Alaska is a land of clear sea and skies, and great 1)_____(nature)beauty in the north-west of America. Alaska is also a land of great wealth. It has four great
2)________(industry) :fishing, forests, tourism and oil. On the south coast of Alaska is the port of Valdez, ànd from here most of Alaska's oil is taken to other parts of the USA.
The sea off the coast of Alaska is always 3)_______(danger) because it's full of small islands and rocks, some of which are under the water. In winter and spring there is another danger: ice.
The Exxon Valdez started its journey in the evening of 24th March 1989.
At 4)___________ (one), the captain was controlling the ship. Later he went to his cabin to do some paperwork.
Just after the midnight, the Exxon Valdez hit a group of rocks and had several holes in its side. Fifty million litres of oil started to flow out of the ship and into the sea.
The oil from the Valdez disaster polluted 5)_____(near)1,700 kilometres of Alaska's coast, and it covered 4,800 square kilometers of water. It was the 6)_______(bad)
oilspill in American history. Millions of fish, 300,000 sea birds and thousands sea-otters (êàëàíû) died.
It's easy to try to blame one person for the Exxon Valdez disaster. In fact, the disaster 7)______(be)the result of mistakes of many different people who said, "There has never been a disaster, so a disaster will never happen."