Porters and Pack Animals

2. The most ancient peoples were probably wanderers. They did not live in settled homes because they did not know how to till the soil. As they moved from place to place they had to carry their goods themselves. The porters were usually the women, probably because the men had to be ready to beat off attacks by wild beasts or enemies. Even now, to carry the household goods is the job of women in backward wandering tribes.

The next step was the use of pack animals for carrying goods. The kind of animal used varied in different places, but the general idea was the same - the bundles or baskets were carried by the animals on their backs. The dog, although too small to carry much, was probably one of the first transport animals used because it is so easily trained. Dogs are still to be trained for dragging sledges in the Arctic because of their light weight.

3. The next advance in land transport came with the invention of the wheel. The wheel at once led to the development of two-wheeled carts and four-wheeled waggons and carriages, but before these could be used for carrying goods over long distances, a system of roads was necessary. These roads had to be wide enough to take a cart and paved, for unless their surface was paved the wheels sank in and the cart stuck In Britain, and also over much Europe, the first long-distance paved roads were made by the Romans, chiefly so that troops could be marched without delay from place to place. The roads made it possible to use wheeled traffic. However, when the Roman Empire collapsed, the roads gradually got into a very bad state.

4. There were two problems to be solved - first, how to make good roads, and, second, to decide who was to pay for them. In Great Britain these problems were solved in the 18th century. Stretches of roads were handed over to groups called trusts. The trusts borrowed money for repairing and improving the roads, paying it back from the sums they collected from road users This method of paying for new roads and bridges is still used, especially in the United States.

Then it became possible to travel rather comfortably by coaches. In cities like London, rich people had their own carriages, while poor people went on horseback or walked. Then appeared carriages that could be hired for short distances. They correspond to the modem taxis. The word is short for taxi cab which in turn comes from the words taximeter and cabriolet. A cabriolet is a light two-wheeled carriage introduced from France in the 19th century. The taximeter is a mechanical device connected with the wheels which, by measuring the distance travelled, shows the fare due at any moment. It is also controlled by a clock so that waiting time too is charged for.

b) Find in the text the passage describing how financial problems were solved in Great Britain and the United States and translate them into Russian.

c) Read aloud the passage you have translated. The approximate time of reading is 45 seconds.

d) Find in the text sentences with the Infinitive and translate them.

e) Find in the text and put down key words to speak about land transport.

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LISTENING PRACTICE	\|	B) Answer the following questions.

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