Roman Tunnels Reading Answers

Jan 2, 2023

Roman Tunnels Reading Answers contains sample answers about. Roman Tunnels Reading Answers comprising 13 questions. IELTS Roman Tunnels Reading Answers contains three types of questions: label the diagram, true/false/not given and write no more than two words. Candidates are required to label the diagram based on the IELTS Reading passage in only one word. To decide whether the given statement is true or false or not given in the passage, candidates are required to read the passage efficiently. Lat three questions are required to be answered in no more than two words. To gain proficiency, candidates can practise from the IELTS Reading practice papers.

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Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

Roman Tunnels Reading Answers

The Persians, who lived in present-day Iran, were one of the first civilizations to build tunnels that provided a reliable supply of water to human settlements in dry areas. In the early first millennium BCE, they introduced the qanat method of tunnel construction, which consisted of placing posts over a hill in a straight line, to ensure that the tunnel kept to its route, and then digging vertical shafts down into the ground at regular intervals. Underground, workers removed the earth from between the ends of the shafts, creating a tunnel. The excavated soil was taken up to the surface using the shafts, which also provided ventilation during the work. Once the tunnel was completed, it allowed water to flow from the top of a hillside down towards a canal, which supplied water for human use. Remarkably, some qanats built by the Persians 2,700 years ago are still in use today.

They later passed on their knowledge to the Romans, who also used the qanat method to construct water-supply tunnels for agriculture. Roma qanat tunnels were constructed with vertical shafts dug at intervals of between 30 and 60 metres. The shafts were equipped with handholds and footholds to help those climbing in and out of them and were covered with a wooden or stone lid. To ensure that the shafts were vertical, Romans hung a plumb line from a rod placed across the top of each shaft and made sure that the weight at the end of it hung in the centre of the shaft. Plumb lines were also used to measure the depth of the shaft and to determine the slope of the tunnel. The 5.6-kilometer-long Claudius tunnel, built in 41 CE to drain the Fucine Lake in central Italy, had shafts that were up to 122 metres deep, took 11 years to build and involved approximately 30,000 workers.

By the 6th century BCE, a second method of tunnel construction appeared called the counter-excavation method, in which the tunnel was constructed from both ends. It was used to cut through high mountains when the qanat method was not a practical alternative. This method required greater planning and advanced knowledge of surveying, mathematics and geometry as both ends of a tunnel had to meet correctly at the centre of the mountain. Adjustments to the direction of the tunnel also had to be made whenever builders encountered geological problems or when it deviated from its set path. They constantly checked the tunnel’s advancing direction, for example, by looking back at the light that penetrated through the tunnel mouth, and made corrections whenever necessary. Large deviations could happen, and they could result in one end of the tunnel not being usable. An inscription written on the side of a 428-metre tunnel, built by the Romans as part of the Saldae aqueduct system in modern-day Algeria, describes how the two teams of builders missed each other in the mountain and how the later construction of a lateral link between both corridors corrected the initial error.

The Romans dug tunnels for their roads using the counter-excavation method, whenever they encountered obstacles such as hills or mountains that were too high for roads to pass over. An example is the 37-metre-long, 6-metre-high, Furlo Pass Tunnel built in Italy in 69-79 CE. Remarkably, a modern road still uses this tunnel today. Tunnels were also built for mineral extraction. Miners would locate a mineral vein and then pursue it with shafts and tunnels underground. Traces of such tunnels used to mine gold can still be found at the Dolaucothi mines in Wales. When the sole purpose of a tunnel was mineral extraction, construction required less planning, as the tunnel route was determined by the mineral vein.

Roman tunnel projects were carefully planned and carried out. The length of time it took to construct a tunnel depended on the method being used and the type of rock being excavated. The qanat construction method was usually faster than the counter-excavation method as it was more straightforward. This was because the mountain could be excavated not only from the tunnel mouths but also from shafts. The type of rock could also influence construction times. When the rock was hard, the Romans employed a technique called fire quenching which consisted of heating the rock with fire, and then suddenly cooling it with cold water so that it would crack. Progress through hard rock could be very slow, and it was not uncommon for tunnels to take years, if not decades, to be built. Construction marks left on a Roman tunnel in Bologna show that the rate of advance through solid rock was 30 centimetres per day. In contrast, the rate of advance of the Claudius tunnel can be calculated at 1.4 metres per day. Most tunnels had inscriptions showing the names of patrons who ordered construction and sometimes the name of the architect. For example, the 1.4-kilometer Çevlik tunnel in Turkey, built to divert the floodwater threatening the harbour of the ancient city of Seleucia Pieria, had inscriptions on the entrance, still visible today, that also indicate that the tunnel was started in 69 CE and was completed in 81 CE.

Section 2

Solution With Explanation

Questions 1 – 6
Label the diagrams below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.
The Persian Qanat Method

Cross-section of a Roman Qanat Shaft

Question 1:

Answer: Posts
Supporting Sentence: they introduced the qanat method of tunnel construction, which consisted of placing posts over a hill in a straight line
Keywords: qanat, tunnel, construction, hill
Keywords Location: Paragraph 1, 2nd line
Explanation: Early in the first century BCE, they developed the qanat technique of tunnel construction, which involved setting up poles over hills in a straight line to guarantee that the tunnel stayed on course and then regularly drilling vertical shafts into the ground. This shows how the tunnelling was directed by placing poles on the hill in a straight line to keep it on its course.

Question 2:

Answer: Canal
Supporting Sentence: “Once the tunnel was completed, it allowed water to flow from the top of a hillside down towards a canal, which supplied water for human use.”
Keywords: tunnel, water, hillside, supplied
Keywords Location: Paragraph 1, last lines
Explanation: When the tunnel was finished, it enabled water to flow from a hilltop's top down toward a canal that provided water for human use. According to the referenced statement, after the tunnel is finished, it will enable water to be used for human usage by providing it from the tops of the hills and diverting it toward a canal as depicted in the image.

Question 3:

Answer: Ventilation
Supporting Sentence: The excavated soil was taken up to the surface using the shafts, which also provided ventilation during the work.
Keywords: soil, shafts, ventilation, work
Keywords Location: Paragraph 1, line 6
Explanation: Through the use of shafts, which also served as work ventilation, the excavated earth was brought up to the surface. This implies that the earth was removed using vertical shafts, and that ventilation was also aided by the soil being raised to the surface.

Question 4:

Answer: Lid
Supporting Sentence: The shafts were equipped with handholds and footholds to help those climbing in and out of them and were covered with a wooden or stone lid.
Keywords: shafts, handholds, footholds, climbing
Keywords Location: Paragraph 2, line 3
Explanation: The handholds and footholds in the shafts were there to aid climbers as they entered and exited, and a wooden or stone covering protected the openings. This implies that the lid, visible in the image, used to cover the shafts was composed of woods or stones.

Question 5:

Answer: weight
Supporting Sentence: To ensure that the shafts were vertical, Romans hung a plumb line from a rod placed across the top of each shaft and made sure that the weight at the end of it hung in the centre of the shaft.
Keywords: vertical, plumb, rod, shaft
Keywords Location: Paragraph 2, line 5
Explanation: The Romans hung a plumb line from a rod that was placed across the top of each shaft to make sure that the weight at the end of it hung in the middle of the shaft in order to guarantee that the shafts were upright. This shows that the weight was suspended from the plumbline, which was attached to the rod laid across the top of the shaft, in order to maintain the verticality of the shafts.

Question 6:

Answer: Climbing
Supporting Sentence: The shafts were equipped with handholds and footholds to help those climbing in and out of them and were covered with a wooden or stone lid.
Keywords: shaft, wooden, handholds, footholds
Keywords Location: Paragraph 2, line 3
Explanation: The shafts had wooden or stone lids on top of them and handholds and footholds to aid climbers when they entered and exited them. It can be inferred from this that footholds and handholds made it easier to climb into the shafts.

Questions 7 – 10
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?
In boxes 7-10 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

The counter-excavation method completely replaced the qanat method in the 6th century BCE.

Answer: False
Supporting Sentence: By the 6th century BCE, a second method of tunnel construction appeared called the counter-excavation method, in which the tunnel was constructed from both ends. It was used to cut through high
mountains when the qanat method was not a practical alternative.
Keywords: method, tunnel, construction, qanat
Keywords Location: Paragraph 3, first few lines
Explanation: The counter-excavation method, which involved building the tunnel from both ends, first emerged in the sixth century BCE. When the qanat technique was impractical as a substitute, it was utilised to cut through tall mountains. This demonstrates that the counter-excavation approach was applied anytime the qanat method proved impractical, therefore it would be incorrect to claim that it totally replaced the qanat method.

Only experienced builders were employed to construct a tunnel using the counter-excavation method.

Answer: Not Given
Explanation: There is no relevant information in the passage.

The information about a problem that occurred during the construction of the Saldae aqueduct system was found in an ancient book.

Answer: False
Supporting Sentence: An inscription written on the side of a 428-metre tunnel, built by the Romans as part of the Saldae aqueduct system in modern-day Algeria. It describes how the two teams of builders missed each
other in the mountain. And how the later construction of a lateral link between both corridors corrected the initial error.
Keywords: mountain, builder, Algeria, corridors
Keywords Location: Paragraph 3, last few lines
Explanation: An inscription found on the wall of a 428-metre tunnel that was part of the Roman Saldae aqueduct system in contemporary Algeria. It's how the two construction teams in the mountain missed one another. Moreover, how the initial mistake was fixed by the lateral link that was built subsequently between the two corridors. This shows that rather than the book, the information was recorded on an inscription on the tunnel's wall.

The mistake made by the builders of the Saldae aqueduct system was that the two parts of the tunnel failed to meet.

Answer: True
Supporting Sentence: An inscription written on the side of a 428-metre tunnel, built by the Romans as part of the Saldae aqueduct system in modern-day Algeria. It describes how the two teams of builders missed each
other in the mountain. And how the later construction of a lateral link between both corridors corrected the initial error.
Keywords: inscription, Algeria, builders, construction
Keywords Location: Paragraph 3, last few lines
Explanation: An inscription found on the side of a 428-meter tunnel that was part of the Saldae aqueduct system built by the Romans in contemporary Algeria. It explains how the two building crews lost sight of one another while climbing the mountain. And how the initial mistake was later fixed by building a lateral connector between the two corridors. This statement implies that the two tunnel segments initially lacked a connection and failed to intersect in the mountain.

Questions 11 – 13

Answer the questions below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet.

What type of mineral were the Dolaucothi mines in Wales built to extract?

Answer: Gold
Supporting Sentence: Traces of such tunnels used to mine gold can still be found at the Dolaucothi mines in Wales.
Keywords: traces, tunnels, gold, mines, Wales
Keywords Location: Paragraph 4, 3rd line from the bottom
Explanation: At the Dolaucothi mines in Wales, there are still signs of the tunnels that were once used to mine gold. This demonstrates that gold was the mineral that was extracted using tunnels similar to those at the Dolaucothi mines in Wales.

In addition to the patron, whose name might be carved onto a tunnel?

Answer: architect's name
Supporting Sentence: Most tunnels had inscriptions showing the names of patrons who ordered construction and sometimes the name of the architect.
Keywords: tunnel, inscription, patrons, construction
Keywords Location: Last paragraph, line 12
Explanation: The majority of tunnels contained inscriptions with the patrons' names and, occasionally, the architect's name. This demonstrates that the tunnels were inscribed with the architect's name in addition to the names of the clients.

What part of Seleucia Pieria was the Çevlik tunnel built to protect?

Answer: Harbour
Supporting Sentence: For example, the 1.4-kilometer Çevlik tunnel in Turkey. Built to divert the floodwater threatening the harbour of the ancient city of Seleuceia Pieria. It had inscriptions on the entrance, still visible today.
That also indicates that the tunnel was started in 69 CE and was completed in 81 CE.
Keywords: tunnel, floodwater, inscription
Keywords Location: Last paragraph, last few lines
Explanation: Take the 1.4-kilometer Evlik Tunnel in Turkey as an illustration. The ancient city of Seleuceia Pieria's harbour was threatened by flooding, therefore a diversion was built. The entrance has inscriptions that are still visible today. Additionally, it shows that the tunnel was begun in 69 CE and finished in 81 CE. According to this, the Cevlik tunnel may have been constructed to safeguard the harbour of Seleuceia Pieria.