READING

READING PASSAGE 1
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 stationstogether 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 held 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 of 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 ‘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 7–11
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 7-11 on your answer sheet

7 Which was the first underground railway in the world?

8 Despite ventilation shafts, what remained an issue?
9 What was another option instead of the ‘cut and cover’ construction method?
10 When was the City & South London opened?
11 What was known as the ‘Tuppenny Tube’?
READING PASSAGE 2
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 12-19, which are based on Reading
Passage 2 below.

Roman shipbuilding and navigation

Shipbuilding today is based on science and ships are built using computers and sophisticated tools.
Shipbuilding in ancient Rome, however, was more of an art relying on estimation, inherited techniques and
personal experience. The Romans were not traditionally sailors but mostly landbased people, who learned
to build ships from the people that they conquered, namely the Greeks and the Egyptians.
There are a few surviving written documents that give descriptions and representations of ancient Roman
ships, including the sails and rigging. Excavated vessels also provide some clues about ancient shipbuilding
techniques. Studies of these have taught us that ancient Roman shipbuilders built the outer hull first, then
proceeded with the frame and the rest of the ship. Planks used to build the outer hull were initially sewn
together. Starting from the 6th century BCE, they were fixed using a method called mortise and tenon,
whereby one plank locked into another without the need for stitching. Then in the first centuries of the
current era, Mediterranean shipbuilders shifted to another shipbuilding method, still in use today, which
consisted of building the frame first and then proceeding with the hull and the other components of the ship.
This method was more systematic and dramatically shortened ship construction times. The ancient Romans
built large merchant ships and warships whose size and technology were unequalled until the 16th century
CE.
Warships were built to be lightweight and very speedy. They had to be able to sail near the coast, which is
why they had no ballast or excess load and were built with a long, narrow hull. They did not sink when
damaged and often would lie crippled on the sea’s surface following naval battles. They had a bronze
battering ram, which was used to pierce the timber hulls or break the oars of enemy vessels. Warships used
both wind (sails) and human power (oarsmen) and were therefore very fast. Eventually, Rome’s navy
became the largest and most powerful in the Mediterranean, and the Romans had control over what they
therefore called Mare Nostrum meaning ‘our sea’.
There were many kinds of warship. The ‘trireme’ was the dominant warship from the 7th to 4th century
BCE. It had rowers in the top, middle and lower levels, and approximately 50 rowers in each bank. The
rowers at the bottom had the most uncomfortable position as they were under the other rowers and were
exposed to the water entering through the oar-holes. It is worth noting that contrary to popular perception,
rowers were not slaves but mostly Roman citizens enrolled in the military. The trireme was superseded by
larger ships with even more rowers.
Merchant ships were built to transport lots of cargo over long distances and at a reasonable cost. They had
a wider hull, double planking and a solid interior for added stability. Unlike warships, their V-shaped hull
was deep underwater, meaning that they could not sail too close to the coast. They usually had two huge
side rudders located off the stern and controlled by a small tiller bar connected to a system of cables. They
had from one to three masts with large square sails and a small triangular sail at the bow. Just like warships,
merchant ships used oarsmen, but coordinating the hundreds of rowers in both types of ship was not an easy
task. In order to assist them, music would be played on an instrument, and oars would then keep time with
this.
The cargo on merchant ships included raw materials (e.g. iron bars, copper, marble and granite), and
agricultural products (e.g. grain from Egypt’s Nile valley). During the Empire, Rome was a huge city by
ancient standards of about one million inhabitants. Goods from all over the world would come to the city
through the port of Pozzuoli situated west of the bay of Naples in Italy and through the gigantic port of
Ostia situated at the mouth of the Tiber River. Large merchant ships would approach the destination port
and, just like today, be intercepted by a number of towboats that would drag them to the quay.
The time of travel along the many sailing routes could vary widely. Navigation in ancient Rome did not
rely on sophisticated instruments such as compasses but on experience, local knowledge and observation
of natural phenomena. In conditions of good visibility, seamen in the Mediterranean often had the mainland
or islands in sight, which greatly facilitated navigation. They sailed by noting their position relative to a
succession of recognisable landmarks. When weather conditions were not good or where land was no longer
visible, Roman mariners estimated directions from the pole star or, with less accuracy, from the Sun at
noon. They also estimated directions relative to the wind and swell. Overall, shipping in ancient Roman
times resembled shipping today with large vessels regularly crossing the seas and bringing supplies from
their Empire.
Questions 12–19
Complete the notes below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 12–19 on your answer sheet

Warships and merchant ships

Warships were designed so that they were 12………………………………. quickly. They often
remained afloat after battles and were able to sail close to land as they lacked any additional
weight. A battering ram made of 13………………………………. was included in the design for
attacking and damaging the timber and oars of enemy ships. Warships, such as the ‘trireme’,
had rowers on three different and moved 14……………………………….
Unlike warships, merchant ships had a broad 15………………………………. that lay far below
the surface of the sea. Merchant ships were steered through the water with the help of large
rudders and a tiller bar. They had both square and 16………………………………. sails. On
merchant ships and warships, 17………………………………. was used to ensure rowers
moved their oars in and out of the water at the same time.
Quantities of agricultural goods such as 18………………………………. were transported by
merchant ships to two main ports in Italy. The ships were pulled to the shore by
19………………………………. When the weather was clear and they could see islands or land,
sailors used landmarks that they knew to help them navigate their route.
READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 20-26, which are based on Reading
Passage 3 below.

Climate change reveals ancient artefacts in Norway’s glaciers

Well above the treeline in Norway’s highest mountains, ancient fields of ice are shrinking as Earth’s climate
warms. As the ice has vanished, it has been giving up the treasures it has preserved in cold storage for the
last 6,000 years- items such as ancient arrows and skis from Viking Age1 traders. And those artefacts have
provided archaeologists with some surprising insights into how ancient Norwegians made their livings.

Organic materials like textiles and hides are relatively rare finds at archaeological sites. This is because
unless they’re protected from the microorganisms that cause decay, they tend not to last long. Extreme cold
is one reliable way to keep artefacts relatively fresh for a few thousand years, but once thawed out, these
materials experience degradation relatively swiftly.

With climate change shrinking ice cover around the world, glacial archaeologists need to race the clock to
find newly revealed artefacts, preserve them, and study them. If something fragile dries and is windblown
it might very soon be lost to science, or an arrow might be exposed and then covered again by the next snow
and remain well-preserved. The unpredictability means that glacial archaeologists have to be systematic in
their approach to fieldwork.

Over a nine-year period, a team of archaeologists, which included Lars Pilo of Oppland County Council,
Norway, and James Barrett of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, surveyed patches of ice
in Oppland, an area of south-central Norway that is home to some of the country’s highest mountains.
Reindeer once congregated on these icy patches in the later summer months to escape biting insects, and
from the late Stone Age2, hunters followed. In addition, trade routes threaded through the mountain passes
of Oppland, linking settlements in Norway to the rest of Europe.

The slow but steady movement of glaciers tends to destroy anything at their bases, so the team focused on
stationary patches of ice, mostly above 1,400 metres. That ice is found amid fields of frost-weathered
boulders, fallen rocks, and exposed bedrock that for nine months of the year is buried beneath snow.

‘Fieldwork is hard work - hiking with all our equipment, often camping on permafrost – but very rewarding.
You’re rescuing the archaeology, bringing the melting ice to wider attention, discovering a unique
environmental history and really connecting with the natural environment,’ says Barret.

At the edges of the contracting ice patches, archaeologists found more than 2,000 artefacts, which formed
a material record that ran from 4,000 BCE to the beginnings of the Renaissance in the 14th century. Many
of the artefacts are associated with hunting. Hunters would have easily misplaced arrows and they often
discarded broken bows rather than take them all the way home. Other items could have been used by hunters
traversing the high mountain passes of Oppland: all-purpose items like tools, skis, and horse tack.

1
Viking Age: a period of European history from around 700 CE to around 1050 CE when Scandinavian Vikings migrated
throughout Europe by means of trade and warfare
2
The Stone Age: a period in early history that began about 3.4 million years ago
Barrett’s team radiocarbon-dated 153 of the artefacts and compared those dates to the timing of major
environmental changes in the region- such as periods of cooling or warming-and major social and economic
shifts- such as the growth of farming settlements and the spread of international trade networks leading up
to the Viking Age. They found that some periods had produced lots of artefacts, which indicates that people
had been pretty active in the mountains during those times. But there were few or no signs of activity during
other periods.

What was surprising, according to Barrett, was the timing of these periods. Oppland’s mountains present
daunting terrain and in periods of extreme cold, glaciers could block the higher mountain passes and make
travel in the upper reaches of the mountains extremely difficult. Archaeologists assumed people would stick
to lower elevations during a time like the Late Antique Little Ice Age, a short period of deeper-than-usual
cold from about 536-600 CE. But it turned out that hunters kept regularly venturing into the mountains even
when the climate turned cold, based on the amount of stuff they had apparently dropped there.

‘Remarkably, though, the finds from the ice may have continued through this period, perhaps suggesting
that the importance of mountain hunting increased to supplement failing agricultural harvests in times of
low temperatures,’ says Barrett. A colder turn in the Scandinavian climate would likely have meant
widespread crop failures, so more people would have depended on hunting to make up for those losses.

Many of the artefacts Barrett’s team recovered date from the beginning of the Viking Age, the 700s through
to the 900s CE. Trade networks connecting Scandinavia with Europe and the Middle East were expanding
around this time. Although we usually think of ships when we think of Scandinavian expansion, these recent
discoveries show that plenty of goods travelled on overland routes, like the mountain passes of Oppland.
And growing Norwegian towns, along with export markets, would have created a booming demand for
hides to fight off the cold, as well as antlers to make useful things like combs. Business must have been
good for hunters.

Norway’s mountains are probably still hiding a lot of history- and prehistory- in remote ice patches. When
Barrett’s team looked at the dates for their sample of 153 artefacts, they noticed a gap with almost no
artefacts from about 3,800 to 2,200 BCE. In fact, archaeological finds from that period are rare all over
Norway. The researchers say that could be because many of those artefacts have already disintegrated or
are still frozen in the ice. That means archaeologists could be extracting some of those artefacts from
retreating ice in years to come.
Questions 20 and 21

Choose TWO letters, A-E.

Write the correct letters in boxes 20 and 21 on your answer sheet.

Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make about the discoveries of Barrett’s
team?

A Artefacts found in the higher mountain passes were limited to skiing equipment.
B Hunters went into the mountains even during periods of extreme cold.
C The number of artefacts from certain time periods was relatively low.
D Radiocarbon dating of artefacts produced some unreliable results.
E More artefacts were found in Oppland than at any other mountain site.

Questions 22 and 23
Choose TWO letters, A-E.
Write the correct letters in boxes 22 and 23 on your answer sheet.
Which TWO of the following statements does the writer make about the Viking Age?
A Hunters at this time benefited from an increased demand for goods.
B The beginning of the period saw the greatest growth in the wealth of Vikings.
C Vikings did not rely on ships alone to transport goods.
D Norwegian towns at this time attracted traders from around the world.
E Vikings were primarily interested in their trading links with the Middle East.
Questions 24 – 26
Complete the notes below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 24–26 on your answer sheet

Interesting finds at an archaeological site

Organic materials such as animal skins and textiles are not discovered very often at
archaeological sites. They have little protection against 24………………………………., which
means that they decay relatively quickly. But this is not always the case. If temperatures are
low enough, fragile artefacts can be preserved for thousands of years.

A team of archaeologists have been working in the mountains in Oppland in Norway to

recover artefacts revealed by shrinking ice cover. In the past, there were trade routes through
these mountains and 25………………………………. the summer months to avoid being
attacked by 26………………………………. ground. The people who used these mountains
left things behind and it is those objects that are of interest to archaeologists.