X. Answer about the article

1. Who will chair the Arctic Council meeting in Stockholm?

2. What countries are the members of the Council?

3. What are the indigenous Arctic peoples?

4. What strait is between Greenland and Norway’s archipelago?

5. What factors speed the global warming?

6. What can happen in the Arctic between 2020 and 2050?

7. What makes Arctic deposits accessible?

8. Why is it necessary to use trans-Arctic shipping routes?

9. In what way did the Russian supertanker traverse the northern route?

10. Why did Norway threaten to block China’s bid for observer status?

11. What part of the Arctic coastline belongs to Russia?

12. What issues do disputes rumble on?

13. Why do disputes erupt over continental shelves?

14. What are the activities of the Arctic club?

15. What is Arthur Chilingarov famous for?

16. Why should Arctic countries have good regional relations?

XI. Insert prepositions

1. The top … the world is warming roughly twice as fast as the rest … it.

2. The Arctic now has less sea-ice … the time of year, than … millennia.

3. Most scientists expect the Arctic Ocean to begin to be largely ice-free in summer sometime … 2020 and 2050.

4. Arctic deposits … oil, gas and other minerals become accessible.

5. The Arctic has … a quarter of the world's undiscovered and recoverable oil and gas reserves.

6. New commercial trans-Arctic shipping routes will sharply cut the distance … Europe and Asia.

7. In 2011 a Russian supertanker, aided … two nuclear icebreakers, became the first such vessel to traverse the North-east Passage across the Arctic.

8. But officials in Oslo are not the only ones … mixed feelings about Chinese membership.

9. Russia owns half the Arctic coastline and the lion’s share … the region’s resources.

10. Canada displays distinctive robustness … Arctic issues.

11. The ostensible ground … delay is over the newcomers’ role.

12. This will be limited … watching and listening.

13. A bigger row could yet erupt … continental shelves.

14. Next will be a deal … responding … oil spills.

15. Artur Chilingarov planted his country’s flag … the North Pole.

16. The development of Arctic shipping-lanes will also be made easier … good regional relations.

17. Welcome … the new world of the warming Arctic.

XII. Insert the proper words, see the words below

1. It was once a …, both bureaucratically and literally.

2. “The Arctic is hot,” says Gustaf Lind, the Swedish …

3. The other members are six non-voting representatives of … Arctic peoples.

4. When dark, absorptive seawater replaces bright, reflective ice, it … more heat.

5. Most scientists expect the Arctic Ocean to begin to be largely … in summer sometime between 2020 and 2050.

6. High commodity prices make them …

7. In 2011 a Russian supertanker became the first such vessel to … the North-east Passage across the Arctic.

8. China, South Korea, Japan and Singapore have applied to … the Arctic Council as observers.

9. Norway was threatening to block China’s … for observer status.

10. Nobel prize committee awarded the 2010 peace prize to a … Chinese dissident.

11. Russia … half the Arctic coastline and the lion's share of the region’s resources.

12. The EU tiresomely bemoans the annual … slaughter.

13. The Arctic is the polar … of Antarctica, figuratively as well as literally.

14. A bigger row could yet erupt over continental …

15. It focuses on activities such as pollution, marine … and mapping.

16. Last year members signed their first agreement on … missions.

17. In 2007 an … called Artur Chilingarov planted his country’s flag under the North Pole.

18. Arctic countries are finding that the enormous costs of research, … and energy exploration are better shared.

1. ambassador

2. backwater

3. bid

4. conservation

5. explorer

6. ice-free

7. indigenous

8. jailed

9. join

10. lucrative

11. opposite

12. owns

13. policing

14. retains

15. seal

16. search-and-rescue

17. shelves

18. traverse