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Text 3
CARS: PASSION OR PROBLEM?
I. Before reading.
1. Read the headline of the article and say what it will be about
using the choice below:
a. the development of cars
b. the benefits cars can give people
c. the danger of cars
2. Read the article and say if your predictions were correct.
For some people, the car is a convenient form of
transportation. But for others, the car is an exciting hobby. Some
people spend their lives collecting valuable cars. Others drive
them in races, including the Mille Miglia in Italy, the Carrera
Panamericana in Mexico, and the world-famous Indianapolis
500. For many people, cars are more than transportation: They
are a source of passion and pleasure. Yet cars can also be a
source of many problems.
In 1903, Henry Ford began selling the Model T car for
$825. His company, Ford Motors, was the first to produce cars
in large numbers. This made the car available to large numbers
of people and helped them to travel long distances quickly and
easily. The car has brought people much closer to places of
work, study, and entertainment.
Many people also work in car-related industries: fixing cars,
washing cars, advertising cars, and selling car products such as
stereos and cellular phones.
Most Americans buy a new car every five or six years. This
means that one American may own a dozen cars in a lifetime. In
fact, there are more cars than people in the United States. In
New York City, 2.5 million cars move in and out of the city
each day. In this traffic, the average speed is sometimes 8.1
miles per hour. This speed could easily be reached by riding a
horse instead of driving a car. But New Yorkers continue to
drive, just as people do in California, where freeways are often
very crowded.
Some environmentalists believe that forms 6f public
transportation such as buses and trains have not been fully
developed in the United States. They try to teach others that
public transportation saves fuel and helps to protect the
environment. Many people are unhappy with car traffic and
pollution, as well as with the use of beautiful land for building
new roads. One environmentalist, Jan Lundberg, left his
Mercedes-Benz in Los Angeles and moved to the forests of
northern California. There he works on the Auto-Free Times, a
newspaper that teaches people how to live without driving.
Lundberg travels on foot, on bicycle, or by bus. Before he
decided to live without a car, Lundberg worked for the oil
companies, studying the prices of gasoline.
Lundberg and other environmentalists dream of turning
parking lots into parks and replacing cars with bicycles, but most
people around the world believe that the car is a necessary part of
life in today's world. Still, there is an important question that
must be answered: What kind of fuel will we use when gasoline
is no longer available? Lundberg believes that by the year 2021,
there will no longer be oil for gasoline makers to use. To solve
this problem, car companies in Korea, Japan, Europe, and the
United States are trying to develop an electric car that will not
require gasoline at all.
The electric car is not a new idea. In had success with
American women in the early 1900s. Women liked electric cars
because they were quiet and did not pollute the air. Electric cars
were also easier to start than gasoline-powered ones. But
gasoline-powered cars were faster, and in the 1920s they became
much more popular.
The electric car was not used again until the 1970s, when
there were serious problems with the availability of oil. Car
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