Pedal Power (A2)

A Before you start

Answer the questions with a partner.
1. How do tourists usually get around in your town?
2. Are there any cycle rickshaws?
3. What are the advantages of cycle rickshaws?
4. Can you think of any disadvantages?
B Listen and answer
Read these statements. Then listen (without reading) and write T (true) or F (false).
1. Cycle rickshaws operate in London only in daytime.
2. Not everybody is in favour of them.
3. Rickshaws originated in China.
4. In London, cycle rickshaws began operating in 1990.
5. Cycle rickshaws havent been involved in many accidents.
6. Rickshaw rides have a fixed price of 100 per mile.
C Read and answer
Read the article and answer the questions.
1. Where can you usually find cycle rickshaws, or pedicabs?
2. Who are the people who usually criticise them?
3. What was different about the rickshaws of the 19th century?
4. Where else in the UK can you find cycle rickshaws, besides London ?
5. Why are they only suitable for short journeys?
6. What are the advantages of pedicabs?
7. What, according to the operators, indicates that most of the people who use the service are
satisfied with it?
D Learn it! Use it!
Complete these sentences with words from the glossary. (You may have to adapt the expression in
some way; e.g. change the verb tense, or change from singular to plural.)
1. This is Grandmas favourite armchair; she likes it because its so ________.
2. I never go to the market on Saturday morning; its too ________.
3. The repair man ________ Joe a lot of money to repair his smartphone.
4. Its ________ to touch a switch with wet hands. You could get an electric shock.
5. The Internet ________ people to shop without leaving their homes.
6. We went to the department store at opening time, when there werent many ________.
E Ready for the KEY English Test? (Paper 1, Reading and Writing: Part 6)
Read the descriptions of some words or expressions used when speaking about travel and transport.
Identify them and write the missing letters.
1. A trip in a car or on bicycle or motorbike.
r___
2. In the UK and the USA, distance is measured in these.
m____
3. Interesting things for tourists to see in a town or area.
s_____
4. The measure of how fast a person or thing moves or operates.
s____
5. A public road, usually with houses and buildings, in a city or town.
s_____
6. The act of travelling from one place to another.
j______

F Check your pronunciation

One of the four words in each group has a different vowel sound. Which one?
1. long want wont hot
2. sight critic might cycle
3. comfortable customer company operator
4. pollution reduce pulled include
5. dangerous argue parked charge
H Talk about it
In pairs or groups.
1. How do you usually travel to and from school?
2. How long does it take you?
3. Is there a lot of traffic congestion or air pollution in your town or area?
4. If so, what could be done to solve these problems?

Answers
B Listen and answer
1. F They operate in the evening, too. 2. T 3. F They originated in Japan. 4. F They
began operating at the end of the 1990s. 5. T 6. F Customers pre-agree the price of their ride.
C Read and answer
1. You can find them outside theatres or in the middle of traffic. 2. Taxi-drivers. 3. They were
generally pulled by one man and contained one customer. 4. You can find them in Edinburgh,
Oxford and Cambridge. 5. Because theyre uncomfortable 6. They are fun and eco-friendly.
7. The fact that most people tip the driver.
D Learn it! Use it!
1. comfortable 2. crowded 3. charged 4. dangerous 5. enables 6. customers
E Ready for the KEY English Test?
1. ride 2. miles 3. sights 4. speed 5. street 6. journey
F Check your pronunciation
1. wont 2. critic 3. operator 4. pulled 5. dangerous