Unit8 Period Three Lesson 2 & Lesson 3—Comprehending（word教参)-【状元桥·优质课堂】2023-2024学年新教材高中英语必修第三册（北师大版2019）

Period Three　Lesson 2 & Lesson 3—Comprehending [教材原文] “WHITE BIKES” ON THE ROAD People in Amsterdam have been enjoying the benefits of cycling for years.The idea began about 50 years ago, and was first known as“white bikes”．Amsterdam is a good city for cycling because it's flat and therefore<1> convenient for bikes.There are also plenty of places for bicycle parking and most streets in the city centre have a bicycle path<2>．Because of its convenience for bicycles, Amsterdam has become very popular with cyclists—an amazing 38% of all trips are made by bike.Some people even call Amsterdam “the City of Bicycles”． Where did the idea of “white bikes” come from？In the 1960s, a group of cycling fans came up with<3> an idea.①They believed that it would be better for everybody if cars weren't allowed in the city centre and only bicycles were.They were hopeful that this would help to save energy, reduce pollution and provide free public transport.The group painted hundreds of bicycles white and placed them in many areas around Amsterdam for people to use.Anyone was allowed to take them and use them for short journeys.People would leave the bike in the place where they finished their journey, so that someone else could then take it and use it from there.Soon after, however, problems came up and the“white bikes”all disappeared<4>—thieves stole them all in a matter of weeks! In 1999, the“white bikes”returned to Amsterdam—this time with a computer tracking<5> system to record their every move! To take a bicycle, you had to put in a special card.The new “white bikes” were not actually white but painted in bright colours.The bikes were parked at special parking places.Thus people who wanted to use them had to take them to another special parking place near their destination<6> and leave them there. Thanks to the ideas and efforts of many people, like the cycling fans of the 1960s and those who enabled the return of “white bikes”， you can now enjoy clean air and easy transport in