PROGRESS TEST

LISTENING PAPER
Part 1: Numbers

Part 2: Numbers
Part 3: Money

Part 4: Time
Part 5: Dates
 READING PAPER
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13 which are based on Reading
Passage 1 below.
The development of the London underground railway
In the first half of the 1800s, London’s population grew at an astonishing rate, and the
central area became increasingly congested. In addition, the expansion of the
overground railway network resulted in more and more passengers arriving in the
capital. However, in 1846, a Royal Commission decided that the railways should not
be allowed to enter the City, the capital’s historic and business centre. The result was
that the overground railway stations formed a ring around the City. The area within
consisted of poorly built, overcrowded slums and the streets were full of horse-drawn
traffic. Crossing the City became a nightmare. It could take an hour and a half to travel
8 km by horse-drawn carriage or bus. Numerous schemes were proposed to resolve
these problems, but few succeeded.
Amongst the most vocal advocates for a solution to London’s traffic problems was
Charles Pearson, who worked as a solicitor for the City of London. He saw both social
and economic advantages in building an underground railway that would link the
overground railway stations together and clear London slums at the same time. His
idea was to relocate the poor workers who lived in the inner-city slums to newly
constructed suburbs, and to provide cheap rail travel for them to get to work. Pearson’s
ideas gained support amongst some businessmen and in 1851 he submitted a plan to
Parliament. It was rejected, but coincided with a proposal from another group for an
underground connecting line, which Parliament passed.
The two groups merged and established the Metropolitan Railway Company in August
1854. The company’s plan was to construct an underground railway line from the
Great Western Railway’s (GWR) station at Paddington to the edge of the City at
Farringdon Street – a distance of almost 5 km. The organisation had difficulty in
raising the funding for such a radical and expensive scheme, not least because of the
critical articles printed by the press. Objectors argued that the tunnels would collapse
under the weight of traffic overhead, buildings would be shaken and passengers would
be poisoned by the emissions from the train engines. However, Pearson and his
partners persisted.
The GWR, aware that the new line would finally enable them to run trains into the
heart of the City, invested almost £250,000 in the scheme. Eventually, over a five-year
period, £1m was raised. The chosen route ran beneath existing main roads to minimise
the expense of demolishing buildings. Originally scheduled to be completed in 21
months, the construction of the underground line took three years. It was built just
below street level using a technique known as ‘cut and cover’. A trench about ten
metres wide and six metres deep was dug, and the sides temporarily help up with
timber beams. Brick walls were then constructed, and finally a brick arch was added to
create a tunnel. A two-metre-deep layer of soil was laid on top of the tunnel and the
road above rebuilt.
The Metropolitan line, which opened on 10 January 1863, was the world’s first
underground railway. On its first day, almost 40,000 passengers were carried between
Paddington and Farringdon, the journey taking about 18 minutes. By the end of the
Metropolitan’s first year of operation, 9.5 million journeys had been made.
Even as the Metropolitan began operation, the first extensions to the line were being
authorised; these were built over the next five years, reaching Moorgate in the east to
London and Hammersmith in the west. The original plan was to pull the trains with
steam locomotives, using firebricks in the boilers to provide steam, but these engines
were never introduced. Instead, the line used specially designed locomotives that were
fitted with water tanks in which steam could be condensed. However, smoke and
fumes remained a problem, even though ventilation shafts were added to the tunnels.
Despite the extension of the underground railway, by the 1880s, congestion on
London’s streets had become worse. The problem was partly that the existing
underground lines formed a circuit around the centre of London and extended to the
suburbs, but did not cross the capital’s centre. The ‘cut and cover’ method of
construction was not an option in this part of the capital. The only alternative was to
tunnel deep underground.
Although the technology to create these tunnels existed, steam locomotives could not
be used in such a confined space. It wasn’t until the development of a reliable electric
motor, and a means of transferring power from the generator to a moving train, that the
world’s first deep-level electric railway, the City & South London, became possible.
The line opened in 1890, and ran from the City to Stockwell, south of the River
Thames. The trains were made up of three carriages and driven by electric engines.
The carriages were narrow and had tiny windows just below the roof because it was
thought that passengers would not want to look out at the tunnel walls. The line was
not without its problems, mainly caused by an unreliable power supply, Although the
City & South London Railway was a great technical achievement, it did not make a
profit. Then, in 1900, the Central London Railway, known as the ‘Tuppenny Tube’,
began operation using new electric locomotives. It was very popular and soon
afterwards new railways and extensions were added to the growing tube network. By
1907, the heart of today’s Underground system was in place.
Questions 1-6
Complete the notes below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
The London underground railway
The problem
● The 1 …………………… of London increased rapidly between 1800 and 1850
● The streets were full of horse-drawn vehicles
The proposed solution
● Charles Pearson, a solicitor, suggested building an underground railway
● Building the railway would make it possible to move people to better housing in
the 2 ……………………
● A number of 3 …………………… agreed with Pearson’s idea
● The company initially had problems getting the 4 …………………… needed for
the project
● Negative articles about the project appeared in the 5 ……………………
The construction
● The chosen route did not require many buildings to be pulled down
● The ‘cut and cover’ method was used to construct the tunnels
● With the completion of the brick arch, the tunnel was covered
with 6 ……………………
Questions 7-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
7 Other countries had built underground railways before the Metropolitan line
opened.
8 More people than predicted travelled on the Metropolitan line on the first day.
9 The use of ventilation shafts failed to prevent pollution in the tunnels.
10 A different approach from the ‘cut and cover’ technique was required in London’s
central area.
11 The windows on City & South London trains were at eye level.
12 The City & South London Railway was a financial success.
13 Trains on the ‘Tuppenny Tube’ nearly always ran on time.