听力教程第三册答案UNIT2.docxVIP

UNIT 2 Part 2 Passage The Wrights’Story On the morning of December 17, 1903, between 10:30 a.m. and noon, four flights were made, two by Orville Wright and two by Wilbur Wright. The starts were all made from a point on the level sand about 200 feet west of our camp, which is located a quarter of a mile north of the Kill Devil sand hill, in Dare County, North Carolina. The wind at the time of the flights had a velocity* of 27 miles an hour at 10 a.m., and 24 miles an hour at noon, as recorded by the anemometer* at the Kitty Hawk Weather Bureau Station. The flights were directly against the wind. Each time the machine started from the level ground by its own power alone with no assistance from gravity or any other source whatever. After a run of about 40 feet along a monorail* track, which held the machine 8 inches (20 centimeters) from the ground, it rose from the track and under the direction of the operator climbed upward on an inclined course till a height of 8 or 10 feet from the ground was reached, after which the course was kept as near horizontal as the wind gusts and the limited skill of the operator would permit. Into the teeth of a December gale the Flyer made its way forward with a speed of 10 miles an hour over the ground and 30 to 35 miles an hour through the air. It had previously been decided that for reasons of personal safety these first trials should be made as close to the ground as possible. The height chosen was sufficient for maneuvering* in so gusty a wind and with no previous acquaintance with the conduct of the machine and its controlling mechanisms. Consequently the first flight was short. The succeeding flights rapidly increased in length and at the fourth trial a flight of 59 seconds was made, in which time the machine flew a little more than half a mile through the air and a distance of 852 feet over the ground. The landing was due to a slight error of judgment on the part of the aviator. After passing over a little hummock* of sand, in a