[00:01.080]--- Lesson 64 The Channel Tunnel
[00:06.640]--- First listen and then answer the question.
[00:12.600]--- Why was the first tunnel not completed?
[00:18.440]In 1858, a French engineer, Aime Thome de Gamond, arrived in England with a plan for a twenty-one-mile tunnel under the English Channel.
[00:35.040]He said that it would be possible to build a platform in the centre of the Channel.
[00:40.880]This platform would serve as a port and a railway station.
[00:46.160]The tunnel would be well-ventilated if tall chimneys were built above sea level.
[00:53.400]In 1860, a better plan was put forward by an Englishman, William Low.
[01:01.000]He suggested that a double railway-tunnel should be built.
[01:05.640]This would solve the problem of ventilation, for if a train entered this tunnel, it would draw in fresh air behind it.
[01:15.320]Forty-two years later a tunnel was actually begun
[01:20.320]If, at the time, the British had not feared invasion, it would have been completed.
[01:27.080]The world had to wait almost another 100 years for the Channel Tunnel.
[01:33.480]It was officially opened on March 7,1994, finally connecting Britain to the European continent.
[01:44.040]--- end