TFNG Reading: Exercise 1
Passage: The Thames Tunnel
The Thames Tunnel was a tunnel built under the River Thames in London.
It was the first subaqueous tunnel ever built and many people were so
amazed that they exaggerated their description of it calling it the Eight
Wonder of the World at the time it was opened. It was opened in 1843 to
pedestrians only and people came from far and wide to see the marvel.
The day it was first opened, it attracted five thousand people to enter the
tunnel and walk its length of almost 400 metres. The Thames Tunnel was
used by people from all classes. Most working class people used it for its
functional use of crossing from one side of the river to the other as they
went to work each day, while for the middle classes and upper classes, it
was a tourist experience. In the age of sail and horse-drawn coaches,
people voyaged a long way to visit the tunnel, but this was not enough to
make the tunnel a financial success. It had cost over £500,000 to
complete which in those days was a considerable amount of money.
However, even though it attracted about 2 million people each year, each
person only paid a penny to use it. The aim had been for the tunnel to be
used by wheeled vehicles to transport cargo so that it could bring in a
profit. But this failed and the tunnel eventually became nothing more
than a tourist attraction selling souvenirs and a subaqueous pathway
connecting either side of the river. walkway. However, in 1865, the
tunnel became part of the London Underground railway system which
continues to be its use today.
Questions 1-8
Are the following statements true, false or not given according to the
information in the passage above?
True = the statement matches the information in the passage.
False = the statement contradicts the information in the passage.
Not Given = the information is not found in the passage.
1. The Thames Tunnel was the first tunnel ever built under a river.
2. The Thames Tunnel was the Eighth Wonder of the World.
3. People were drawn from all over to see the Thames Tunnel.
4. The tunnel was used more by the middle and upper classes.
5. People were able to travel by sea or land in those days.
6. The aim of the tunnel was to turn a profit as a tourist attraction.
7. Statues of the tunnel could be bought as souvenirs.
8. The tunnel is no longer used as a pedestrian walkway to cross the
river.
TFNG Reading: Exercise 2
Passage: Pyramid Building
The most famous pyramid is the Great Pyramid of Giza which is
actually only one of over a hundred surviving pyramids. There is a
long-standing question about how the pyramids were built given the
lack of technology over 4,000 years ago but scientists are piecing
together the puzzle. The blocks which make up the pyramids were
hewn from quarries and then transported to the pyramids for
construction. This was an incredible feat considering the distance
that the raw materials had to travel and their enormous weight. The
transportation of the materials was either by river using a boat or
by land using a wooden sledge. Given the softness of the ground,
the wheel would have been of little use had it been invented at that
time. It is believed that the sand in front of the sledge was wet with
water in order to facilitate the movement of the sledge and reduce
friction. These sledges were pulled manually or sometimes by using
beasts of burden depending on the ease at which the sledges could
move over the ground. Interestingly, two thousand years after the
pyramid building era of the Ancient Egyptians, the Romans moved
stones using similar techniques at Baalbek. Once the blocks arrived
at the pyramid construction site, it is thought they were moved into
place using a ramp and pulley system.
The Old Kingdom period in Ancient Egyptian history is also known
as the pyramid building era. The Ancient Egyptians achieved the
most remarkable feats of building work which have still not been
surpassed, particularly given the primitive technology used to build
them. There is nothing remotely mystical or magical about how the
pyramids were built as is commonly thought. Further still, while
popular belief is that the Great Pyramid was built using slave
labour, this theory has since been debunked. The first building
made in a pyramid shape is thought to be the Stepped Pyramid
which consists of six steps placed on top of each other in a pyramid
shape to create the world’s first superstructure. The credit to finally
achieving a smooth sided pyramid goes to Imhotep, an architect
commissioned by King Sneferu. The pyramids were not an instant
achievement, but the achievement of trial and error.
Questions 1-8
Decide if the statements below are True, False or Not Given according to
the information in the passage.
1. The controversy over the method used in the construction of the
pyramids has been solved by scientists.
2. It is possible that Ancient Egyptians could have lubricated paths to
aid transportation by sledge.
3. Sleds were dragged by animals not humans.
4. The Romans learned the techniques of moving huge stones from the
Ancient Egyptians.
5. The building work of the Ancient Egyptians is unrivalled.
6. Many people believe that magic may have been used by the Ancient
Egyptians to build the pyramids.
7. The Great Pyramid was built using slave labour.
8. It took more than one attempt to get the construction of the pyramids
right.
TFNG Reading: Exercise 3
Passage: Beethoven
Composer Ludwig van Beethoven was born on or near December 16,
1770, in Bonn, Germany. He is widely considered the greatest composer
of all time. Sometime between the births of his two younger brothers,
Beethoven’s father began teaching him music with an extraordinary
rigour and brutality, which affected him for the rest of his life. On a near
daily basis, Beethoven was flogged, locked in the cellar and deprived of
sleep for extra hours of practice. He studied the violin and clavier with
his father as well as taking additional lessons from organists around
town. Beethoven was a prodigiously talented musician from his earliest
days and displayed flashes of the creative imagination that would
eventually reach farther than any composer’s before or since.
In 1804, Beethoven was completing his third symphony, which he at first
named “Bonaparte” in honour of Napoleon. However, when later that
year Napoleon proclaimed himself Emperor, Beethoven was so
disappointed that he renamed his composition “Eroica”. This work, his
greatest and most original to date, debuted in Vienna in 1805. It was so
unlike anything heard before that through weeks of rehearsal, the
musicians could not figure out how to play it. At the same time as he was
composing these great and immortal works, Beethoven was trying hard to
come to terms with a shocking and terrible fact, one that he tried
desperately to conceal. He was going deaf. At the turn of the century,
Beethoven struggled to make out the words spoken to him in
conversation.
Despite his extraordinary output of beautiful music, Beethoven was
frequently miserable throughout his adult life. Beethoven died on March
26, 1827, at the age of 56.