Comprehension check

1.Decide whether the following statements are true or false according to the text:

1. Tunnels are mainly used for transportation including road vehicles, trains, subways and canals.

2. Underground chambers serve different purposes.

3. There are 5 main types of tunnels.

4. The boring of long railroad tunnels through the rocks of the Alps and the Rocky Mountains was an outstanding feat.

5. Though railroad tunnels increase the efficiency of trains they don’t reduce travelling time.

6. The steeper a locomotive must climb, the heavier weight it can pull.

7. It is necessary for motor-traffic tunnels to be equipped with special equipment to remove exhaust fumes.

8. Electric fans for ventilation in the Holland Tunnel can completely change the air in the tunnel every hour.

9. Water tunnels provide water to city waterworks.

10. Mine tunnels are made by tunneling machines.

2. Answer the questions:

1. What are tunnels used for?

2. Why are underground chambers so widely used?

3. How many types of tunnels do you know?

4. What is one of the world’s greatest engineering feats?

5. Why do railroad tunnels increase the efficiency of trains?

6. What do motor-traffic tunnels provide?

7. How are exhaust fumes removed?

8. Why do motor-traffic tunnels have special signals and monitoring systems?

9. Where do tunnels carry water?

10. How are mine tunnels made?

LANGUAGE FOCUS

III. Insert the words from the list

bottom, shaft, rock, adjacent, underwater, trench, tunnel, chambers, horizontal, entrance

A tunnel is an essentially … underground passageway produced by excavation or occasionally by nature’s action in dissolving a soluble …. A vertical opening is usually called a …. True tunnels and … are excavated from inside. Then, they are lined to support the … ground. A hillside tunnel … is called a portal. Tunnels may also be started from the … of a vertical shaft or from the end of a horizontal …, driven principally for construction access and called an adit. Tunnels … are now commonly built by the use of an immersed tube. Long prefabricated tube sections are floated to the site, sunk in a prepared … and covered with backfill.

IV. Fill in the prepositions:

1. the efficiency … sth; 2) to provide sth … sth; 3) to be associated … sth; 4) to be situated … sth; 5) to be capable … sth; 6) … diameter; 7) to be lined … sth.