of oil can travel through the 4 foot diameter steel pipe daily. Over half the pipeline is elevated on supports above the ground, while the rest is buried 3 to 12 feet deep depending on the terrain. Costing $8 billion, it was the largest and most expensive private construction project ever. Multiple oil companies formed a consortium to share the costs based on the size of their land holdings in the oil fields. Despite

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    The passage describes the construction of the Alaska pipeline. It begins at the Arctic Ocean and stretches nearly 800 miles south to a seaport village. The pipeline is massive in size and complex to operate. It crosses difficult terrain like tundra, canyons, mountains, and forests. Up to 2 million barrels of oil can travel through the 4 foot diameter steel pipe daily. Over half the pipeline is elevated on supports above the ground, while the rest is buried 3 to 12 feet deep depending on the terrain. Costing $8 billion, it was the largest and most expensive private construction project ever. Multiple oil companies formed a consortium to share the costs based on the size of their land holdings in the oil fields. Despite

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    59 views6 pages

    TOEFL - Reading

    Uploaded by

    Gabriela Hernandez
    The passage describes the construction of the Alaska pipeline. It begins at the Arctic Ocean and stretches nearly 800 miles south to a seaport village. The pipeline is massive in size and complex to operate. It crosses difficult terrain like tundra, canyons, mountains, and forests. Up to 2 million barrels of oil can travel through the 4 foot diameter steel pipe daily. Over half the pipeline is elevated on supports above the ground, while the rest is buried 3 to 12 feet deep depending on the terrain. Costing $8 billion, it was the largest and most expensive private construction project ever. Multiple oil companies formed a consortium to share the costs based on the size of their land holdings in the oil fields. Despite

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    You are on page 1of 6

    TOEFL – Reading Comprehension

    Directions: In the Reading Comprehension section you will


    read several passages. Each one is followed by a number of
    questions about it. You are to choose the one best answer, A,
    B, C, or D, to each question. Then, on your answer sheet, find
    the number of the question and fill in the space that
    corresponds to the letter of the answer you have chosen.

    Answer all questions about the information in a passage on


    the basis of what is stated or implied in that passage.

    Read the following passage:

    The railroad was not the first institution to impose regularity on


    society, or to draw attention to the importance of precise
    timekeeping. For as long as merchants have set out their wares at
    Line daybreak and communal festivities have been celebrated, people
    (5) have been in rough agreement with their neighbors as to the time of
    day. The value of this tradition is today more apparent than ever.
    Were it not for public acceptance of a single yardstick of time,
    social life would be unbearably chaotic: the massive daily transfers
    of goods, services, and information would proceed in fits and
    (10) starts; the very fabric of modern society would begin to unravel.

    Example I

    What is the main idea of the passage?

    A. In modern society we must make more time for our neighbors.


    B. The traditions of society are timeless.
    C. An accepted way of measuring time is essential for the smooth
    functioning of society.
    D. Society judges people by the times at which they conduct certain
    activities.

    1
    The main idea of the passage is that societies need to agree about how time
    is measured in order to function smoothly. Therefore, you should choose
    answer C.

    Example II

    In line 6, the phrase "this tradition" refers to

    A. the practice of starting the business day at dawn


    B. friendly relations between neighbors
    C. the railroad's reliance on time schedules
    D. people's agreement on the measurement of time

    The phrase "this tradition" refers to the preceding clause, "people have been
    in rough agreement with their neighbors as to the time of day." Therefore,
    you should choose answer D.

    Now begin work on the questions.

    2
    PRACTICE PASSAGE

    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
    Line 800 miles from where it begins. It is massive in size and extremely
    (5) 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
    (10) 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.
    (15) 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
    (20) (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
    (25) $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
    (30) 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.

    3
    PRACTICE QUESTIONS

    1. The passage primarily discusses the pipeline's


    A. operating costs
    B. employees
    C. consumers
    D. construction

    2. The word "it" in line 4 refers to


    A. pipeline
    B. ocean
    C. state
    D. village

    3. According to the passage, 84 million gallons of oil can travel through


    the pipeline each
    A. day
    B. week
    C. month
    D. year

    4. The phrase "Resting on" in line 13 is closest in meaning to


    A. Consisting of
    B. Supported by
    C. Passing under
    D. Protected with

    5. The author mentions all of the following as important in determining


    the pipeline's route EXCEPT the
    A. climate
    B. lay of the land itself
    C. local vegetation
    D. kind of soil and rock

    4
    6. The word "undertaken" in line 26 is closest in meaning to
    A. removed
    B. selected
    C. transported
    D. attempted

    7. How many companies shared the costs of constructing the pipeline?


    A. 3
    B. 4
    C. 8
    D. 12

    8. The word "particular" in line 29 is closest in meaning to


    A. peculiar
    B. specific
    C. exceptional
    D. equal

    9. Which of the following determined what percentage of the


    construction costs each member of the consortium would pay?
    A. How much oil field land each company owned
    B. How long each company had owned land in the oil fields
    C. How many people worked for each company
    D. How many oil wells were located on the company's land

    10. Where in the passage does the author provide a term for an earth
    covering that always remains frozen?
    A. Line 3
    B. Line 13
    C. Line 19
    D. Line 32

    5
    Answer Key for Practice Questions
    Section 3 - Reading Comprehension

    1. D 6. D
    2. A 7. C
    3. A 8. B
    4. B 9. A
    5. C 10. C

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