美国英语听力80篇1 Lesson08

[00:04.88]Then your teacher shouts:"Go !"

[00:08.12]You let go of the wing support and fall away from the plane.

[00:13.40]You throw your head back, arms out, legs apart, as you learned 1.

[00:19.51]You fall face forward toward 2 the Earth below.

[00:23.35]The sound of the engine and the scream of the wind disappear immediately.

[00:29.44]There is only silence. You feel you are moving ... but not falling.

[00:36.21]Quickly, a line tied to the plane pulls the parachute from its pack.

[00:42.84]The lines of the parachute and the stiff 3 straps 4 of the parachute harness 5 gently pull on your shoulders and legs.

[00:51.15]You look up.

[00:52.90]The big, colorful parachute is now fully 6 open above you.

[00:57.86]You look at it carefully to make sure it is not damaged.

[01:02.54]Reaching over your head, you hold the left and right steering 8 lines.

[01:08.26]You pull the left one and begin a slow, smooth turn to the left.

[01:14.40]You still have no feeling of falling.

[01:18.29]You seem to hang in the air.

[01:20.90]There is no longer any feeling of fear.

[01:24.11]Yet your heart is racing 9 with excitement.

[01:27.77]You look around. You can see for many kilometers.

[01:32.29]You look down between your feet.

[01:34.98]You can see people, cars and buildings. They look very small.

[01:41.62]For a few moments, you enjoy the view and the silence of your first parachute jump.

[01:48.56]Too soon, it seems, it is time to prepare for landing 10.

[01:53.76]You watch the landing area and move toward it by pulling on the left or right steering lines.

[02:01.36]You aim for the soft sand in the center of the landing place.

[02:07.01]Suddenly, the ground is moving quickly toward you.

[02:11.55]You bring your feet together and bend your legs at the knee.

[02:16.10]You reach high into the straps above your head. You keep your eyes straight ahead.

[02:23.20]You hit the ground, gently, it seems.

[02:26.83]And, as you learned, you roll on your side to the left and come back up onto your feet.

[02:34.62]You gather up your parachute, being careful not to cross the many lines.

[02:41.20]Your first sport parachute jump has been safe, successful and great fun.

[02:48.65]The idea of the parachute is almost as old as man's dreams of flight.

[02:55.57]The first known parachute designs were drawn 11 by Italian artist and inventor Leonardo Da Vinci as early as 1495.

[03:05.97]However, there is no evidence that Da Vinci ever built a parachute.

[03:11.01]About 200 years ago,

[03:14.38]Louis-Sebastian Lenormand of France invented a kind of parachute to save people at the top of tall burning buildings.

[03:24.85]Historians say he jumped safely from a building in Montpellier, France, using his small device 12.

[03:33.50]The first man to use a real parachute was Andre-Jacques Garnerin.

[03:40.26]In 1797, he parachuted from a balloon 600 meters above the city of Paris.

[03:48.26]There were more and more parachute designs after the invention of the airplane.

[03:55.23]Early planes often crashed.

[03:58.71]Fliers needed a safey device that would let them escape from a falling plane:

[04:04.92]Parachutes saved many of their lives.

[04:08.56]Parachutes became so dependable that military leaders believed they could be used to get soldiers to a battlefield quickly.

[04:18.61]American General Billy Mitchell tested the idea in 1928.

[04:25.30]Six soldiers jumped by parachute from an airplane.

[04:30.45]When they landed, they set up a machine gun.

[04:34.10]The test was a complete success.

[04:37.42]And the parachute became a useful military tool.

[04:42.20]In the past thirty years,parachuting has become an exciting sport.

[04:48.57]It became popular when young men who learned to parachute in the military

[04:54.66]wanted to continue jumping when they returned to civilian 13 life.

[04:59.91]Today, parachuting is enjoyed by men and women, young and old.

[05:06.99]There are many kinds of sport parachuting. One of the most interesting is skydiving.

[05:15.38]Jumpers leave the airplane as it flies more than 3,000 meters above the ground.

[05:22.27]They fall for about one minute before opening their parachute.

[05:27.13]They use their bodies,

[05:29.20]and the air that rushes past them, to control their flight while falling.

[05:34.47]They can speed up or slow down.

[05:37.61]They can turn left or right.

[05:40.35]They can turn over completely.

[05:42.96]People who like to skydive say they can do anything an airplane can do,

[05:50.64]except go upi Those who jump say skydiving is as close as man will ever come to free flight ... like that of birds.

[06:03.02]Today's parachutes are very different from the device

[06:07.41]Leonardo Da Vinci designed 500 years ago.

[06:11.41]They come in many different shapes and colors.

[06:15.61]One of the most popular is shaped more like a rectangle 14

[06:20.63]than the traditional circle of old parachutes.

[06:23.63]This one works 15 much like a jet 16 airplane.

[06:28.05]It forces the air that passes through it to the back.

[06:32.91]Large openings in the back can be opened or closed to steer 7 it.

[06:38.99]Some of the most modern kinds of parachutes give jumpers much more control over where they float.

[06:47.77]Jumpers can fall gently down