Today some people call Amsterdam the "City of Bicycles" because it is a city which is flat and convenient(芯片) for bicycles.
In the 1960s, a group of cycling fans1an idea. They believed that it would be better for everybody if only bicycles were allowed in the city centre. They were2that this would help so save energy, reduce pollution and provide free public transport. The group painted hundreds of bicycles3 and placed them in public places around Amsterdam for people to use. 4was allowed to take them and use them for short journeys, whether he was a local or a foreigner. Wherever someone finished a journey, they would5the bike there for someone else to use. The problem was that it didn't work—6took all the bicycles within weeks!
7 more than thirty years later, the "white bike" is back in town—this time with a computer chip(芯片) to8 its every move! To take a bicycle, you have to put a special card inside. The new "White bike" is not white any more but is an unusual9with bright colours. The bikes are parked at special parking places and people who want to use them have to take them to another place that has enough room.
There is already less traffic in central Amsterdam, 10both locals and tourists have been using the white bikes. Thanks to the good ideas of lots of people, like the cycling fans in the 1960s, many people around the world have been enjoying city centre streets without cars for many years.
There was once a man called Mr. Flowers, and flowers were his only joy in life. He spent all his free time in one of his four glass-houses and grew flowers of every color, with long and difficult names, for competitions. He tried to grow a rose of a new color to win the silver cup for the Rose of the Year.
Mr. Flowers' glass-houses were very near to a middle school. Boys of around thirteen of age were often tempted (引诱) to throw a stone or two at one of Mr. Flowers' glass-houses. So Mr. Flowers did his best to be in or near his glass-houses at the beginning and end of the school day.
But it was not always possible to be on watch at those times. Mr. Flowers had tried in many ways to protect his glass, but nothing that he had done had been useful. He had been to school to report to the headmaster; but this had not done any good. He had tried to drive away the boys that threw stones into his garden; but the boys could run faster than he could, and they laughed at him from far away. He had even picked up all the stones that he could find around his garden, so that the boys would have nothing to throw; but they soon found others.
At last Mr. Flowers had a good idea. He put up a large notice made of good, strong wood, some meters away from the glass-houses. On it he had written the words: DO NOT THROW STONES AT THIS NOTICE. After this, Mr. Flowers had no further trouble; the boys were much more tempted to throw stones at the notice than at the glass-houses
