Alaska.Чтение

Alaska and Russia are less than 3 miles apart at their closest point in the Bering  Strait.  In  winter,  it  is  possible  to  walk  across  the  ice  from  one country  to  the  other.  Alaskan  and  Russian  natives  on  either  side  of  the Bering Strait carry on active border trade and visit each other. Nowadays the  University  of  Alaska  has  more  Russian  students  than  any  other university in the United States.

The name of the largest American state comes from the Aleut language for ‘great land’. Native American people  -  Inuits,  Yupik Inuits  and  Aleuts  -  have lived  in  Alaska  for  thousands  of  years.  Life  in  Alaska  has  always  been difficult,  but  they  learned  to  adapt  to  the  harsh  climate.  They  lived  by hunting seals, whales and bears and by fishing. They used sledge pulled by dogs  to  travel  over the  snow-covered  land, and  lived  in  igloos  -  houses made of snow.

The territory of Alaska was purchased from the Russians for $7.2 million (very cheaply). Alaska was considered to be a frozen wasteland and nobody could imagine that it would turn out to be one of the United States' richest resources for gold and oil. For many years the Americans called the buying of Alaska  ‘Seward's Folly’, after Secretary of State William  H. Seward, who arranged the purchase in 1867.

Most tourists expect to find the Alaskans still living in igloos and leading an isolated life on the snowy plain. To their surprise, the Alaskans’ daily life does not differ much from life in the central parts of the country. Most Alaskans live in modern homes, drive cars, watch TV, and shop in modern stores.  Alaska’s  communities  have  restaurants,  theatres,  museums,  and modern health care facilities. The real life in Alaska is much less exotic than it is described in books and films.

The  discovery  of  gold  in  1896  started  a  huge  Gold  Rush  that  brought thousands  of  people  to  Alaska.  All  the  adventurerswanted   to  make  a fortune, but many died of cold and hunger on their way to the gold -field. And very few of those who survived managed to find the gold. The famous writer Jack London tried his chance in Alaska too, and many of his books were influenced by his personal experience.

The  small  Alaskan  town  of  Gustavus  is  an  interesting  community.  The town's  400  citizens  are  a  mix  of  professional  people  -  doctors, lawyers, former government workers and artists. For various reasons they decided to drop out of the stressful city life and live on their own in the middle of the woods. Electricity only arrived in the early 1980s and in some homes they still get water from a pump and make a fire to heat water to wash in.