Mock Test 15.3 | General Reading

READING PASSAGE 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 28-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 below.

A.   People have been traveling by subway for well over a hundred years. The first subway systems began operating in Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century. [Crack IELTS with Rob] London’s subway system, known as ‘The Underground’ or ‘The Tube’, opened in early 1863. In 1896, subways began running in both Budapest, Hungary and Glasgow, Scotland. The Budapest subway ran from the center of the city to City Park and was just under four kilometers long. The city of Paris, France began operating its subway system in 1990. Its famous name, Metro, is short for Chemin de Fer Metropolitan or Metropolitan Railway. Many other cities have since adopted the name Metro for their own subways.

B.  The city of Boston, Massachusetts boasts the oldest subway in the United States, beginning operations in 1897. It had only two stations when it first opened. [Crack IELTS with Rob] The New York City Subway, now one of the largest subway systems in the world, began running in 1904. The original line was 14.5 kilometers long and ran from City Hall in downtown Manhattan to 145th Street. The city of Philadelphia opened its first subway line in 1907. The oldest subway in Latin America began operations in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1913. It is called the subte, short for subterraneo or underground.

C.  The second half of the twentieth century saw new subway systems constructed in cities around the world. Many Korean cities have modern subway systems, the largest one in the capital city of Seoul, with 287 kilometers of track. [Crack IELTS with Rob] The first subway in Brazil opened in the city of Sao Paulo in 1974. Since then subways have been built in a number of other Brazilian cities, including Rio de Janeiro and the capital, Brasilia. Washington, DC, began running the Washington Metro in 1976. Hong Kong opened its subway in 1979. This system includes four lines that run under Victoria Harbour. In 2000, a 17-mile long subway system was completed in Los Angeles, a city infamous for its traffic problems and resulting smog. Construction of this system took fourteen years to complete.

D.   With a total of 468 stations and 656 miles of passenger service track, the New York City Subway is among the largest subway systems in the world. If the tracks in train yards, shops, and storage areas are added in, the total track length of the New York Subway comes to 842 miles. [Crack IELTS with Rob] Measured by a number of riders, the Moscow Metro is the world’s largest system, with 3.2 billion riders annually. Other cities with busy subways include Tokyo, with 2.6 billion riders a year, and Seoul and Mexico City, both carrying 1.4 billion riders annually.

E.  In some cities, the subway stations are famous for their architecture and artwork. The stations of the Moscow Metro are well-known for their beautiful examples of socialist-realist art. The Baker Street station in London honors the fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, who supposedly lived on Baker Street. [Crack IELTS with Rob] Decorative tiles in the station’s interior depict the character, and a Sherlock Holmes statue sits outside one of the station exits. Each of the stations of the new Los Angeles subway system contains murals, sculptures, or other examples of decorative artwork.

F.   A new feature now often included in the construction of new subway stations is Platform Screen Door (PSD). The Singapore subway was the first to be built with the inclusion of PSDs. The original purpose was to reduce high air-conditioning costs in underground stations. [Crack IELTS with Rob] Since then, there has been more and more focus on the safety aspects of this device, as it can prevent people from accidentally falling or being pushed onto the track. PSDs also keep the station platforms quieter and cleaner and allow trains to enter stations at higher rates of speed. The subway system in Hong Kong was the first to have PSDs added to an already existing system. They are becoming more common in subway systems around the world. Tokyo, Seoul, Bangkok, London, and Copenhagen are just some of the cities that have PSDs in at least some of their subway stations. PSDs are also often used with other forms of transportation, such as monorails, light rail systems, and airport transportation systems.