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CELPIP Practice Reading: Reading for Information ID: #63090 Easy CN Tower: construction, height, and visitors

Read the following passage.

A. In the 1960s, a construction boom filled downtown Toronto with tall new buildings. The existing transmission towers were no longer high enough, because the new buildings bounced radio and television signals away from the people meant to receive them. A much taller tower was needed to improve broadcasting. The Canadian National Railway Company (CN) went ahead with the project, and planners chose the Railway Lands between Front Street and Lake Ontario as the site. CN owned this land, which had been reclaimed from the lake during the previous century, and had used it for decades as its main railyard in the downtown.

B. Construction began on 6 February 1973, with CN employing 1,537 workers. Crews first removed earth and shale for the foundation and then started on the hexagonal concrete shaft with its three curved support arms. They poured concrete into a huge mould called a slipform, which climbed slowly upward on hydraulic jacks as the concrete hardened. By February 1974 the structure was already the tallest in Canada. In March 1975 a giant Sikorsky helicopter named Olga flew in to lift the 39 pieces of the antenna into place, and the tower was finished on 2 April 1975.

C. The CN Tower opened to the public on 26 June 1976. More than 2,000 people visited on the opening day, and over 500 had lined up at midnight to get in. At 553.33 metres, it was the world's tallest free-standing structure until the Burj Khalifa in Dubai passed it. In 1995 CN sold the tower to Canada Lands Company, a federal Crown corporation. Lightning strikes the tower about 75 times a year, and copper strips that run its full length lead down to grounding rods below the surface, which helps prevent damage.

D. Visitors ride high-speed elevators to the Main Observation Level, 346 metres above the ground, in 58 seconds. One floor below, the Lower Observation Level has a Glass Floor that looks 342 metres straight down. The Top, 447 metres up, is the highest observation platform in the Western Hemisphere, and from there visitors can feel the tower sway in the wind. Since 2011, the EdgeWalk has let people walk around the outside of the main pod, 356 metres above the ground, with a harness attached to a rail. The walk itself lasts about 30 minutes, and the tower welcomes about two million visitors every year.

E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.

Decide which paragraph, A to D, has the information given in each statement below. Select E if the information is not given in any of the paragraphs.

- 1.
An aircraft carried the top sections of the tower up and set them in position.

- 2.
Before the doors first opened, hundreds of people were already standing in line.

- 3.
Part of the floor on one level lets people look directly below them.

- 4.
The railway company later passed ownership of the tower to a different organization.

- 5.
Newly built high-rises stopped older towers from sending out TV and radio programs clearly.

- 6.
The final cost of building the tower was about sixty-three million dollars.

- 7.
Electric flashes from storms hit the tower dozens of times each year.

- 8.
The trip up to the main viewing area takes less than one minute.

- 9.
The ground chosen for the tower had once been part of the lake.

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