Big Ben becoming leaning tower of London

Surveyors have found that the clock tower at the Palace of Westminster has developed a tilt, which is getting worse every year. The top of the tower is now almost one-and-a-half feet off the perpendicular – so far off that experts say the tilt is visible to the naked eye.

If the movement was to continue uncorrected, the tower would one day topple. However, MPs can breathe easy: at its current speed it would take some 4,000 years to reach the angle of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and even longer to hit tipping-point.

In the unlikely event that the tower falls, it will land on MPs' offices over the road in Portcullis House – which may at least offer some compensation to architectural purists unimpressed by the modern building.

Civil engineers believe that the tower - known colloquially as Big Ben after the main bell it houses - is gradually "sinking" or settling into the land on which it is built. But the pattern is uneven, with the sinking occurring more quickly on the north side than the south.

The problem has been blamed on decades of building work that have gone on around the foot of the structure since it was completed in 1858, which have ranged from a sewer built in the 1860s to the District Line the following decade and an underground car park for MPs in the 1970s. When the Jubilee Line was extended through Westminster in the late 1990s, special techniques were used to create a concrete barrier under the tower, in a bid to secure it.

Yet a new survey, completed in 2009 but only just published by the parliamentary authorities for London Underground and the Parliamentary Estates Department, has found that the rate of movement has accelerated in recent years.
The engineers conclude that no single known factor can fully explain the "event". Since 2003, the monitoring instruments suggest the tilt has continued to increase by 0.04in (0.9mm) a year, compared to the long-term average rate of just 0.025in (0.65mm) a year.

Question 1. Indicate whether these sentences are true or false. Justify your answers with evidence from the text.
a) Special devices are needed to notice the inclination of the tower.
b) It is quite possible that the tower will fall in the future.
c) Some people would be glad if the tower fell.
d) There have always been uncontrolled construction works.

Question 2. Answer the following questions in your own words.
a) What are the possible reasons for the tilt of the tower?
b) What are the conclusions engineers have reached?

Question 3. Find a word or a phrase in the text that means the same as
a) to fall over (par.2) b) to vary (par. 5) c) speed (par. 6)

Question 4. Rewrite the following sentences without changing the meaning
a) Civil engineers believe that the tower is sinking.
The tower...
b) Special techniques were used to create a concrete barrier under the tower.
Engineers...
c) The tower is tilting slowly. Yet a new survey has found that the movement has accelerated.
Although...

Question 5. Write a short essay (120-150 words) on the following topic:

Do you think it is a good idea to build replicas to protect the originals ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onb09wiRtVA