Reading Practice (TOEFL)

Now begin work on the questions.

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.

PRACTICE QUESTIONS

1. The passage primarily discusses the pipeline's
1. operating costs
2. employees
3. consumers
4. construction
2. The word "it" in line 4 refers to
1. pipeline
2. ocean
3. state
4. village
3. According to the passage, 84 million gallons of oil can travel through the pipeline each
1. day
2. week
3. month
4. year
4. The phrase "Resting on" in line 13 is closest in meaning to
1. Consisting of
2. Supported by
3. Passing under
4. Protected with
5. The author mentions all of the following as important in determining the pipeline's route EXCEPT the
1. climate
2. lay of the land itself
3. local vegetation
4. kind of soil and rock
6. The word "undertaken" in line 26 is closest in meaning to
1. removed
2. selected
3. transported
4. attempted
7. How many companies shared the costs of constructing the pipeline?
1. 3
2. 4
3. 8
4. 12
8. The word "particular" in line 29 is closest in meaning to
1. peculiar
2. specific
3. exceptional
4. equal
9. Which of the following determined what percentage of the construction costs each member of the consortium would pay?
1. How much oil field land each company owned
2. How long each company had owned land in the oil fields
3. How many people worked for each company
4. 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?
1. Line 3
2. Line 13
3. Line 19
4. Line 32

Jawaban Soal Toefl Reading Practice

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

Sumber: ets.org