By Neil Shea

Before You Read

A. Matching. Look at the diagram of Paris above. Then match the
events with the dates.
1. A cave-in swallowed buildings and people. • • a. 1800s
2. Paris's subway system, the Metro, was opened. • • b. 15th century
3. The sewers were improved and expanded. • • c. 1774
4. Wheels were used to lift stones to the surface. • • d. 1786
5. Bones were first poured into the tunnels. • • e. 1900

B. Scan. Though most of the tunnels beneath Paris are closed to the public,
some urban explorers, known as cataphiles, still find their way into the
tunnels. What do you think the cataphiles do underneath Paris?
Scan the reading to find three things. Then read the whole passage.
68 Unit SA
 Like the famous city
I'm standing on a sidewalk in the early morning. The great avenues
above, the Paris
of Paris are silent, and the shops are closed. From a bakery comes underground has
the smell of fresh bread. Suddenly, a man with long hair and a grown over the
lamp on his head appears from a hole in the sidewalk. He is soon centuries. Today, it is
5 followed by a young woman holding a lantern.! Mud covers their made up of over 300
boots. The man places the iron cover over the hole and takes the kilometers of tunnels.
woman's hand. Together, they run down the street, smiling.

The couple had been exploring the tunnels beneath the city.
When the Romans occupied Paris, they cut out stone from deep
10 within the earth to build their city and make sculptures. Later, the
French used more stone to construct the Notre Dame Cathedral,
! A lantern is a lamp in a
the Louvre, and many other buildings. This left huge underground metal frame with a handle
tunnels upon which part of the city now stands. Once used for on top so you can carry it.

Unit 5A 69
 growing mushrooms, burying the dead, or as hiding places during
15 wartime, today they are mostly forgotten, except by "cataphiles"-
people who love to go down into the tunnels below Paris, even
though it's actually not permitted.

A City Rediscovered
Exploring the underground city first became a trend in the 1970s
20 and '80s. It was easier to enter the tunnels then, because there were
many more open entrances through forgotten doorways and into
catacombs-rooms filled with bones. The bones had been moved into
the tunnels to solve the problem of crowded cemeteries. By the end
of the 1980s, most of the entrances were shut, and police regularly
25 walked the tunnels. However, there are still cataphiles, like the couple
I saw that morning, and for those who dare, the underground is an
exciting place to meet, have parties, perform for each other, or
create art.
 Underground Explorations
30 My own exploration began beneath the old Paris opera house,
where sewer2 workers showed me a 55-meter-long underground
pond, a pond that actually had fish in it! Later, at France's national
bank, officials guided me below to an amazing room filled with
2,600 tons of gold.

35 As cataphiles are the best guides, I then asked Dominique and

Yopie, experienced cataphiles, to give me a tour. Descending into
the underground through a secret entrance beneath a bridge, we
walked for hours through catacombs and galleries of huge, bright
paintings. Yopie dove into water-filled passagesto see where they
40 led. We stopped to rest in a room with stone furniture, where Yopie
told me, ••Many people come down here to party, some to paint.
Some people to destroy or to create or to explore. We do what we
want here. We don't have rules ... "

2 A sewer is a large underground channel that carries waste matter and rain water away.
Reading Comprehension
Multiple Choice. Choose the best answer for each question.
Gist 1. What is the reading mainly about?
a. why tourists know so little about Paris's tunnels
b. the tunnels under Paris and the people who explore them
c. why tunnels will someday be Paris's newest tourist attraction
d. how the recent discovery of Paris's tunnels is changing the city
Inference 2. Why was the couple that the writer met smiling as they ran
down the street?
a. They were able to replace the iron cover.
b. They had discovered a dangerous tunnel below.
c. They had explored a tunnel without getting caught.
d. They felt dirty and wanted to run home and take a shower.
Detail 3. Which statement is NOT true about the tunnels under Paris?
a. People grew mushrooms there.
b. They were once used as a hiding place.
c. People explore them even though it's not permitted.
d. Companies remove the stone to construct modern buildings.
Detail 4. Why did it use to be easier to enter the tunnels?
a. The tunnels were safer.
b. There were more open entrances.
c. There was less water in the tunnels.
d. There were fewer dangerous people living there.
Purp'ose 5. What is the purpose of the fourth paragraph?
a. to give a personal account of visiting the tunnels
b. to describe how the tunnels were used in past decades
c. to give reasons why cataphiles should be hired as guides Did You Know?
d. to describe how the tunnels will likely be used in the future In certain parts of
Paris, tall buildings
Reference 6. In line 41, what does the word here refer to?
cannot be built
a. the entrances b. the tunnels
because the earth
c. the opera house d. the museum
beneath is filled
7. Which statement would a cataphile probably agree with? with tunnels and
a. More police are needed to keep the tunnels safe. catacombs.
b. The bones should be removed from the tunnels.
c. Only cataphiles should be allowed to explore the tunnels.
d. People should be able to do whatever they want in the tunnels.

72 Unit SA
Reading Skill
Understanding the Functions of
Prepositional Phrases
A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition (e.g., to, on, in, of,
with, over, and down) and its object. Such phrases (underlined in
the examples below) give important, additional details about nouns
and verbs. When a prepositional phrase modifies a noun, it answers
questions such as Which one? or What kind?
Examples: The passage to the chamber was narrow. (Which passage?) /
He is a new type of tourist. (Type of what? / What kind?)
When a prepositional phrase modifies a verb, it answers
questions such as Where?, How?, or When?
Examples: She climbed up the ladder. (Where?) / Our guide spoke in a
loud voice. (How?) / In May, I visited Paris. (When?)

A. Analyzing. Underline the prepositional phrases in the paragraph below.

I'm standing on a sidewalk in the early morning. The great avenues

of Paris are silent, and the shops are closed. From a bakery comes
the smell of fresh bread. Suddenly, a man with long hair and a lamp
on his head appears from a hole in the sidewalk. He is soon followed
by a young woman holding a lantern. Mud covers their boots. The
man places the iron cover over the hole and takes the woman's hand.
Together, they run down the street, smiling.

B. Completion. Answer the questions below with prepositional phrases

from A.
1. Where is the writer standing?
2. When is this happening?
3. Where is the lamp?
4. Where does the man put the cover?
5. Where does the couple run?

Critical Thinking Discuss with a partner. What could be some reasons why
visiting Paris's underground is not permitted? Do you think people
should be allowed to explore there?

Unit 5A 73
Vocabulary Practice
A. Completion. Complete the information by circling the
correct word in each pair.

Much of the network of 1. (sculptures / tunnels) under

Paris is off limits to tourists, with trails that only the
cataphiles-and the police-know. However, there is a
small section where tourism is allowed. A visitor-friendly
legal 2. (entrance / trend) can be found off Place
Denfert-Rochereau, near the Montparnasse district.

Here, visitors can walk along skull-and-bone-Iined Tourists walk through

pathways. Tourists are 3. (occupied / permitted) to take photos a section of the Paris

in these catacombs. However, most are respectful and catacombs that is open
to the public.
4. (silent / daring) as they 5. (occupy / descend) into the
catacombs, the final resting place of perhaps six million people.
It's a fascinating but strangely sad visit for many people.

B. Words in Context. Complete each sentence with the correct answer.

1. Things that are usually made out of iron include _
a. tools b. shoes

2. A sculpture is a work of art made by _

a. painting or drawing b. shaping stone, wood, or clay

3. If something is described as a trend, it is probably becoming _

a. more popular b. less popular

4. To descend a mountain means to ---- it.

a. go up b. go down

5. If you dare to do something, you are to do it.

a. brave enough b. smart enough

Word Partnership
Use trend with: (v.) start a trend, follow a trend;
(n.) fashion trend, trendsetter, industry trend; (adj.)
latest trend, current trend, downward trend.

74 Unil5A
Before You Read Each of the 465,000 round
steel manholes on the streets
of New York City is a doorway
A. Definitions. Look at the photo above and read the caption.
to an underground network of
Match the words in bold to their definitions. tunnels. Some-for telephone,
1. : substances that blow up, breaking things TV, or electricity cables-lie
apart suddenly and with great force just below the surface. Others,

2. : waste and used water from homes and carved deep into the earth using
explosives and huge machines,
buildings
are for the city's subways, water
3. :. round holes in a city street used by workers
pipes, and sewage system.

B. Predict. Look at the headings, photo, and caption on pages

76-77. Check (,I) the information you think you will read about.
Then read the passage to check your ideas.
D what lies beneath the streets of New York City
D what makes working under New York City dangerous
D what makes the streets of New York City dangerous
Unit 58 75
 A Dangerous Job
Since I was a boy, I have always looked down open manholes
with curiosity, so I welcomed the opportunity to explore and
write about the world beneath New York City. With a group of 11
5 "sandhogs"-the nickname! for the workers who build New York's
underground-I boarded a slow, shaky elevator lit by a single light
bulb. Slowly we went down a shafF dug through 200 meters of
rock. The sandhogs were building a new tunnel to bring water into
the city. The present tunnel system carries more than 5.6 billion
10 liters of water every day. That's enough water to fill more than
2,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

As we descended, it got dark and the air got cool. I looked up

into darkness and down into deeper blackness, then the elevator
stopped, and everyone got out. Then came the hard part, climbing
15 another 10 meters down a long, slippery metal ladder.3 At the
bottom was a dark tunnel filled with dust and smoke. Sandhogs
were using explosives like dynamite4 to cut through the solid rock.
The tunnel extends slowly-only four meters a day-and with each
day come new dangers. Sandhogs live in constant fear of being
20 hurt by sharp pieces of exploded rock. Their bodies are covered in
such scars.5

"Why do this work?" I asked Brian Gallagher, a sandhog for 16

years. Brian's father was a sandhog, too, but it is not tradition that
brought him here. "It's the money," he said. An experienced
25 sandhog earns over $100,000 a year. The rewards are well
deserved. A sandhog's chances of dying on the job are far greater
than those of an above-ground construction worker, or even a
New York City police officer. "Everything down here can kill you,"
one sandhog said. They know many more workers will die before
30 the tunnel is completed.
"Sandhogs" at
A River of Sewage work deep under
New York City
On another trip below the city, sewer worker Jeff Kwami showed
me how the city's sewage is kept flowing smoothly. We went
down a manhole wearing plastic bodysuits, gloves, and tanks of air.
35 Everything around us was wet and slippery, as we climbed carefully
down 12 meters and then stopped on a narrow concrete step. In

! A nickname is an informal and unofficiai name.

2 A shaft is a vertical tunnel.
3 A ladder is a structure made for climbing on.
4 Dynamite is an explosive substance.
5 A scar is a mark left on the skin after a wound or an injury has healed.

76 Unit 58
 front of me was a fast-moving river of sewage nearly two meters wide. It smelled
awful. I asked Kwami, "What happens if you fall in and you're not attached to
a rope?" He said if you didn't pull yourself out, you'd drown in the sewage. But
40 unlike the dangers sandhogs face, such situations are rare. As we move through
the sewer, Kwami seems calm and confident, but it's still a terrifying thought.

Later, as we left the darkness and danger below, Kwami joked, "See any
alligators?" Over the years, there have been stories about giant alligators living in
the sewers. I tell Kwami that in 1935, the New York Times reported an alligator
45 was pulled from a sewer. He still didn't believe it, and we laugh together as we
climb back to the surface.

- Adapted from Under New York by Joel Swerdlow, National Geographic Magazine

Unit 58 77
Reading Com~rehension
Multiple Choice. Choose the best answer for each question.

Inference 1. The writer of the passage is __ .

a. considering getting ajob as a tunnel worker
b. taking tourists into New York City's tunnels
c. interested in what lies beneath New York City
d. reporting on the benefits of working underground
Detail 2. What danger that underground workers face is NOT
mentioned?
a. slipping b. being cut by rock
c. drowning d. elevators falling
Detail 3. Why does Brian Gallagher work as a sandhog?
a. He enjoys danger. b. It's a family tradition.
c. The job pays well. d. The work is easy to do.
Inference 4. Sewer workers probably carry tanks of air because __ .
a. the smell of the sewage is bad
b. the tunnel is filled with smoke
c. they have to dive into the sewage
d. they need to clean the air in the sewer
Detail 5. Which of these is the most dangerous job mentioned?
a. sandhog b. police officer
c. sewer worker d. construction worker
Detail 6. Which of these things about being a sewer worker is
NOT mentioned?
Did You Know?
a. It's useful to wear a bodysuit. Stories such as "the
b. It's easy to get wet. alligator in the sewer"
are known as urban
c. The pay is very high.
legends-modern
d. A rope could save your life.
stories of unknown
Main Idea 7. What would be the best heading for the last paragraph? origin that are often
a. Recent Alligator Sighting believed to be true,
b. The 80-Year-Old Alligator but are usually not.
c. How to Survive Sewage
d. Just a Story?

78 Unit 58
Reading Skill
Breaking Down Long Sentences
Long sentences can be easier to analyze and understand if you break them
into shorter parts called clauses.

1. To identify a clause, first circle each key verb in the text.

2. Find the subject and object (or complement) of each verb.

Underline the subject and double-underline the object.

3. Draw parentheses around modifiers (such as adjectives,

prepositional phrases, and adverbs).

4. Look at each set of verb, subject, and object (or complement).

Look at the words around them. This is a clause. Each clause has its
own idea. Divide the sentence into its main clauses, Draw slash
marks to separate them.

The first sentence of the reading on pages 76-77 can be broken down
like this:
Since l@a boY./l have~lway~oke~down open manholes(With
curiosity)./so l(jiilelcomeg)the opportunity~o explore and write about the
world beneath New York City}

A. Analyzing. Read this sentence from the passage. Use the tips
above to break it into smaller parts.
I looked up into darkness and down into deeper blackness,
then the elevator stopped, and everyone got out.

B. Analyzing. Now use the tips to break down the text below from
the passage.
With a group of 11 "sandhogs"-the nickname for the
workers who build New York's u'nderground-I boarded a
slow, shaky elevator lit by a single light bulb. Slowly we went
down a shaft dug through 200 meters of rock.
Some tunnels under
New York City are over
Critical Thinking Discuss with a partner. Why are jobs like
200 meters deep, and
tunnel workers (sandhogs) and sewer workers particularly
building them can be
dangerous? What do you think are the most dangerous jobs? dangerous.
Why do people do them?
Unit 58 79
Vocabulary Practice
A. Completion. Complete the information with words from the box.
One word is extra.

awful board concrete experienced flowed joked opportunity

Under the 1. buildings of New York City lies one of

its greatest attractions-its subway system. It runs 24 hours a day,
365 days a year. On a typical weekday, over five million people
2. a train at one of hundreds of stations. More
3. travelers can manage the system easily, but
first-time visitors can find it confusing.

Nevertheless, if you get a(n) 4. , a ride on the subway

is an experience worth having and can sometimes provide really
interesting sights. For example, in August 2013, a dead shark was
found in a subway car. No one knows who put it there, or why. But
since the subway is often quite dirty, some people 5. _
that the 6. _ __ smell was not that unusual!

B. Completion. Complete the sentences using the words in the box.

One word is extra.

I confident drowned flowed joke slippery I

1. Many of the steps leading down to New York's subway can be
______ when wet.
A rat
2. For someone new to the New York subway system, the crowds can be
scary. The secret is to be and keep moving.
3. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy caused serious flooding to the New York
subway when water from the storm into the subway stations
and tunnels.
4. It's been estimated that there are as many rats in New York's subway as
there are people. Thousands of these rats in the floods
caused by the 2012 storm.
r,----------------- .
Thesaurus awful Also look up: (ad}.) terrible,
horrible, dreadful

80 Unit 58
VIEWING
Before You Watch
A. Preview. Look at the photo and read the caption. Then discuss the questions
below with a partner.

1. What exactly do you think Carlos Barrios and Julio Cou Camara do in their job?
2. Do you think they enjoy their work?

B. Predict. Which of these things do you think you can find in the sewers?
D human waste D bodies D dirty water
D chairs D garbage D bones
D cars D clean water D dead animals

While You Watch

A. Viewing. As you watch, check (.I) the things above that the video mentions.
Were your ideas correct?

B. Categorizing. Which of the things in A does Carlos Barrios take out of the sewer?
Viewing 81
After You Watch
A. Multiple Choice. Choose the best answer to each question.
1. Which city does Carlos Barrios work in?
a. Los Angeles b. New York City c. Mexico City
2. What does Carlos Barrios do in the sewers?
a. He cleans the sewer walls.
b. He tests the safety of the water.
c. He removes objects that block the sewers.
3. What advice does Julio give Carlos Barrios before ajob?
a. Be calm and careful.
b. Don't touch anything sharp.
c. Wear a good dive suit.
4. What is Carlos Barrios afraid of while in the sewer?
a. getting a cut b. getting lost c. drowning
5. After diving, what does Carlos Barrios need to do?
a. get washed and cleaned
b. put on a different suit
c. stop by the hospital

B. Discuss. Discuss these questions with a partner.

1. What do you think are the biggest challenges Carlos Barrios faces?
2. Do you think you could do Carlos Barrios' job? Why or why not?
3. What other dirty or dangerous jobs can you name?

< Carlos Barrios is lowered

into a river of sewage.

82 Viewing