VI. Read the following passage and complete the sentences.

      In 1920, after some thirty - nine years of problems with disease, high costs, and politics, the Panama Canal was officially opened, finally linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by allowing ships to pass through the fifty-mile canal Zone instead of traveling some seven thousand miles around Cape Horn. It takes a ship approximately eight hours to complete the trip through the canal and costs an average of fifteen thousand dollars, one-tenth of what it would cost an average ship around the Horn. More than fifteen thousand ships pass through its locks each year.

      The French initiated the project but sold their rights to the United States. The latter will control it until the end of the twentieth century when Panama takes over its duties.

1.   “Initiated” is nearest in meaning to.............................................

2.   The passage is about....................................................................

3.   On the average, it would cost $150,000 to travel........................

4.   The construction on the canal probably began.............................

5.   Despite all the .........................involved, the project is beneficial.