Unit 9

The future of transport

The future of transport

by Jyoti Patel

Reviewer:Graham Yeung

Growing numbers of cars,motorcycles,planes and ships are polluting the world and jamming cities with traffic.If we do not develop new means of transport,the world may not have a very bright future.The future of transport discusses some faster and cleaner forms of transport,and explains how they could improve our lives and protect the environment for hundreds of years to come.

Each year,more than three billion people travel by plane.The nearly 100000 daily flights produce about 7010 million tonnes of carbon dioxide,a polluting greenhouse gas each year.According to The Future of Transport,a new and exciting train,the vactrain,could be a faster,cleaner alternative.The vactrain floats on magnets inside an airless tunnel.Trains floating on magnets are called maglev trains and are the fastest trains in the world today---the maglev train in ShangHai has a top speed of 431 km per hour.However,the vactrain could run at a speeds of up to 6400km per hour in a vacuum.In the future,there may be vactrains running between large cities all over the world and even under the sea.Just imagine travelling from Hong Kong to London in one hour and forty-five minutes and from Hong Kong to New York City in just over two hours.

This is an exciting book for anyone interested in transport and the future of our planet.

13March

Dear class,

Hi everybody! I'm having a great time in Eco-city and want to tell you how everyone gets around here.Eco-city gets its name because it creates almost no pollution.Everyone here lives in harmony with nature.Most people ride bicycles and the only cars are ambulances and fire engines.Even police officers ride bicycles,not motorcycles .The public transport here is great.My favourite is the pod-car,a type of miniature train with six seats.Pod-cars take you directly where you want to go,with no stops in between. When you get on a pod-car,you simply push a button for the stop you want and it zips along high elevated magnetic tracks.After a quick trip,you get off at your destination.It's a great way to see the city.As there are pod-cars stops on almost every street corner,it's very convenient.We should follow Eco-city's example and get out of our cars and off our motorcycles.It really is a healthy,modern city.