[originaltext]The first man to combine the steam engines and carts was Richard

The first man to combine the steam engines and carts was Richard Trevithick, an engineer. He designed a steam engine that could run on wheels in 1803. In 1804, his engine pulled carts carrying 18 metric tons of iron ore and 70 men for five miles in South Wales. But it was so heavy that the track broke when it reached five miles per hour. The rail transport system in Great Britain developed during the 19th century. Britain’s railways were initially owned by four companies, and then during WWII they were taken into state control in 1947. It wasn’t until 1996 that they were private again! Today there are 25 train operators who run the services—one infrastructure companyand three rolling stock companies, and all sorts of companies who do maintenance work on the 13,000 miles of track. There are also a number of government organizations like the Strategic Rail Authority and the Health and Safety Executive. They are involved in running the railways, making the whole structure extremely complicated. Broken tracks, leaves or the wrong type of snow on the line and trains are a feature of rail travel in the UK nowadays.
According to statistics, only two out of ten British trains are late, but the main problem is they always seem to be my trains! If you have a problem when travelling by train in Britain there is a very good network called the Rail Passenger Council. It deals with complaints and will also give a lot of advice on any problems you might have had.
Questions 16 to 18 are based on the passage you have just heard.
16. What did Richard Trevithick’s engine carry in 1804?
17. What can we learn about the rail transport system in the UK?
18. What can we learn about the speaker’s experiences of taking British trains?