Text 2. The story of the Bicycle

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 453.

As people try to use less energy, and find (1. замену) to cars, (2. все больше и больше) people are buying, and riding, bicycles. But where did the bicycle (3.….возник )? Who invented this "velocipede"? .

(4.Возможно, вы будете удивлены, если узнаете) that the (5. первый) bicycle (6.был изобретен) several years later than the railway locomotive! But the two-wheeler (7. сильно изменился )since the day it was invented by a Scottish (8. кузнецом), Kirkpatrick MacMillan, back (it is said) in 1839.

MacMillan (9. разработал) his bike from an older wheeled vehicle, called a "hobby horse". This was a (10. деревянная) horse with two (11. колесами). The rider sat on the horse, and (12. толкал…) the vehicle (…вперед) (13. ногами). It was not a very fast or safe (14. средство передвижения), since it had no (15. руль) and no (16. тормозов).

MacMillan, (17. по прозвищу) Mad Pate, modified the hobby horse, by adding a system of articulated bars. The rider could push the bars back and forwards (18. ногами), and make the back wheel (19. вертеться). He could also steer the bike, as the front wheel could be turned.

To demonstrate his invention, he (20. проехал) 60 miles to Glasgow! (21. Наверняка это было) a terrible journey, on the roads of (21. тех дней)! Pate's bike did not have (22. резиновых шин/покрышек) or springs.

Mad Pate was not recognised (23. при жизни), but other people (24. стали) interested (25.__предл.) bicycles. Twenty-five years later, a Frenchman called Pierre Lallemant designed and (26. запотентовал) the first bicycle with rotary pedals; and in 1876, H.J.Lawson added another basic (27. деталь, особенность), "chain-drive".

Other (28. детали, особенности), such as rubber tyres and gears, (29. появились) since then; but the basic bicycle (30. не изменился).

Since then the bicycle has had a magnificent fortune. Today, it is probably the most common (31. вид) of transport in the world, especially (32. в странах третьего мира); and non-polluting and easy to ride, it has a big future as the town vehicle of tomorrow. Thanks Pate!