The Automobile

Cars are a common sight on roads today, but that wasn't always true. Back in the days before the car (INVENT), the only personal means of transport were the horse and the bicycle.
The first cars (GET) their power from steam and gas, and had a maximum speed of around nine miles an hour. In Britain, there was a law (STOP) cars from going over two miles an hour in towns.
At the end of the nineteenth century, cars started to use petrol and became much (FAST) than they had been. Very few people at that time said that cars (CHANGE) the world in the future.
That is exactly what has happened, though, and since then we (BUILD) close to eighteen million miles of roads on the Earth. Perhaps the (BIG) sign of the success of the car is the fact that there are over 800 million of them in the world. However, having more cars on the road (MEAN) more pollution, and that's a major worry for many people.