Located between the Andes mountain range in the west and…
Located between the Andes mountain range in the west and the Atlantic Ocean in the east, at what some describe as the ends of the Earth, is the little-known but huge region of Patagonia, Argentina. Covering nearly all the southern mainland, this 260,000-square-mile, unspoiled region contains strikingly varied geography. The western border of Patagonia is created by the Andean mountain range running north and south like a huge backbone. In these rugged mountain lands are national parks, such as Nahuel Huapí and Los Alerces in the north, and Perito Francisco P. Moreno, with its sharper peaks, further south. All along the Andes, ancient glaciers once hollowed out valleys and steep canyons and created a series of pristine lakes San Martin, Viedma, and Argentino. The Andean land has been formed also by geologically recent volcanic activity, resulting in terraced land, like huge steps, moving east from the mountains. These stepplands eventually merge with the broad desert of Patagonia’s interior, reaching east all the way to the Atlantic coast. In the northern bushlands, more moderate in terrain and climate, eastward-flowing river Río Negro most notably creates Patagonia’s best agricultural land. The Negro River fruit region, for example, produces peaches, plums, almonds, apples, pears, olives, grapes, and alfalfa with the help of irrigation that provides moisture in a semiarid, moderate climate. Here and in central Patagonia are the primary natural resources: oil and natural gas reserves around Neuquén and Comodoro Rivadavai and iron ore in Sierra Grande. Coal is mined further south in Río Turbio. Further south, the land and climate are made inhospitable by arctic blasts sweeping away everything but the hardiest fauna and flora. In the southern interior, the dark volcanic hills and lava fields and the light bunchgrasses produce the much-photographed “spotted” terrain of southern Patagonia. This land rises steadily until, at the southernmost point, the Strait of Magellan leads to the islands of Tierra del Fuego. Here, the old whaling port of Ushiaia is quite literally the last habitable spot before the South Pole. The Beagle Channel, named for the ship that naturalist Charles Darwin made famous, allows access inland from the south At this point, at the end of the world, dry, bitter winds blow from Antarctica; the soil is rocky and poor, and only the strong survive like the arctic beech tree or, incongruously, a type of parrot and canary more apt to be found in the tropics than the tundra. Passage 3 Question 19: Which sentence best states the main idea of this passage?
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