49 L5-Transportation Then and Now

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Introduction Transportation is the movement of people or goods from one place to another. We can transport things in the water, in the air, or over land. We can use animals, vehicles, or just our feet. Sometimes we travel for work, and sometimes for vacation or just for fun. What transportation can you see here? What transportation have you used? What other transportation do you know? Discover! Now read and discover more about transportation!

Chapter 1 Then and Now Until about 7,000 years ago, people had to walk everywhere. Then they started to use animals for transportation. Later, people invented vehicles. Animals People used horses and donkeys for transportation in lots of places. People also used camels in Africa, elephants in Asia, and llamas in South America. People still use animals for transportation today. The First Vehicles People made rafts from tree trunks. They floated on their rafts along rivers and on lakes. It was easier than swimming, and they didn't get wet. These were the first vehicles. Sleds were like rafts, but they were used on land. They were useful because it's easier to pull heavy things than to lift them. The Wheel About 5,500 years ago, people added wheels to sleds. Farmers and traders made carts with two or four wooden wheels. Cows and horses pulled the carts. Carts with wheels were much faster than sleds. The wheel is one of the most important inventions in history, and today you can see wheels everywhere. Cars, buses, trucks, trains, bicycles, motorcycles, and planes all have wheels. Wheels are important in engines, too. Discover! A truck with a lot of trailers is called a road train. The longest road train was Australian. It had 117 trailers with 2,126 wheels!

International Transportation Until about 10,000 years ago, people lived in small family groups and they didn't travel a lot. Then, as villages and towns became bigger, people had to travel to find food. People used animals to carry goods like meat and fur. Then about 6,000 years ago, people started to travel long distances to trade metals, salt, and spices. Ships began trading in the Middle East 4,500 years ago. People used ships because animals could not travel over water. Soon, people were trading all around Europe and Asia. Discover! Traders took Chinese silk to Europe along the Silk Road 2,500 years ago. They used horses and camels to carry the silk more than 3,000 kilometers. Transportation Today Today, every country in the world uses water, air, and land transportation to trade food, fuel, clothes, and other goods like cars and televisions. Tourists started to go on vacation by train and boat 200 years ago. From about 1960, with the invention of large passenger planes, tourism became very popular. Today, about 900 million tourists travel to another country every year. In 2001, an American called Dennis Tito was the first space tourist. He flew in a Russian spaceship to the International Space Station. Will tourists travel to the moon one day?

Chapter 2 Boats and Ships We use boats and ships to transport passengers and freight. Boats and ships can travel along rivers and across lakes and oceans. What boats or ships have you traveled on? The First Boats The first vehicles that people used on water were rafts made from tree trunks. Then more than 5,000 years ago, people made canoes. They used paddles to power their canoes. People still use canoes today. Discover! In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl built a raft similar to the ancient rafts. He sailed Kon-Tiki 8,000 kilometers from Peru to an island in the Pacific Ocean. The First Ships Egyptian traders sailed the first ships about 4,500 years ago on the River Nile. Later, the Ancient Greeks sailed larger ships around the Mediterranean Sea. Their ships were fast because they used sails, and at the same time men rowed with oars. Traders sailed between the Middle East and India in small ships with triangular sails. Chinese, Korean, and Japanese traders had large ships with square sails. Chinese people invented the compass about 2,000 years ago. Compasses point to north, and they help people to sail in the right direction across oceans. They are still important for sailors today.