Alaska—the Last Frontier

Alaska became the forty-ninth state in January 1959. There is nothing small or ordinary about Alaska. It is America’s largest state. It has the highest mountain and the largest glacier in North America. Its chain of volcanoes is the longest in the world. It has vastregions of uninhabited land richly diverse in both geography and wildlife. It is a remarkable place known as the "Last Frontier."

Alaska fits its name very well. It comes from the word alyeska, meaning "Great Land" in the language of its native Aleut people. Alaska covers 591,004 square miles. Rhode Island would fit into Alaska 480 times! The highest point in Alaska is 20,320-foot Mount McKinley. The sixteen highest mountains in the United States are all in Alaska. There are also about 100,000 glaciers. The largest, Malaspina Glacier, covers 850 square miles. Alaska also has more than 3 million lakes and 3,000 rivers, much more than any other state.

Everything about Alaska seems big. The largest salmon on recordwas caught in 1985 in Alaska's Kenia River. It weighed 97 pounds, 4 ounces. Alaska's brown bears, Kodiak bears, are the world’s largest bears. Even the vegetables grown there are big. Cabbages have been known to weigh 95 pounds, and carrots to be 3 feet long! If you took a trip through Alaska, it would take quite a long while to cover its vast territory. You'd have to take an airplane from place to place because much of Alaska doesn't have roads.

Along the coast you would see thousands of islands, rocks, and reefs.You'd see glaciers and icebergs, which are huge pieces of glaciers that fall into the water. Glaciers cover nearly 29,000 square miles of Alaska. Most are in the south and southeast.

In south-central Alaska, you'd fly over the Alaskan Mountain Rangeand Mount McKinley. Thousands of visitors have climbed up Mount McKinley. Others have died trying. The youngest person to climb Mount McKinley was Taras Genet of Talkeetna, Alaska, who climbed it in 1991 when he was twelve years old.

No doubt you would visit several of Alaska's national parks. In these protected lands there are glaciers, mountains, active volcanoes, lakes, rivers, forests, and wildlife of many kinds. Besides Kodiak bears, there are grizzly bears, polar bears, moose, caribou, wolves, porcupines, beavers, mountain goats, foxes, and squirrels. Alaska has 450 kinds of birds. In its waters, whales and dolphins swim along the coast. Seals, walruses, and sea otters are also found there.

Part of Alaska lies within the Arctic Circle. The land there is called tundra. There are no trees because the soil is always frozen. This frozen soil, called permafrost, thawson the surface during the summer, when it is covered with a thick layer of mosses,wildflowers, and grasses. People who live there have a special problem because of the permafrost. A house built on it sometimes causes it to thaw beneath the house. The thawed soil begins to sink down, and the house goes with it! Many arctic inhabitants build their houses on platforms so they can be moved from time to time.

If you lived in the arctic, you would know why Alaska is also called the "Land of the Midnight Sun." At Barrow, the northernmost point, the sun does not set from May 10 to August 2. There is daylight all that time. Then from November 18 to January 24, Barrow has no sunlight. The average temperature is minus 11 degrees Fahrenheit. If you went to the arctic in the spring and autumn, you'd see the northern lights. This is a natural phenomenonin which the night skies are filled with spectacularcolors, also called the aurora borealis.

Alaska is a very different and special place, and so are its people. Alaska has a very small population for such a big place. Many Alaskan towns have fewer than 100 residents. One such town is Chicken, which has a population of thirty-seven. Many towns, like Chicken, have unusual names, such as Clam Gulch, Candle, Beaver, Deadhorse, King Salmon, and Eek. Many were named by the adventurous and often eccentricprospectors who came to Alaska looking for gold in the 1800s. In 1900, another kind of valuable substance was found—oil—and the first well was drilled.

Most Alaskans live in the cities, such as Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau, where there is work and a modern way of life. The population of Alaska is growing rapidly, and today about two-thirds of Alaskans were born in other places. They come from many countries to work in the oil, mining, timber,and fishing industries.

Native-born Alaskans include both native peoples and the descendants of the early settlers. The natives—the Eskimos, Aleuts, and Indians— migrated to Alaska from Siberia as far back as 15,000 years ago. Some of the natives still live the way their ancestors did, hunting and fishing in the wilderness. Others have modern lives in the cities. However, no matter where they live, when they got there, or what ethnic group they belong to, all Alaskans have one thing in common: the splendors of the great land in which they live.

I. Complete each definition with one of the following.

Vast, reefs, thaws, natural phenomenon, eccentric, on record, mountain range, mosses, spectacular, timber

1. _____is wood or trees grown for use in building.

2. People who are strange and behave in an unusual manner are_____.

3. Facts or events _____are written down and preserved.

4. Something great in size is_____.

5. _____are lines of rocks or sand near the surface of the sea.

6. When something frozen becomes soft or liquid, it_____.

7. ______are small, flat, green or yellow plants without flowers that grow like a thin carpet on wet soil.

8. A connected line or chain of mountains is a_____.

9. Something _____is impressive and dramatic to watch.

10. An unusual event in nature is a_____.

II. Answer the questions.

1. Where do mosses usually grow?

2. What is a country⁷ that has vast areas of wilderness?

3. What is the name of one of the most famous reefs in the world?

4. What is a spectacular area of your country?

5. What natural phenomenon would you like to see?

6. Who is a famous person who is also known as eccentric?

7. What is the name of a well-known mountain range in your country or in
the world?

8. What kind of timber is used for making furniture in your country?

III. Find the main idea of each paragraph.

1. Paragraph 3 is mainly about the fact that

a. Alaska covers a vast area.

b. everything in Alaska is big.

c. vegetables that grow in Alaska are big.

2. Paragraph 7 is mainly about

a. the characteristics of the tundra.

b. when summer comes to the tundra

с. the people who live in the tundra.

3. Paragraph 8 mostly discusses the fact that

a. spring is the best time to visit Alaska.

b. the northern lights are a natural phenomenon.

с. Alaska is known as the "Land of the Midnight Sun."

4. The last paragraph is mainly about

a. native peoples and descendants of the early settlers who make up
the native-born Alaskans.

b. the native peoples who still live the way their ancestors did.

c. native-born Alaskans who live in big cities today.

IV. Fill in the gaps

1. Alaska means _____in the language of its native _____ people.

2. Alaska's brown bears, called ____bears, are the largest bears in the world.

3. The treeless land within the Arctic Circle is called _____.

4. Because the sun does not set during summer in the northernmost
regions, Alaska is also called _____.

5. Native-born Alaskans include both _____and _____.

6. The highest point in Alaska is ____, which is _____feet high.

7.The colors that can be seen in the night skies in autumn are called the _____ or_____.

8. In Alaska there are about _____glaciers, 3 million lakes, and _____rivers.

9. The best way to travel across Alaska is by _____because _____.

10. The native people of Alaska migrated from _____.

V. Number the sentences to show the correct order.

__Taras Genet climbed Mount McKinley.

__Prospectors came to Alaska looking for gold.

__Eskimos, Aleuts, and Indians migrated to Alaska.

__Alaska became a state.

__The largest salmon on record was caught in the Kenia River.

__The first oil well was drilled.

VI. Circle the letter of the best answer.

1. From the passage, we can conclude that

a. all Alaskans travel by plane.

b. traveling through Alaska on foot would be difficult and dangerous,

с. because most of Alaska is wilderness, there isn't much for visitors to see there.

2. We can infer from the passage that

a. it is impossible for people to live in the area within the Arctic Circle.

b. the native Alaskans have lost their ability to survive in the wilderness.

c. the majority of Alaska's population are immigrants living in urban
areas.

3. The writer seems to say that

a. people who live in Alaska must learn to live in the wilderness.

b. Alaska's native people adapted to the harsh climate and made use of
natural resources.

с. most people who went to Alaska looking for gold didn't stay.

VII. Discuss the answers to the questions with your classmates.

1. Some people in Alaska live alone in the wilderness. What are the pros
and cons of living this way?

2. Do you believe that native peoples should leave their traditional ways of
life and live in a modern society? Why?

3. What area of your country is considered very beautiful? How is it similar
to or different from Alaska?

4. What is your favorite climate to live in? Why? How do you think climate
affects the way people live?

VIII. Think about two different types of houses that are found in different environments. Write one paragraph about how the houses are the same and another paragraph about how they are different. Explain how the building materials and styles are meant to adapt to each environment.

Date: 2015-12-18; view: 904