1 This new spaper article contains useful vocabulary for giving your w riting more range and variety, particularly in Task 1. Read it and pick out some useful language. Fears increase among environmentalists as car travel experiences another boom Latest transport statistics reveal Europeans are using their cars more than ever - despite growing economic pressures and the increasing threat o f global warming. Journeys by car now make up more than 40% o f all travel within the European Union, making this the highest rate on record by some distance. The Transport A gency’s annual report, which includes data on a range o f transport issues, shows that the percentage o f trips made by car has now exceeded the previous high o f 37% in 2005. While the overall frequency o f car travel has shown a marginal decline, from an average o f 6.4 trips per week down to 6.2, environmentalists are sure to be paying close attention to how the government reacts to the report. The increased proportion o f travel by Europe’s car users is even more concerning, given the fact that public-transport use has dropped o ff substantially in the last five years. A glance at bus travel, for instance, shows that use o f this mode o f transport has almost halved over the same period, dropping from 28% o f the overall share in 2005 to just 15% today. Meanwhile, the use o f the underground has remained fairly constant over the last five years, fluctuating between 20% and 23% o f the overall share o f travel in Europe. Similarly, train travel has also shown no
