E-Kurs 12 | Reading comprehension + composition

Read the following text. (*) indicates that there is an explanation in the annotations below. Then answer the questions at the bottom! If there are words you don't understand, use a dictionary or an online dictionary (such as dict.cc) If you can't finsih the assignment in today's lesson, you will have to do it as homework for the next lesson!

Being Bike-friendly Is an Uphill Pedal

Can we become a nation of Lycra loonies? Is pedal power the answer to our health and transport problems? Will Lord Tebbit’s (*) blunt injunction to the unemployed of the 1980s – ‘on yer bike!’ – be the literal slogan of green-conscious Britain in the 21st century?

So the Government believes. Last month it launched a National Cycling Strategy that aims to double the number of bike journeys within three years, and double it again by 2012.

You may be sceptical. So am I. This summer I have cycled the ten miles from my home to The Times as often as my creaky old knees permit.

Dull, it ain’t. Car doors are contemptuously flung open in my face. Such bike lanes as exist (almost none on the big, direct routes) are spiked with broken glass or blocked by parked vehicles. Lorries and that thug of the modern highway – white-van man – overtake so close that you imagine Concorde (*) to be revving up by your ankle. The fumes are foul, the roads perilously pitted.

And if you do reach your destination safely, there are few safe places to leave a bike.

An astonishing 150,000 are stolen in Britain each year. In our neck (*) of North London it’s a popular way for kids to pay for their drug habits.

To add further financial insult to potential injury, a £20 spot fine for cyclists riding on pavements was introduced this month. I invite the Home Secretary to join me on a bike trip along the North Circular Road. I suspect that his views about riding on pavements would be swiftly revised.

There are other irritants. Our railways are now allegedly ‘bike-friendly’. What this amounts to, however, is the provision of six bike places on express trains. Or, on off-peak local lines, you may incur the wrath of fellow travellers by propping a bike in the aisles of already crowded carriages. Not recommended.

Compare that with the experience overseas. In Austria, where I cycled joyfully and fearlessly last week, all the trains and even the Danube (*) ferries have big bike storage spaces. Commuter buses and trams in some American cities and many European ones have bike racks. Here, the idea is greeted with derision.

And yet the Government remains gung-ho about turning us into a biking nation. It will be an uphill pedal.

The British may have 21 million bikes stowed away in sheds and garages (in fact, we own more bikes than cars), but we rarely shake the cobwebs off them. Indeed, biking in Britain has now declined to 1.6 per cent of all journeys. In The Netherlands and Germany, the figures are 27 per cent and 12 per cent.

Even sadder is the fall-off in cycling among the young. No wonder our children are the flabbiest in Europe. Fewer than 2 per cent of secondary pupils now cycle to school, compared with 6 per cent a decade ago. […]

The Government has had some useful ideas. A pilot scheme will provide safe cycling routes to 40 schools. Tax breaks will reward firms giving bikes to employees. Local authorities have been given ‘best practice’ guidelines for cycling provision – badly needed. Judging from the attempts of some councils to gain ‘green kudos’ (*) by building inferior bike lanes going nowhere at minimal cost.

And soon – how could we forget? – there is to be a National Cycle Network. This grandiose plan, masterminded by the pushy ‘green’ charity Sustrans (*), will create 3,500 miles of new routes by next summer, and a further 4,500 miles by 2005. Backed by a £43.5 million lottery grant, it is being touted as a ‘symbolic new start’ for biking Britain. A ghastly sounding ‘Millennium Festival of Cycling’ will launch it next June.

Yet even this upsets regular cyclists. They accuse Sustrans of creating recreational bike paths through nice countryside on disused railway lines and canal towpaths, rather than tackling the more difficult task of devising direct commuter routes within cities.

The problem, as usual, is money. Adapting busy urban thoroughfares so that cyclists can travel safely is expensive (and politically hazardous) work; in that context, a one-off grant of £43.5 million is negligible. If the Government is serious about promoting green commuting the Treasury ought to make a big gesture along the lines of ‘bicycle bills’ in American states, whereby 1 per cent of petrol tax revenue is allocated to cycling projects. Thus, even a car-crazy city such as Houston is spending £30 million a year on bike paths.

Our own National Cycle Network won’t make that kind of difference, but it might improve things a bit. Until that arrives, my fellow Lycra loonies and I will continue to pedal where angels fear to tread: in the narrow gap between the kerb and the thundering juggernauts brushing our right elbows.

(From: Richard Morrison, ‘Bike-friendly? It’s All Uphill’, The Times)

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Annotations

// Lord Tebbit: former chairperson of the British Conservative Party // Concorde: supersonic aircraft, which operated on flights between the USA and Europe from 1969 to 2003 // neck: (infml) (from the phrase ‘neck of the woods’) particular area // Danube: major river which runs through Hungary and Austria // kudos: admiration and respect // Sustrans (= Sustainable Transport Charity): charity that organizes projects to encourage people to walk, cycle, etc.

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Comprehension/Analysis/Interpretation

1. Name the difficulties the author faces when riding his bike to his workplace.

2. Outline the attempts of the British government to improve the situation for British cyclists and show the writer’s attitude to these attempts.

3. Identify the tone of the article. Using quotes from the text, show what stylistic features contribute to this tone.

Composition

Write 250 - 300 words on one of the following three topics:

4. Write a letter to a member of your town council focusing on transport problems in your town.

5. Imagine you were to give a speech to major politicians on the development of a traffic plan for towns in the 21st century. It is your aim to convince them of your ideas since they are the decision-makers.

6. Cars as a means of individual transport should be banned. Discuss.

Finished before the lesson is over?

Then it's time for some grammar revision! Please do it here! Choose for yourself, which topic(s) you want to work on.

Memorising Vocabulary

Read these tips on vocabulary learning in the section "memorising vocabulary".

Some may not be useful or might not apply to learning English, but there are many great ones. Prepare two one minute talks about your two favourite tips in which you report the tips to the class.

Of course you should try some of the tips at home!

Preparation time: 25 minutes

Presentations: afterwards