Exercise 1: sample answer

First, a woman on her own bicycle could travel without a carriage, a horse or a chaperone, so she could visit friends, go to work and reach the countryside by herself. Second, cycling was socially acceptable exercise and leisure outdoors, in clubs and groups, which opened new public activities to middle-class women (check). The machine also had a practical effect on work, since a bicycle let some women live further from their jobs.