Comprehension - Intermediate [ 19 ]

[ 19 ] Comprehension . 

[  19  ] Intermediate

Read the following , then answer the questions below :

                   The English Channel is the name of the sea which separates England from France . In the past , the only way to transport people and goods from one country to the other was by ferry . Some people still cross the Channel by ferry today . This is a slow way to travel . There are very often strong gales that make crossing difficult . So the Channel Tunnel was built under the sea . For the first time England is linked to France . The Channel Tunnel is a fast and cheap way to travel between the two countries . It is the world’s longest tunnel .

               The Channel Tunnel was built in the 20^th century . A French engineer first suggested building a tunnel in 1802 . Work started at the end of the 19^th century . The work stopped because of political and practical problems . In the 1980s , construction started again and the tunnel was ready in seven years. It first opened on May the 6^th , 1994 .

              The tunnel is 54 km long . The undersea part is 39 km . The depth of the tunnel is 46 meters below the seabed . About 15.00 people worked on the tunnel . They had to remove millions of tones of earth . The soil removed by the machines could make a hill as high as Eiffel Tower . It cost 10.5 billion pounds to build the Channel Tunnel . The journey from London to Paris takes about three hours . Thirty five minutes of the three hours is spent in the underwater tunnel .

A-] Answer the following questions :

1-] How did people cross the English Channel in the past ?

………………………………………………………………………………………

2-] Why was the Channel Tunnel built ?

………………………………………………………………………………………

3-] Was the work to build the Channel big ? Prove .

………………………………………………………………………………………

4-] What stopped the work in the Channel Tunnel ?

………………………………………………………………………………………

B-] Choose the correct answer :

1-] The French engineer first suggested building the tunnel in the

A-] eighteenth century .                  B-] nineteenth century                                               C-] seventeenth century .                D-] twentieth century .

2-] The underlined word “It” refers to the

A-] English Channel .  B-] Channel Tunnel . C-] France . D-] England .

3-] Crossing the English Channel was difficult because of

A-] strong waves . B-] strong tides . C-] strong winds . D-] strong glaciers .