首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Complete the table below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer. Talking about the history of bikes
Complete the table below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer. Talking about the history of bikes
admin
2017-02-25
68
问题
Complete the table below.
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.
Talking about the history of bikes
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome you to our exhibition, "Two Centuries of the Bike". Let’s stroll around the exhibition, shall we?
Although there were a few early efforts back in the 1700s, you didn’t really see many bikes till, say, the 1830s in England. Bikes were a response to the rapid growth of cities early in the 19th Century. Cities like London were getting too big to walk across! The early bike let people travel with less effort than walking. Plus a bike was a lot cheaper than a horse!
Think of it. No one invented a bike for, what, five thousand years of human history? Why did people do it then? Probably because this was the start of the Machine Age: people wanted machines to do all the work.
There were some drawbacks however. For one thing, there were no pedals. You simply pushed yourself along using your feet. Kind of like today’s skateboard. That meant you went fairly slow. And uphill, you actually worked harder, pushing that two-wheeler. Plus, the wheels were made of wood covered with metal, as you can see from this model. So the downside was that the ride was quite uncomfortable on most roads. Only a few gadget lovers had or used them.
By the 1860s, though, improvements were being made. As you can see from this specimen, metal frames had become the rule. They’re more durable than wood, and they don’t warp in the rain. The biggest improvement however was the development of the chain and sprocket system. They are connected. This meant you did not push the bike. You used pedals just like today. You had to try harder to balance, so it took some practice to figure out how to use the pedals. But it made the ride so much easier. As a result, the good thing was that you could ride a lot more smoothly and with very little effort.
By the 1880s, another big change was the use of rubber wheels. These became pretty common at that time. Though the first ones were solid rubber, the ride was a good deal more comfortable than the old iron and wood system. This is a big consideration because the faster you go, the more you feel every bump. Air-filled tyres - "pneumatic tyres" - didn’t really come into use till around the year 1900, as you can see from this exhibition over here. That made the ride even more comfortable.
So, by 1890 or so, people were going a lot faster and a lot more smoothly. There was one problem when you were going quickly and comfortably: "OH NO! HOW DO I STOP"?! Yes, we all laugh now. But for a long time, the only way to stop was drag your feet. That didn’t work very well and it would be dangerous if you were going fast. In the crowded cities of those years -New York, Chicago, and so on - you would get killed if you couldn’t stop for, say, a streetcar.
Plus look at this bike. The front wheel is nearly a meter and two-thirds tall! They made them that way so you could see over people and wagons. But, you couldn’t drag your feet. This model is called a "velocipede" - a "speed pedal." Another characteristic of the bike in this period is that it has two equal-sized wheels, which signaled a big change in bikes.
For with the velocipede, brakes appeared. If you wanted to stop, you just pushed the pedal backwards. Doing that stopped the back wheel of the bike. This technique worked a lot better than dragging your feet, or jumping off the high seat there! This meant that bikes became a great deal safer. It would have been safer if people wore helmets, but the first bicycle helmet wasn’t invented until years later, and even then it was little more than a leather ballcap. It really wasn’t until the 1970s that the bike helmet was modified to provide some real protection.
Before continuing on to look at developments since the 1890s, let’s say a word more about safety. Everyone knows if you’re going downhill, you can get going dangerously fast. To go more than a hundred kilometres an hour isn’t all that difficult! But even on level ground it’s easy to go too quickly. On a city street, today’s bicycles can be ridden at a speed of over forty miles an hour, over a short distance. That’s about sixty-four kilometres an hour. Remember you’re on a bike, not in a car. There’s nothing to protect you. People are killed in single-bicycle accidents every day, just from hitting the road.
A good rule to remember is, if you’re going faster than the cars, slow down. And please wear a helmet. Nearly one-quarter of the epilepsy cases come from head injuries in accidents on bikes and motorcycles. I didn’t mean to scare you, but safety is everyone’s business.
What? Now that’s a good question. Why are today’s bikes so much faster? Well it’s not just that today’s athletes are faster. The answer is partly mechanical. If you look closely here, at the back wheel you’ll see a number of gears. Changing gears is what makes those fast speeds possible. You can shift gears depending on the terrain and how hard you wish to pedal. So you can put it on a higher gear for downhill, and a lower gear for uphill travel to make it easier to climb that slope. You’ll notice this gear-shifting mechanism is attached at the back wheel, and when the rider shifts on the handlebar gear-shifter, the chain moves to the appropriate sprocket. And, speaking of changing gears, let’s look over here at our "Tour de France" exhibit……
选项
答案
1860s
解析
1860s通过观察,可发现此题应填写年份。做这种题型的简单办法就是将录音中出现的时间全部列出来,然后分别听写出该期间的具体发展情况,这样对整篇文章也能有一个宏观的了解。此外,本题需要注意的是:答案必须加s。因为1860单指那一年,而1860s则指19世纪60年代整个那十年,含义不同。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/rn8O777K
本试题收录于:
雅思听力题库雅思(IELTS)分类
0
雅思听力
雅思(IELTS)
相关试题推荐
Somepeoplethinkthattheamountoftimeandmoneyspentontheprotectionofwildanimalswouldbebetterspentinimprovingt
Somepeopleprefertostayinthesamejobforthesamecompany,butothersprefertochangejobsfrequently.Usespecificr
Thetablebelowshowsthefiguresforimprisonmentinfivecountriesbetween1930and1980.Writeareportforauniversitylect
ThechartsbelowgiveinformationabouttravelingtoandfromtheUK,andaboutthemostpopularcountriesforUKresidentstov
Somepeoplesaythatcensorshipshouldbecancelledcompletely.Doyouagreeordisagreewiththestatement?Giveyourspeci
ThediagramsbelowshowthedevelopmentofthevillageofKelsbeyin1780,1860and2000.Summarisetheinformationbyselec
Somepeopleenjoychanges,andtheylookforwardtonewexperiences.Othersliketheirlivestostaythesame,andtheydonotc
Questions27-30Foreachquestion,onlyONEofthechoicesiscorrect.Writethecorrespondingletterintheappropriateboxon
Lookatthelistbelowoftheusesofglass.Accordingtothepassage,statewhethertheseusesexisttoday,willexistinthe
随机试题
我国形成了九品三十等的官僚等级制度的时代是()。
Youcannotbe______carefulwhenyoudriveacar.
张三酒后与李五发生争吵,随后两人互相殴打,均受轻伤。县公安局认为张三首先挑起事端,应负主要责任,对其拘留8天,同时责令其拿出500元作为李五的医药费。张三向市公安局申请复议,市公安局作出了维持的复议决定。张三随后向县法院提起行政诉讼,其律师提醒他可以提起行
冯某对市房管局向孙某核发房屋所有权证的行为不服,以自己是房屋所有权人为由请求法院判决撤销某市房管局的发证行为。冯某向法院提交了房屋所有权证,孙某向法院提交了该房屋买卖合同,市房管局向法院提交了孙某的房屋产权登记申请、契税完税证等证据。下列哪一说法是正确的?
下列函数中,()不是微分方程y"-4y’+3y=0的解。
编制监理规划的时间是()。
(2013年)关于社会保险行政复议的说法,错误的是()。
警察发现90%的偷盗发生在没有报警系统的房屋。于是警察得出结论,在C城市,报警系统的存在对偷盗起了威慑作用。警察的结论预先假设了什么?
人民法院审理行政案件过程中,发现地方规章与部门规章不一致时,应当选择下列哪种做法?()
Thefollowingparagraphsaregiveninawrongorder.Youarerequiredtoreorganizetheseparagraphsintoacoherentarticleby
最新回复
(
0
)