Level 2 Reading 12A

Ch.23

第23章

Reading 12A THE DREAM OF FLIGHT For thousands of years, humans have dreamed of taking to the skies. The ancient Greeks told the legend of Icarus, a boy who flies so high that the sun melts his man-made wings and he crashes down to Earth. Across history, many more people have died after jumping from a tower or cliff with wings that didn't quite work. Flying, for humans, seemed an impossibility. Yet many continued to dream of flying. One such dreamer was the great 15th-century artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci. He studied the flight of birds and even designed his own flying machines, but they—and he—never left the ground. Five hundred years later, standing on a windy hill in North Carolina, in the United States, I was about to make the dream come true. Unlike Leonardo, I had the help of a hang glider— a light, modern machine that makes flying simple and safe enough even for tourist entertainment. I held on to the hang glider as tightly as I could. Terrified, I ran down the hill, and suddenly, I was running in the air. I was flying! What a thrill! Now I wanted more.

阅读12A 飞翔的梦想 几千年来，人类一直梦想着登上天空。 古希腊人讲述了伊卡洛斯的传说，一个男孩飞得如此之高，以至于太阳融化了他的人造翅膀，他坠落到了地球上。 纵观历史，有更多的人在从塔或悬崖上跳下翅膀不太起作用后死亡。 对人类来说，飞行似乎是不可能的。 然而，许多人仍然梦想着飞翔。 其中一位梦想家是15世纪伟大的艺术家和发明家莱昂纳多·达·芬奇。 他研究鸟类的飞行，甚至设计了自己的飞行器，但它们和他从未离开过地面。 五百年后，站在美国北卡罗来纳州一座多风的山上，我正要实现这个梦想。 与莱昂纳多不同，我有一架悬挂式滑翔机的帮助-- 一种轻便、现代的机器，即使是旅游娱乐，也能让飞行变得简单安全。 我尽可能紧紧地抓住悬挂式滑翔机。 我吓坏了，跑下山，突然，我在空中奔跑。 我在飞！ 太刺激了！ 现在我想要更多。

A friend in my hang gliding class suggested I next try a "tandem flight"—flying in a hang glider made for two people. A small airplane carries you up 600 meters and then lets you go. I decided to try it with my instructor, Jon Thompson. Up into the air we went. When the airplane released us, it felt like falling from a building, headfirst. "You can fly now," my instructor said. After a few moments, I found the courage to turn the glider a little to the left, and then a little to the right. I was more like a pigeon than an eagle, but I was flying! Of course, hang gliding is not the only way mankind has learned to enjoy the freedom of flight. Today, many people skydive, while BASE jumpers—those who jump off buildings, cliffs, and bridges—often get their thrills illegally. For a few exciting moments, they experience free-falling—falling downwards with nothing to slow them—before they open a parachute. "It's as close as human beings can get to flying like a bird," says BASE jumper J.T. Holmes. Switzerland's Yves Rossy might disagree. The wings he has invented for personal flight have four small engines. He steers them just by moving his shoulders. For 10 minutes at a time, Rossy seems to fly as free as a bird, having both power and control. One of his longest flights was across the water from France to England. "It's awesome, it's great, it's fantastic!" says Rossy. Since then, he has continued to improve his wing design, and hopes he can "motivate the next generation of thinkers to do something different ... even if it seems impossible."

我悬挂式滑翔课上的一位朋友建议我接下来尝试“双人飞行”——乘坐为两人设计的悬挂式滑翔机。 一架小型飞机载你飞上600米，然后让你离开。 我决定和我的教练乔恩·汤普森一起试试。 我们飞到了空中。 当飞机释放我们时，感觉就像从头上掉下来一样。 “你现在可以飞了，”我的教练说。 过了一会儿，我鼓起勇气把滑翔机向左转一点，然后向右转一点。 我更像一只鸽子，而不是鹰，但我在飞翔！ 当然，悬挂式滑翔并不是人类学会享受飞行自由的唯一方式。 如今，许多人跳伞，而定点跳伞者——那些从建筑物、悬崖和桥梁上跳下的人——经常非法获得刺激。 在一些激动人心的时刻，他们经历了自由落体——在打开降落伞之前，没有任何东西可以减缓他们的速度。 定点跳伞运动员J.T.Holmes说：“这是人类最接近像鸟一样飞行的地方。”。 瑞士的Yves Rossy可能不同意。 他为个人飞行发明的机翼有四个小引擎。 他只需移动肩膀就能驾驭它们。 每次10分钟，罗西似乎像鸟一样自由地飞翔，既有力量又有控制力。 他最长的一次飞行是从法国到英国的跨海飞行。 罗西说：“太棒了，太棒了！”。 从那时起，他一直在改进他的机翼设计， 并希望他能“激励下一代思想家做一些不同的事情……即使这似乎是不可能的。”

♪

♪