Transportation then and now

Then they started to use animals for People used horses and donkeys for transportation in lots of places.. People still use animals for transportation today.. The wheel is one of the mos

James Styring

Read and discover all about transportatlon

in the past and today

What were the first planes made of?

How fast can solar cars travel?

Read and discover more about the worldl

This series of non-fiction readers provides

interesting and educationaI content, wlth

activities and project work

Series Editor: HazeI Geatches

@ Rudio CD Pack avaitabte

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Cover photograph: Robert Harding Wortd lmagery (Tranr rrr blrilrerl ||xrlton fft|ldtr

Then and Now

James Styring

lntroduction

1 Then and Now

2 Boats and Ships

3 Trains, Buses, and Trucks

4 Bicycles and Motorcycles

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What transportation can you see here?

What transportation have you used?

What other transportation do you know?

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ow read and discover more about transportation!

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flhen andNow

Until about 7,00O years ago, people had to walk

everywhere Then they started to use animals for

People used horses and donkeys for transportation

in lots of places People also used camels in Africa,

elephants in Asia, and llamas in South America

People still use animals for transportation today

People made rafts from tree trunks They floated

on their rafts along rivers and on lakes It was easier

than swimming, and they didn't get wet These were

the first vehicles

Sleds were like rafts,but they were used onland They were usefulbecause it's easier topull heavy things than

to lift them

About 51500 years ago, peopleadded wheels to sleds Farmersand traders made carts withtwo or four wooden wheels

Cows and horses pulled thecarts Carts with wheels weremuch faster than sleds

The wheel is one of the most important inventions

in history, and today you can see wheels everywhere.Cars, buses, trucks, trains, bicycles, motorcycles,and planes all have wheels \il(rheels are important

ln englnes, too

a lot of trailers iscalled a road train

The longest roadtrain was Austratian

It had 117 trailerswith 2,126 wheels!

A n i m a l s

r i, i r-i , i t r c n a l T r a n s p o r t a t i o n

Until about 10,000 years ago, people lived in small

family groups and they didn't travel a lot Then, as

villages and towns became bigger, people had to travel

to find food People used animals to carry goods like

meat and fur

Then about 61000 years ago, people started to travel

long distances to trade metals, salt, and spices Ships

began trading in the Middle East 4,500 years ago

People used ships because animals could not travel

over water Soon, people were trading all around

Europe and Asia

Traders took Chinese

sitk to Europe atong the

Sitk Road 2,500 years

ago They used horses

and camets to carry the

Transportation Today

Today, every country in the world uses water, air,and land transportation to trade food, fuel, clothes,and other goods like cars and televisions

Tourists started to go on vacation by train and boat

200 years ago From about 1960, with the invention oflarge passenger planes, tourism became very popular.Today, about 900 million tourists travel to anothercounffy every year

In 2001, an American called Dennis Tito was the firstspace tourist He flew in a Russian spaceship to theInternational Space Station tVill tourists travel tothe moon one dav?

-rn Go to pages 36-37 for activities ,i;

silk more than 3,000 kilometers

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The first vehicles that people used on water were rafts

made from tree trunks Then more than 51000 years

ago, people made canoes They used paddles to power

their canoes People still use canoes today

ln t947, Thor Heyerdaht buitt

a raft similar to the ancient rafts He

saited Kon-Tiki 8,000 kitometers from

Peru to an island in the Pacific Ocean

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Egyptian traders sailed the first ships about 4,500years ago on the River Nile Later, the Ancient Greekssailed larger ships around the Mediterranean Sea

Their ships were fast because they used sails, and atthe same time men rowed with oars Traders sailedbetween the Middle East and India in small ships withtriangular sails Chinese, Korean, and Japanese tradershad large ships with square sails

Chinese people invented thecompass about 21000 yearsago Compasses point tonorth, and they help people

to sail in the right directionacross oceans They are stillimportant for sailors today

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'l'lrc Vil<.ings lir.ed in Dcnmark, Norlvav, and Su,cden

r u t r o L r t I ()00 vears ago Tl'rev sailed around Europe,

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G o to p a g e s 3 8 - 3 9 f o r a c t i v i t i e s

Transportation became much faster after the

In 1804, Richard Trevithick built the first train in

\Wales in the United I{ingdom fts steam engine used

coal to heat water The hot water made steam, and the

steam powered the engine The train moved along two

metal tracks called a railroad In 1825, the world's first

railroad system opened in the United I(ngdom Soon,

railroads with steam trains were common all around

the world By 1930, steam trains could travel at about

150 kilometers per hour

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ln 1862 the first underground train system opened

in London in the United ICngdom Today, more than

160 cities around the world have underground trains.Modern trains have electric motors or diesel engines.Some long-distance trains have restaurants, and

sleeper cars with beds for passengers to sleep in Trainsare good because they use less fuel per passenger thancars, buses, or planes Some high-speed trains cantravel at more than 300 kilometers per hour

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".lQJ rhe tongest train

journey in the wortd

is 9,288 kilometers TheTrans-Si berian Expresstakes six days to travelacross Russia, fromMoscow to Vladivostok

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Vladivostok

Hnrses pulled the first buses 200 years ago Buses

became popular as cities became bigger, because

people traveled on buses to get to work Modern buses

have diesel engines or electric motors Most buses can

carry more than 40 passengers, and some very long,

articulated buses can carry 120 people In many

countries, special buses take children to school In

places with no trains, buses carry passengers long

distances between cities

In some countries, buses carry a lot of passengers and

goods \il7here the hills are very big, people use trucks

instead of buses because they are more powerful

'frains can only go on railroads, but trucks can goanyr;vhere where there are roads Trucks can carrymany different things Tanker trucks carry gasoline ormilk Refrigerator trucks keep food cold In miningareas, people use huge trucks to carry coal and rocks.Long trucks often have a cab for the driver and aseparate trailer for the freight The cab with a separatetrailer helps long trucks to turn Some cabs have abed, so the driver can drive a long distance and thenstop and sleep

Go to pages 40-41 for activities

In busy cities, bicycles and motorcycles are usefu[.

They are narrow so they can go past cars and buses

in traffic jams Can you rlde a bicycte?

ffila'p'e les

The first bicycles were made of wood Then

after 1850 they were made of metal Earlybicycles, called high-wheel bicycles, wereuncomfortable because they had notires The front wheel was very big,and there were no gears or brakes

Cyclists often crashed

Modern bicycles are safer becausethey have brakes and their wheels areboth the same size They also haverubber tires so they are comfortable

People cycle to work or school, andfor fun and sport Bicycles are goodbecause they don'r produce pollution

There are 1,000 mitlion bicycles in

The cyclist sits on the saddle and turns the pedals.The pedals move the chain, and the chain powers theback wheel Gears help the bicycle to go faster, or to

go up hills The cyclist stops the bicycle with thebrakes It's good for cyclists to wear a helmet andgloves These protect their head and hands in a fall

or a crash

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b r a k e

the world, and only 600 mittion cars f r o n t w h e e {

b a c k w h e e l

BMX bicycles are small They are fordoing tricks Mountain bikes are foroff-road cycling, so they have thick tiresand strong frames Mountain bikes areone of the most popular types of

23 days every summer

Recumbent

bicycles look funny,

but they are very

comfortable The

cyclist lies down

and the pedals are

at the front of the

bicycle

300 kilometers per hour!

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In 1991, Yasuyuki Kudo rode for

331 kitometers on the back wheel of

Motorcycles can carry one or two people The enginepowers the back wheel with a chain, like a bicycle.Motorcycles are heavier than bicycles, and they have

a strong, metal frame, and thick tires Motorcyclistshave to wear a helmet and leather clothes to protectthemselves Motorcycle racing is a popular sport Theriders lean very near to the ground so that they canturn quickly Some motorcycles can go faster than

I n 2008, Mark Beaumont cycted 29,440

the wortd He visited 20 countries in

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T f r e * { i s t o r y o f C a r s

can you imagine a world without cars? we have only

had cars for about l2o years people laughed at the

first cars They were slow and noisy Two German

engineers, Daimler and Benz, made the first car with

a gasoline engine in 1885 It only had three wheels

From about 1905, companies like Rolls-Royce started

to make cars They were very expensive becausepeople made each car by hand Then, in 1913, theFord Motor Company started to make their Model Tcar in a special factory Ford's factories produced carsquickly, so the Model T was less expensive than othercars By I 927 , there were more than 15 million

Model Ts on the roads

Gasoline in the USA was cheap and people wanted totravel long distances, so by 1950, American cars werelarge In Europe and Asia, drivers preferred small carsthat were better in city traffic

Most cars have a gasoline or a diesel engine The

drivcr starrs the engine with a key The engine can

powcr the front wheels, the back wheels, or all

four wheels The driver uses the pedals to go

faster, to change gears, and to stop Drivers of

automatic cars don't need to change the gears

Cars usually have five gears for going forward and

one gear for going backward The driver turns the

steering wheel and the steering wheel turns the

front wheels You have to wear a seat belt to

protect yourself if there is a crash Airbags also

protect you, but older cars don't have them

Sports cars, likethe BugattiVeyron,are low This helpsthe car to go fast becauseair can move easily over it TheBugatti Veyron goes faster than 400 kilometers per hour

It costs 1.5 million US dollars, and the people whomake the cars have only sold a few hundred since theystarted to produce them in 2005

The Peel P50 is thesmallest car in the world

It was first made in I 963

It's 134 centimeterslong and 99 centimeterswide Its top speed is

61 kilometers per hour

The world's longest car is theAmerican Dream lt has 24 wheels andit's 30.5 meters [ong! lt has a swimmingpoo[, and a heticopter can [and on it

Go to pages 44-45 for activities

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How do hot-air balloons fly? Hot air goes up A fire

under the balloon heats the air inside the balloon, so

the balloon goes up In France in 1793, the Montgolfier

brothers built the first hot-air balloon for passengers

A i r s h i p s

Airships were popular between 1900 and 1940, and

they are popular again now Inside an airship, there's

a gas that is lighter than air This makes the airship

stay in the air Airships have engines and they can fly

at 90 kilometers per hour

Planes have changed a lot since the first flight bytheWright brothers in 1903 For many years, planeswere wooden, and they had two pairs of wings

Today, people make planes from very thin metal andplastics Airliners can carry hundreds of passengersand their bags Planes carry freight and letters, too.Some very rich people have their own small plane.Concorde was an airliner that flew between 1976and 2003 It could fly from Europe to the USA inthree hours and 20 minutes - twice as fast as otherairliners It flew at2,140 kilometers per hour

The biggest airliner is the Airbus A380

It can carry more than 850 passengers lt's adouble-decker and its wings are longer than

a soccer pitch!

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Planes usually have engines on the wings The

wings are a special shape Vhen air goes over

the wings fast, the air under the wings pushes the

plane up, and it flies The engines make the plane

go very fast

Pilots sit in the cockpit, ar the front of the plane

They use the rudder to turn left and right, and they

use the tail flaps ro go up and down The wing flaps

control the speed passengers sit in the cabin.

The Daedalus is a very light plane A person pedalsthe plane, like a bicycle

Helicopters have rotors above the cabin The rotorslift the helicopter into the air Helicopters are usefulbecause they can keep still in the air and they can fly

in any direction Planes can only go forward

Planes with skis instead of wheels can land on snow.There are also special seaplanes that can land onwater Space shuttles and rockets take astronautsand machines into space

Yves Rossy, from France,