2. Read and decide which of these events are the most interesting to you. Other Interesting Crossings

1785 John Jeffries and Jean Pierre Blanchard first crossed the Channel by balloon.

1875 Captain Matthew Webb swam across the channel. Thousands of people have done this since then.

1883 William Terry rode from Midlands of England to Dover on tricycle, which changed into a rowing boat and took him across to France.

1934 The Frenchman Monsieur Flourens tried to cross from France on a huge rubber ball.

1959 The first British hovercraft crossed from Calais to Dover in two hours three minutes.

Every year ‘mad’ Englishmen try to cross the Channel in all kinds of ‘boats’. Here are some of the sillier examples: a large bed, a giant gin bottle, a jacuzzi, a beer barrel, a parachute behind a boat.

2. Vocabulary Exercises

A. Read the text given below and decide which answer A, B, C or D best fits each space.

Chunnel or Brunnel?

In the 1856 a French engineer, Thomè de Gamond, suggested the building of a tunnel (1) __________ the English Channel. The well-known British engineers Brunel and Stephenson became interested and the French government agreed to the (2) __________. But in 1883 the British government stopped the plans for political reasons.

In the 1950’s and 1960’s engineers again worked on plans for a Channel link. (3) __________ looked at three different ideas: a tunnel through the rock under the sea-bed, a tunnel on the sea-bed and a bridge.

But in 1975 the British government again decided not to start the building (4) __________. This time the cost of the scheme (5) __________ too high.

In 1984 the idea came up for the third time. Both the British and the French governments showed interest. (6) __________ time there are two main suggestions: the Chunnel and the Brunnel.

The Chunnel was the favourite and cheapest plan. It was a double rail tunnel. Motorists couldnot drive through this, but trains carried cars and lorries through the tunnel between England and France.

The Brunnel was the idea of the Euroroute company. It wass for trains and road traffic. Trains used a tunnel all the (7) __________ way from England to France. Cars used a tunnel only for the middle of the journey. At (8) __________ ends there were bridges, from the land to islands several miles off the coast.

The cost of both ideas was very high, and work couldnot start (9) __________ the two governments agree. Some people thought this would be 100 years too late. Others, mainly British people, did not want a link of any kind between Britain and the continent of Europe. But it was taking them a short time to get used to the idea (10) __________ being Europeans. Nowadays Englishpeople prefer to travel to France and Belgium throught the Channel Tunnel.

1.	A.	under	B.	into	C.	on	D.	near
2.	A.	design	B.	scheme	C.	circuit	D.	schedule
3.	A.	the	B.	there	C.	they	D.	their
4.	A.	action	B.	activity	C.	job	D.	work
5.	A.	are	B.	is	C.	was	D.	be
6.	A.	that	B.	this	C.	these	D.	those
7.	A.	route	B.	path	C.	way	D.	road
8.	A.	neither	B.	either	C.	no	D.	both
9.	A.	until	B.	since	C.	for	D.	because
10.	A.	for	B.	of	C.	from	D.	to

B. Look at this schedule of ‘Important Dates’ in the programme of the Channel Tunnel construction. Underline the key words in each statement. (Don’t underline more than FOUR words in any one statement).