(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
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. 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 bishop, 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.
One winter day when the Wright brothers were young, all their friends were outside sliding down a hill on wooden 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 resistance 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 learned 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." 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 helicopters of today. It was made of paper, bamboo and cork. 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. 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 mechanical 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. 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 perfectly. 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.
In eighteen ninety-nine, Wilbur decided 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 gliders -- planes with wings, but no motors. 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 Bureau 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 Devil Hill, near the town of Kitty Hawk. It had the right wind and open space. Best of all, it was private. In nineteen hundred, the Wright brothers tested a glider 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 curved 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. 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 gasoline engine. The plane had wings twelve meters across. It weighed about three hundred forty kilograms, including the pilot. 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, noted the event.
Wilbur and Orville returned home to Ohio. They built more powerful engines and flew better airplanes. But their 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 demonstration flights at heights of ninety meters. A French company agreed to begin making the Wright brothers' flying machine. 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 Fort 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. Wilbur Wright died of 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 striking evidence of the changes in the world since Wilbur and Orville Wright began the modern age of flight, one hundred years ago.
重点解析
1.slide down 往下滑
These kids will slide down from the middle.
而这些孩子将从山腰间滑落。
2.resistance 阻力
The design of the bicycle reduces the effects of wind resistance and drag.
这种自行车的设计减少了风阻及曳力的影响。
3.mechanical 机械的
This is the oldest working mechanical clock in the world.
这是世界上最古老的还可以使用的机械钟。
4.They used the ideas they had developed from their earlier experiments with the toy helicopter, kites, printing machine and bicycles.
develop from 从...发展而来
Most plants develop from seeds.
多数植物都是由种了长成的。
5.This glider proved that they had solved most of the problems of balance in flight.
prove 证明
The results prove that regulation of the salmon farming industry is inadequate.
结果证明，大马哈鱼养殖业的管理是失当的。
6.He gave demonstration flights at heights of ninety meters.
demonstration flights 示范飞行
The time and venue for the demonstration flight and other details will be disclosed at a later time.
试飞时间、地点等其它细节将在晚些时候公布。
参考译文
欢迎来到VOA慢速英语栏目《美国人物志》。今天，莎拉·朗和里奇·克林沸德将为大家讲述威尔伯和奥维尔·莱特的故事。莱特兄弟制造了一家小型引擎飞机，证明人类也是可以飞行的。1867年，威尔伯·莱特出生于印第安纳州的梅尔维尔附近。他的弟弟比他晚四年出生于俄亥俄州的代顿。他们是一辈子的好朋友。威尔伯曾说：“从我们还是小孩子的时候起，奥维尔和我就生活在一起，我们一起玩耍、工作、思考。”威尔伯和奥维尔的父亲是联合兄弟会教堂办公室的一名主教。因为教堂事务，他去过很多地方。他们的母亲在19世纪看来是一个不同寻常的女性。她念完了大学，她的数学和科学尤其的好。她还善于利用工具修理和制作各种东西。
在莱特兄弟童年的一个冬天里，所有的小伙伴都在外边坐着木雪橇从小山上往下滑。莱特兄弟很难过，因为他们没有雪橇，所以莱特夫人说她会给他俩做一个。她花了一张雪橇图，看起来和别的雪橇不一样，雪橇低到地面，也没有那么宽。她告诉孩子们，这样会更快，因为当他们坐上去时，风的阻力会更小。莱特夫人的想法是对的。当雪橇制作完成后，这个雪橇是最快的。威尔伯和奥维尔感觉自己飞了起来。雪橇项目教会莱特兄弟两个重要的法则。他们学习到可以通过减少风的阻力来增加速度。他们还学到了画设计图的重要性。莱特夫人说：“如果在纸上进行正确的图画，那么建造出来的东西就是你想要的。”在威尔伯11岁，奥维尔7岁的时候，莱特主教带回了一个礼物给他们。这是一个小型的飞机，看起来像是如今的直升飞机。这个小飞机是用纸、竹子和软木制成的。发动机是一个橡皮圈，转好几圈才能拧紧。当一个人拖着玩具飞机时，它就会笔直往上飞。飞机只能在空中维持几秒钟，然后就降到地面了。威尔伯和奥维尔玩着他们的新玩具。最终，纸撕破了，橡胶圈也坏了。他们又做了一个，但是太重了飞不起来。他们的第一架飞机失败了。
他们想要制作玩具的尝试给了他们一个新想法。他们要制作风筝卖给他们的朋友。他们设计了很多并进行测试。最终，他们设计出了正确的风筝。风筝像是有翅膀一样的飞行。莱特兄弟继续进行机械试验。奥维尔在高中时，开始了印刷事业。他利用小型印刷机出版报纸。他将复印报纸卖给学校的其他孩子，但是他并没有赚到什么钱。威尔伯给了他弟弟一些建议。将印刷机做大，出版更大的报纸，他说。他们一起设计并做了一个。这个机器看起来很奇怪。但是运行完美。很快，奥维尔和威尔伯开始印刷周报。他们还为当地商人印刷材料。最终他们赚到了钱。
威尔伯25岁，奥维尔21岁的时候，他们开始售卖和修理自行车。然后，他们开始自己的做自行车。但是莱特兄弟并没有停止思索飞机。1899年，威尔伯决定学习已经被设计出来并进行过测试的各种飞机。威尔伯给华盛顿史密森学会写信询问所有关于飞机的信息。莱特兄弟阅读了所有能拿到的关于人们搭乘巨型气球飞上天空的资料。他们还阅读人们试图搭乘滑翔机飞行的故事，滑翔机就是有机翼但没有发动机的飞机。然后莱特兄弟开始设计自己的飞机。他们所用的想法来自于他们早期和玩具直升飞机、风筝、印刷机和自行车所做的实验。很快，他们便需要一个地方实验他们关于飞机的想法。他们给华盛顿气象局写信寻找风况最好的地方。最佳地点似乎是沿大西洋海岸的北卡罗来纳州的一片小沙地。这里被称为Kill Devil Hill，位于基蒂霍克镇附近。这里风况正好且空间开阔。最好的是，这里是私人场所。
1900年，莱特兄弟对载人滑翔机进行测试。但是他们的第一架和第二架滑翔机都没有真正飞机所需的起重力。威尔伯和奥维尔发现他们所读到的关于弯曲表面空气压力的信息是错的。所以他们在位于俄亥俄州自己的自行车商店里做了一个两米长的风洞。他们对设计的两百多种机翼进行测试。这些测试为他们提供了关于弯曲表面空气压力的正确信息。现在他们设计的飞机可以飞了。莱特兄弟制作了第三架滑翔机。1902年夏天，他们将它带去了基蒂霍克镇。他们的滑翔机飞行了差不多一千米距离。一些飞行距离为一百八十多米。这架滑翔机证明他们已经解决了飞机平衡的大部分问题。直到1903年秋天，威尔伯和奥维尔设计并制作了一架汽油引擎的飞机。这架飞机机翼12米长。重约三百四十公斤，包括飞行员。莱特兄弟返回基蒂霍克。1903年12月17日，他们制造了世界上第一架飞机，以引擎为动力。奥维尔驾驶飞机飞行了37米。他在空中呆了12秒。两个兄弟那一天飞了三次。最长的那一次是威尔伯驾驶的，他在59秒内飞行了260米。另外四个人观看了莱特兄弟的首次飞行。其中一个人拍了照，但是只有几家媒体注意到了这次事件。
威尔伯和奥维尔回到俄亥俄州的家里。他们制造了更多的强力引擎并试飞了更好的飞机。但是他们的成功几乎不为人知。多数人仍不相信人们可以飞行。莱特兄弟五年后才为人所知。1908年，威尔伯前往法国。他在90米的高空进行示范飞行。一家法国公司同意开始制造莱特兄弟的飞机。在威尔伯待在法国期间，奥维尔在美国进行了几次成功的飞行。一次持续了一个小时。奥维尔在弗吉尼亚州梅尔堡上空飞了57圈。美国陆军部同意购买一架莱特兄弟的飞机。威尔伯和奥维尔突然成为了世界英雄。报纸写了关于他们的长篇故事。人群围着他们，但是他们并不需要名声。他们回到代顿，在那里继续改善他们的飞机。他们教其他人如何飞行。1912年，威尔伯.莱特死于伤寒症。奥维尔.莱特继续设计发明，直到1948年去世。今天，莱特兄弟的第一架飞机位于华盛顿的航空航天博物馆。游客们前往博物馆观看莱特兄弟的小飞机，飞机的布制机翼、木制控制杆和小小的引擎。然后，他们观看太空交通工具以及从月球上收集的岩石。这是世界发生改变的惊人证据，一百多年，威尔伯和奥维尔.莱特开启了现代飞机的时代。
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