It is often said of this monumental example of Victorian civil engineering that it simply should never have been built. Hundreds of navvies lost their lives as the line made hesitant progress through some of England’s harshest terrain (01), while the financial costs leapt ahead at breakneck speed (02). But a combination of stubbornness and a not entirely misplaced (03) belief that a new route to Scotland could be profitable ensured that on 1 May 1876, some seven years after construction began, the first passenger train hauled itself over the north Pennines.
(Source: The Lake District brochure, published by the English Tourist Board, 1996.)
Vocabulary:
navvy: someone whose job is to do hard physical work (old fashioned)
haul: to change someone’s position by pulling them
I. A large number of construction workers died while this new route was being built.
II. The civil engineers responsible for the project worked very fast.
III. The costs of the construction were quickly paid for by the Victorian government.
IV. Those who wanted the project believed that a lot of money would result from it.
The statements that are true according to the text are