雅思听力

🎧 Listening Transcript

In today's lecture, we'll discuss the history of the bicycle. The first two-wheeled vehicle, called the draisine, appeared in 1817, but it had no pedals. Around 1860, the pedal-driven bicycle was developed in France. However, it was the invention of the pneumatic tire in 1888 by John Boyd Dunlop that truly made cycling comfortable and popular. By the early 20th century, bicycles became a common mode of transport, especially among workers. Interestingly, the safety bicycle, with its chain drive and equal-sized wheels, was introduced in the 1880s, and it greatly improved rider stability, which encouraged more people, including women, to take up cycling.