Reading Test 1 — The Rise of Bike-Sharing
A short academic passage with True/False/Not Given, multiple choice and gap-fill questions.
10 questions · suggested time 20 min
The Rise of Bike-Sharing
A The first public bike-sharing scheme appeared in Amsterdam in 1965. A group of activists left fifty bicycles painted white around the city, free for anyone to use. The idea was simple: take a bike, ride it, and leave it for the next person. Sadly, the White Bicycle Plan did not last long. The city council refused to support the idea. Many of the bikes were stolen or thrown into canals, and the police, who saw the unlocked bicycles as encouraging theft, removed the rest.
B Thirty years later, Copenhagen tried again with a more organised system. In 1995 the city placed specially designed bikes in stands across the centre. To release a bike, a user put a coin into a slot, much like the system used for supermarket trolleys, and got the coin back when they returned it. This was an improvement, but the small deposit did little to stop theft, and many bikes disappeared.
C The real change came with technology. Modern schemes, which began in the early 2000s, require users to register with a card or an app, so each bike can be linked to the person who took it. Riders unlock them with a smartphone, pay by the minute, and return them to docking stations. Because users can be identified, theft has dropped sharply, and cities such as Paris, London and Hangzhou now operate systems with tens of thousands of bicycles.
D Around 2016 a new model spread quickly from China: dockless bikes. These have a built-in lock and GPS, so they can be left almost anywhere. At first this seemed ideal, but in many cities thousands of bikes ended up piled on pavements and in rivers. Several companies collapsed, and cities introduced rules. Today, some require dockless bikes to be left only in marked zones.
E Experts now agree that bike-sharing is not a magic solution on its own. Schemes succeed when they are part of a wider plan that includes safe cycle lanes, good public transport and fair prices. Where these exist, shared bicycles — and increasingly, shared electric bikes — have become a normal part of city life.
0/10 answered
20:00
1.The first public bike-sharing scheme was introduced in Amsterdam.
2.The White Bicycle Plan was supported by the city government.
3.Copenhagen's 1995 scheme was more successful than any scheme before it.
4.Modern schemes use technology to know who has taken each bicycle.
5.According to paragraph B, what was the main problem with coin-deposit schemes?
6.What does the writer say about dockless bikes?
7.What is the writer's main point in the final paragraph?
8.In the 1965 plan, the bicycles were painted ______. (ONE WORD)
9.Modern users often unlock a bike with a ______. (ONE WORD)
10.Some cities now require dockless bikes to be left in marked ______. (ONE WORD)