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Today we are going to speak about self-balancing scooters. This kind of transport, so fashionable nowadays, can be rather dangerous.

These days young people pay a lot of attention to sports. There are many kinds of transport in fashion – like scooters, bicycles, segways and skateboards. One of the most favourite kind of transport that the young prefer is a self-balancing scooter (or a 'gyro scooter'). You can easily meet a girl that is six or seven years of age and an adult man in his thirties riding such a scooter. Everybody enjoys riding them.

However the doctors warn gyro scooter fans that they can develop serious health problems. I know a guy whose name is Bob who developed huge problems with his back.

Bob had always been a sporty guy and he also liked bicycles, scooters and skateboards. When gyro scooters appeared, Bob was one of the first to buy it. Now Bob has a bad back.

The doctors state that Bob is not the only person who is having a gyro scooter problem. The thing is that people who ride gyro scooters often carry them in their hands. But a self-balancing scooter is a rather heavy device! It weighs about 20 kilograms and when people carry one, they get it harder on their backs. This can easily cause a bad back or a hernia. And this is how it happened to Bob.

There is another danger for gyro scooter fans. If you can't ride the device properly you can fall down and get badly injured. That is why you need to be very careful otherwise you can get into a situation my friend Mike got.

Mike is Bob's best friend, so when Bob bought himself a self-balanced scooter, Mike asked Bob to let him ride it. Bob had never been a greedy guy so he agreed. But the thing was Mike could not ride a self-balanced scooter. He developed high speed and fell down off it. As a result, everyone was having holidays and Mike was in hospital with a broken leg.

All these examples and fears don't mean that you must not use gyro scooters. But you should always remember about safety first.

Self-balancing scooters

• can't be dangerous
• are fashionable nowadays
• are fashionable kind of transport

… like gyro scooters

• young people
• adults
• elderly people

… developed huge problems with his back.

• Tom
• Tim
• Rob
• Bob

Bob didn't like

• bikes
• scooters
• skateboards
• roller-skates

Gyro scooter weighs about ... kilograms

• 12
• 21
• 20
• 120

Mike had a try to ride a self-balanced scooter and fell … it

• down of
• down
• off
• down off