Today, when a man steps on to the moon, or something new and important happens, the world learns about it immediately. What did the newspapers say about that first flight in 1903? Strangely enough, they said hardly anything about it at all. There are only a few reports about it in the papers. These reports said very little. Some of the things they said were not even correct.
In 1904 the Wrights built a second machine. They called it “
Flyer No. Two”. They invited some reporters to a field near Dayton to watch them fly. Unfortunately, there was some mechanical(机械的) trouble with the plane and it did not fly at all that day. The newspapermen went away. They were disappointed and did not come back. The Wrights went on with their work. In 1905, they built an even better machine, “Flyer No Three”. They were able to stay upon the air for half an hour and more in the machine. Farmers and travelers on the road around the Dayton often saw them flying, but when three people told newspapermen about it, they refused to believe them.
The Wrights offered “Flyer No. Three” to the United States government. The government was not interested. They seemed to think the Wrights wanted money in order to build a plane. They did not understand the Wrights had already done this, and flown it as well. Experts were still saying that mechanical flight was impossible. At the end of 1905, the two brothers took their planes to pieces. The parts were put into a huge wooden box. It seemed nobody was interested.
小题1:The reporters were disappointed in 1904 because________.
| A．the Wrights did not invite them |
| B．the plane could not stay long in the air |
| C．the plane did not fly at all that day |
| D．they had wanted to see a better machine |
小题2:The U．S. government could not understand that________.
| A．the Wrights had already built a machine that could fly |
| B．experts still thought flight was impossible |
| C．the Wrights wanted more money to build an airplane |
| D．“Flyer No. Three” was now in a wooden case |
小题3:The Wrights took their plane to pieces because________.
| A．they planned to go to Europe |
| B．nobody was interested |
| C．the government didn't give them any money |
| D．the newspapermen didn't report their flights |
小题4:What does the underlined word “Flyer” mean?
| A．Pilot. | B．Drive. | C．Plane. | D．Kite. |
小题5:Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．Today, people are very interested in new things. |
| B．People in the past talked little about new things. |
| C．Reporters are now as interested in new happening as in the past. |
| D．People in the past even told each other wrong things. |
