The Bridge that Swayed Reading Answers

Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: “At first it was still. Then it began to sway sideways, just slightly. Then, almost from one moment to next, when large group of people were crossing, the wobble intensified”.
Keywords: Then it began to sway sideways, just slightly
Keyword location: Paragraph 3, line 6
Explanation: On the opening ceremony of the London Millennium footbridge, a huge crowd had gathered on the bridge and when they started to walk across the bridge, there was a pronounced movement of the bridge deck which increased into full swaying when more people started crossing the bridge.

Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: “Everyone had to stop walking to retain balance sometimes to hold onto the hand rails for support”.
Keywords: Everyone had to stop walking to retain balance
Keyword location: Paragraph 3, lines 7-8
Explanation: Due to the intense swaying, it was difficult to maintain balance and everyone took support of the hand rails to prevent themselves from falling.

Answer: H
Supporting Sentence: The embarrassed engineers found the videotape that day which showed the center span swaying about 3 inches sideways every second and the south span 2 inches every 1.25 seconds.
Keywords: center span swaying, 3 inches, second, south span 2 inches, 1.25 seconds
Keyword location: Paragraph 4, lines 4-5
Explanation: When they began the investigation to find the cause and cure, the engineers found the videotape of that day which showed the swaying rhythm which varied to the portions of the bridge.

Answer: E
Supporting Sentence: It is an unconscious tendency for pedestrians to match their footsteps to the sway, thereby exacerbating it even more.
Keywords: unconscious tendency of pedestrians to match their footsteps to the sway
Keyword location: Paragraph 5, lines 6-7
Explanation: The pedestrians tend to synchronize their footsteps according the movement of the bridge which allows them to walk on the bridge.

Answer: wind(s)
Supporting Sentence: Because there was a significant wind blowing on the opening days (force 3-4) and the bridge had been decorated with large flags.
Keywords: significant wind blowing
Keyword location: Paragraph 4, line 5
Explanation: The engineers thought that wind was exerting excessive force on the large flags on the bridge and that made it sway intensely.

Answer: swaying
Supporting Sentence: But after measurements were made in university laboratories of the effects of people walking on swaying platforms and after large-scale experiments with crowds of pedestrians were conducted on a bridge itself, a new understanding and a new theory were developed.
Keywords: effects of people walking on swaying platforms
Keyword location: Paragraph 4, lines 9-10
Explanation: After various investigations, measurements made in laboratories and experiments with pedestrians on swaying platforms, a new theory on this matter was introduced.

Answer: further apart
Supporting Sentence: “If we walk on a swaying surface we tend to compensate and stabilize ourselves by spreading our legs further apart but this increases the lateral push”.
Keywords: spreading our legs further apart
Keyword location: Paragraph 5, lines 4-5
Explanation: If pedestrians walk on a swaying platform, they will find it difficult to walk and stabilize themselves. So, they have to spread their legs to walk properly.

Answer: footsteps
Supporting Sentence: It is an unconscious tendency for pedestrians to match their footsteps to the sway, thereby exacerbating it even more.
Keywords: pedestrians, footsteps, match, sway
Keyword location: Paragraph 5, line 7
Explanation: The pedestrians unconsciously synchronize their steps to the sway of the bridge, they change their movements according to the movements of the bridge.

Answer: horizontal forces
Supporting Sentence: Professor Fujino Yozo of Tokyo University, who studied the earth-resistant Toda bridge in Japan, believes the horizontal forces caused by walking, running or jumping could also in turn cause excessive dynamic vibration in the lateral direction of the bridge.
Keywords: horizontal forces, could also, excessive dynamic vibrations
Keyword location: Paragraph 6, lines 2-3
Explanation: When the pedestrians walk according to the movement of the bridge, it causes a horizontal force which can result in the excessive swaying of the bridge.

Answer: upright
Supporting Sentence: The movement becomes excessive and continues to increase until people begin to have difficulty in walking they may even have to hold on to the rails.
Keywords: have to hold on to the rails
Keyword location: Paragraph 5, last line
Explanation: When there is an excessive pressure on the bridge’s ability to overcome to total push, the movement increases and people will find it difficult to walk and they may have to hold on to the rails for support.

Answer: (engineering designer) Arup
Supporting Sentence: Although there are some descriptions of this phenomenon in existing literature, none of these actually quantifies the force.
Keywords: none of these, quantifies the force
Keyword location: Paragraph 7, lines 4-5
Explanation: It was decided that force exerted by pedestrians had to be quantified to the motion of the bridge but the data proved to be insufficient because was no way to design the bridge against this effect.

Answer: Imperial college
Supporting Sentence: While the Imperial college test platform was too short that only seven or eight steps could be measured at one time.
Keywords: Imperial College, test platform, too short
Keyword location: Paragraph 8, line 4
Explanation: The test at Imperial College failed to investigate the influence of people in a crowd as the test platform was too short to measure sufficient steps.

Answer: University of Southampton
Supporting Sentence: The “walking on the spot” test did not accurately replicate forward walking.
Keywords: not accurately, replicate forward walking
Keyword location: Paragraph 8, line 6
Explanation: The test by University of Southampton although succeeded in observing many footsteps but the test could not replicate forward walking.