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The Alaska Pipeline
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 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 mismanagement, and even theft, the Alaska pipeline has been completed and is operating.
全文翻譯：阿拉斯加輸油管
阿拉斯加輸油管道以北冰洋的凍冰邊緣為起點，向南延伸穿過美國的最北又是最大的州，在離起點800英里以外的一個偏僻的不凍海港中止。它跨幅巨大，而且運作極端復雜。這個鋼質管道穿過強風不斷的草原和無邊無盡的覆蓋于凍土之上的苔原。它盤垣于彎曲的峽谷之間，攀上陡峭的山峰，從巖石遍布的峭壁俯沖下來，穿越濃密的森林，從上或從下經過成百上千條的河流與溪水。管道的直徑有四英尺，每天能運送高達200百萬桶(合8400萬加侖)的原油。枕在H型的鐵架上，管道長長的一部分在冰凍地面的上空走著"之"字形。其它部分消失在松軟或堅硬的地面下然后又回到地面上。管道這種或上或下的路線決定于嚴酷的極帶和副極帶氣候、復雜的地形和構造各異的土壤、巖石、永久凍土。一大半管道懸在地面上空，其余部分則埋入3至12英尺的地下。 深淺大部分由地形狀況和土壤特征而定。作為世上最大的管道之一，它花費了將近80億美元，至今仍是私有產業進行的最浩大最昂貴的建筑工程。實際上，單個公司不可能拿出這么多的資金。為了分擔成本，八大石油公司組成了一個大財團。每個公司都控制著油田中一定土地上的開采權，并由股份的比例把資金投入到管道建設中。盡管有氣候嚴寒、供應不足、設備損壞、勞工糾紛、地形復雜等巨大困難，并有一些管理上的不善甚至被盜現象，阿拉斯加管道現已峻工并正在運行。
