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  3. Wilbur and Orville Wright were the two youngest sons of Bishop Milton Wright, Wilbur was born on a farm near Millville and Orvil

Wilbur and Orville Wright were the two youngest sons of Bishop Milton Wright, Wilbur was born on a farm near Millville and Orvil

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问题     Wilbur and Orville Wright were the two youngest sons of Bishop Milton Wright, Wilbur was born on a farm near Millville and Orville was born in August, in the house the family would come to occupy for more than 40 years in Dayton. Orville would discover in later years that his and Wilbur’s first interests in flight began when they were children, with powered rubber-band-helicopter toys that their father would bring home for them from trips around the country. Orville and Wilbur would build duplicates of these toys and bounce them off the ceiling. They were just crazy about these things for the reasons that they did not yet understand.

    Many great inventions are greeted with ridicule and disbelief. The invention of the airplane was no exception. Although many people who heard about the first powered flight on December 17, 1903, were excited and impressed, others reacted with peals of laughter. The idea of flying an aircraft was repulsive to some people. Such people called Wilbur and Orville Wright, the inventors of the first flying machine, impulsive fools. Negative reactions, however, did not stop the Wrights. Impelled by their desire to succeed, they continued their experiments in aviation.

    Orville and Wilbur Wright had always had a compelling interest in aeronautics and mechanics. As young boys they earned money by making and selling kites and mechanical toys. Later, they designed a newspaper-folding machine, built a printing press, and operated a bicycle-repair shop. In 1896, when they read about the death of Otto Lilienthal, the brothers’ interest in flight grew into a compulsion.
    Lilienthal, a pioneer in hang-gliding, had controlled his gliders by shifting his body in the desired direction. This idea was repellent to the Wright brothers, however, and they searched for more efficient methods to control the balance of airborne vehicles. In 1900 and 1901, the Wrights tested numerous gliders and developed control techniques. The brothers’ inability to obtain enough lift power for the gliders almost led them to abandon their efforts.
    After further study, the Wright brothers concluded that the published tables of air pressure on curved surfaces must be wrong. They set up a wind tunnel and began a series of experiments with model wings. Because of their efforts, the old tables were repealed in time and replaced by the first reliable figures for air pressure on curved surfaces. This work, in turn, made it possible for them to design a machine that would fly. In 1903 the Wrights built their first airplane, which cost less than one thousand dollars. They even designed and built their own source of propulsion—a lightweight gasoline engine. When they started the engine on December 17, the airplane pulsated wildly before taking off. The plane managed to stay aloft for twelve seconds, however, and it flew one hundred twenty feet.
    By 1905 the Wrights had perfected the first airplane that could turn, circle, and remain airborne for half an hour at a time. Others had flown in balloons or in hang gliders, but the Wright brothers were the first to build a full-size machine that could fly under its own power. As the contributors of one of the history, the Wright brothers are accurately called the fathers of aviation.  
What almost made the Wright brothers abandon their efforts?
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答案The inability to obtain enough lift power for the gliders.
解析 文章第四段最后一句话提到，兄弟俩无法为滑翔机获得足够的升力，几乎让他们放弃了努力。本题问的就是莱特兄弟几乎放弃努力的原因，由此句可知本题答案。
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本试题收录于： A类竞赛（研究生）题库大学生英语竞赛（NECCS）分类
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