The Wright Brothers

By Marilyn Christiano

Broadcast: November 30, 2003
(THEME)
ANNCR:
Welcome to People in America from VOA Special English. Today, Sarah Long and Rich Kleinfeldt tell the story of Wilbur and Orville Wright. The Wright Brothers made a small engine-powered flying machine and proved that it was possible for humans to really fly.

(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
Wilbur Wright was born in Eighteen-Sixty-Seven near Melville, Indiana. His brother Orville was born four years later in Dayton, Ohio. Throughout their lives, they were best friends. As Wilbur once said: "From the time we were little children, Orville and I lived together, played together, worked together and thought together."
Wilbur and Orville's father was a 1)bishop¹, an official of the United Brethren Church. He traveled a lot on church business. Their mother was unusual for a woman of the nineteenth century. She had completed college. She was especially good at mathematics and science. And she was good at using tools to fix things or make things.
VOICE TWO:
One winter day when the Wright brothers were young, all their friends were outside sliding down a hill on wooden 2)sleds. The Wright brothers were sad, because they did not have a sled. So, Missus Wright said she would make one for them. She drew a picture of a sled. It did not look like other sleds. It was lower to the ground and not as wide. She told the boys it would be faster, because there would be less resistance² from the wind when they rode on it. Missus Wright was correct. When the sled was finished, it was the fastest one around. Wilbur and Orville felt like they were flying.
The sled project taught the Wright brothers two important rules. They learned³ they could increase speed by reducing wind resistance. And they learned the importance of drawing a design. Missus Wright said: "If you draw it correctly on paper, it will be right when you build it."
VOICE ONE:
When Wilbur was eleven years old and Orville seven, Bishop Wright brought home a gift for them. It was a small flying machine that flew like 3)helicopters of today. It was made of paper, bamboo and 4)cork⁴.
The motor was a rubber band that had to be turned many times until it was tight. When the person holding the toy helicopter let go, it rose straight up. It stayed in the air for a few seconds. Then it floated down to the floor.
Wilbur and Orville played and played with their new toy. Finally, the paper tore and the rubber band broke. They made another one. But it was too heavy to fly. Their first flying machine failed.

VOICE TWO:
Their attempts to make the toy gave them a new idea. They would make kites to fly and sell to their friends. They made many designs and tested them. Finally, they had the right design. The kites flew as though they had wings.
The Wright brothers continued to experiment with mechanical⁵ things. Orville started a printing business when he was in high school. He used a small printing machine to publish a newspaper. He sold copies of the newspaper to the other children in school, but he did not earn much money from the project.
VOICE ONE:
Wilbur offered some advice to his younger brother. Make the printing press bigger and publish a bigger newspaper, he said. So, together, they designed and built one. The machine looked strange. Yet it worked perfectly⁶. Soon, Orville and Wilbur were publishing a weekly newspaper.
They also printed materials for local businessmen. They were finally earning money. Wilbur was twenty-five years old and Orville twenty-one when they began to sell and repair bicycles. Then they began to make them. But the Wright brothers never stopped thinking about flying machines.
VOICE TWO:
In Eighteen-Ninety-Nine, Wilbur decided⁷ to learn about all the different kinds of flying machines that had been designed and tested through the years. Wilbur wrote to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. He asked for all the information it had on flying.
The Wright brothers read everything they could about people who sailed through the air under huge balloons. They also read about people who tried to fly on gliders⁹ -- planes with wings, but no motors.

VOICE ONE:
Then the Wright brothers began to design their own flying machine. They used the ideas they had developed from their earlier experiments with the toy helicopter, kites, printing machine and bicycles.
Soon, they needed a place to test their ideas about flight. They wrote to the Weather Bureau¹⁰ in Washington to find the place with the best wind conditions. The best place seemed to be a thin piece of sandy land in North Carolina along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. It was called Kill Devil¹¹ Hill, near the town of Kitty Hawk¹². It had the right wind and open space. Best of all, it was private.
VOICE TWO:
In Nineteen-Hundred, the Wright brothers tested a glider⁸ that could carry a person. But neither the first or second glider they built had the lifting power needed for real flight. Wilbur and Orville decided that what they had read about air pressure on curved¹³ surfaces was wrong. So they built a wind tunnel two meters long in their bicycle store in Dayton, Ohio. They tested more than two-hundred designs of wings. These tests gave them the correct information about air pressure on curved surfaces. Now it was possible for them to design a machine that could fly.
VOICE ONE:
The Wright brothers built a third glider. They took it to Kitty Hawk in the summer of Nineteen-Oh-Two. They made almost one-thousand flights with the glider. Some covered more than one-hundred-eighty meters. This glider proved that they had solved most of the problems of balance in flight. By the autumn of Nineteen-Oh-Three, Wilbur and Orville had designed and built an airplane powered by a gasoline¹⁴ engine. The plane had wings twelve meters across. It weighed about three-hundred-forty kilograms, including the pilot.
VOICE TWO:
The Wright brothers returned to Kitty Hawk. On December Seventeen, Nineteen-Oh-Three, they made the world's first flight in a machine that was heavier than air and powered by an engine. Orville flew the plane thirty-seven meters. He was in the air for twelve seconds. The two brothers made three more flights that day. The longest was made by Wilbur. He flew two-hundred-sixty meters in fifty-nine seconds. Four other men watched the Wright brothers' first flights. One of the men took pictures. Few newspapers, however, noted¹⁶ the event.
VOICE ONE:
Wilbur and Orville returned home to Ohio. They built more powerful engines and flew better airplanes. But they success was almost unknown. Most people still did not believe flying was possible. It was almost five years before the Wright brothers became famous. In Nineteen-Oh-Eight, Wilbur went to France. He gave 5)demonstration¹⁷ flights at heights of ninety meters. A French company agreed to begin making the Wright brothers' flying machine.
VOICE TWO:
Orville made successful flights in the United States at the time Wilbur was in France. One lasted an hour. Orville also made fifty-seven complete circles over a field at Fort¹⁵ Myer, Virginia. The United States War Department agreed to buy a Wright brothers' plane. Wilbur and Orville suddenly became world heroes. Newspapers wrote long stories about them. Crowds followed them. But they were not seeking fame. They returned to Dayton where they continued to improve their airplanes. They taught many others how to fly.
VOICE ONE:
Wilbur Wright died of 6)typhoid fever in Nineteen-Twelve. Orville Wright continued designing and inventing until he died many years later, in Nineteen-Forty-Eight.
Today, the Wright brothers' first airplane is in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Visitors to the museum look at the Wright brothers' small plane with its cloth wings, wooden controls and tiny engine. Then they see space vehicles and a rock collected from the moon. This is striking¹⁸ evidence of the changes in the world since Wilbur and Orville Wright began the modern age of flight, one-hundred years ago.
(THEME)
ANNCR:
This program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano and produced by Paul Thompson. Your announcers¹⁹ were Sarah Long and Rich Kleinfeldt. I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for People in America from VOA Special English.
注释：
1) bishop [5biFEp] n.主教
2) sled [sled] n.雪橇
3) helicopter [5helikCptE] n.直升(飞)机, 直升机
4) cork [kC:k] n.软木塞, 软木
5) demonstration [7demEns5treiFEn] n.示范, 实证
6) typhoid fever  n.（医）伤寒症

1 bishop   

n.主教，（国际象棋）象

参考例句：

• He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
• Two years after his death the bishop was canonised.主教逝世两年后被正式封为圣者。

2 resistance   

n.抵抗力，反抗，反抗行动；阻力，电阻；反对；adj.抵抗的

参考例句：

• Very little resistance was put up by the enemy.敌人没怎么进行抵抗。
• An aircraft has to overcome the resistance of the air.飞机须克服空气的阻力。

3 learned   

adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
• In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里，他被视为有学问的人。

4 cork   

n.软木，软木塞

参考例句：

• We heard the pop of a cork.我们听见瓶塞砰的一声打开。
• Cork is a very buoyant material.软木是极易浮起的材料。

5 mechanical   

adj.机械(学)的；力学的；机械似的；手工操作的

参考例句：

• He borrowed a mechanical book from me.他从我这儿借了一本力学方面的书。
• He looks very mechanical.他看上去非常呆板。

6 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 glider   

n.滑翔机；滑翔导弹

参考例句：

• The glider was soaring above the valley.那架滑翔机在山谷上空滑翔。
• The pilot managed to land the glider on a safe place.那个驾驶员设法让滑翔机着陆到一个安全的地方。

9 gliders   

n.滑翔机( glider的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The albatross is the king of gliders. 信天翁是滑翔鸟类之王。 来自《用法词典》
• For three summers, may bested and improved their gliders. 他们花了三个夏天不断地测试、改进。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史

10 bureau   

n.提供或收集消息的机构；局，司，处；署

参考例句：

• The weather bureau makes daily reports on weather conditions.气象局每天报告天气状况。
• The Tourist Bureau arranged everything for our journey to Rome.旅游局已为我们去罗马旅行准备了一切。

11 devil   

n.魔鬼，恶魔

参考例句：

• It is easier to raise the devil than to lay him.召鬼容易驱鬼难。
• Susie,you're a determined little devil.苏茜，你真是个坚决的小家伙。

12 hawk   

n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员

参考例句：

• The hawk swooped down on the rabbit and killed it.鹰猛地朝兔子扑下来,并把它杀死。
• The hawk snatched the chicken and flew away.老鹰叼了小鸡就飞走了。

13 curved   

a.弯曲的

参考例句：

• His lips curved in a barely perceptible smile. 他的嘴角弯了弯，露出一丝几乎察觉不到的笑容。
• The missile curved gracefully towards its target. 导弹呈优美的曲线状飞向目标。

14 gasoline   

n.(美)汽油

参考例句：

• This car runs 5 miles on a gallon of gasoline.这部汽车一加仑汽油可以行驶五英里。
• There is still some gasoline left in the tank.油箱里还剩下一些汽油。

15 fort   

n.要塞，堡垒，碉堡

参考例句：

• The fort can not be defended against an air attack.这座要塞遭到空袭时无法防御。
• No one can get into the fort without a pass.没有通行证，任何人不得进入要塞。

16 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

17 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

18 striking   

adj.显著的，惹人注目的，容貌出众的

参考例句：

• There is a striking difference between Jane and Mary.简和玛丽之间有显著的差异。
• What is immediately striking is how resourceful the children are.最令人注目的是孩子们的机智聪明。

19 announcers   

n.宣告者( announcer的名词复数 )；播音员；（戏剧的）报幕员；（比赛的）解说员

参考例句：

• There are two announcers of this concert, a female and a male. 这场音乐会有两个报幕员，一位女士和一位男士。 来自互联网
• Some persons objected that announcers' articulation was too meticulous to be natural. 有人反对播音员的发音过于规范，这样就显得很不自然。 来自互联网