How did the Wright brothers take flight?

Wilbur and Orville Wright didn’t care much for attention. But after publicly demonstrating their flying machine, the inventors of the airplane became overnight international    1    . Crowds gathered, watching them go airborne (升空) and    2    their genius and courage. Thousands followed their achievements, which repeatedly made front-page news. While it might sound nice to say the Wrights were born inventors and geniuses who had always been     3     to aeronautics (航空学), that’s not really the case. Beginning in their Midwestern youth, the brothers faced numerous    4    . Their achievements stemmed from their own initiative and    5    .

Before they made history, Wilbur and Orville were, in one sense, fairly    6     children. They didn’t meet the typical standards of success.Though Wilbur was well read and Orville took advanced courses, neither graduated from high school and both struggled to get by on their own early in life. At the start, the brothers didn’t intend to invent the airplane. They simply reviewed what others had published about aeronautic, hoping they could make some sort of contributions. And that was when they noticed, to their surprise, very little progress had been made in the field. Wilbur and Orville realized that flight experiments had hit three main roadblocks to progress. They lacked a way to control the aircraft, a good wing design and a propulsion (推动力) system to power the flight. From there,     7    these problems became the brothers’ goal. Through trial and error, on December 17, 1903, the brothers flew the first manageable aircraft into the air, which proved the Wright Flyer could make a sustained, controlled and powered heavier-than-air flight. The aerial age truly began.

Though the Wright brothers had made history, their airplane was    8    only a proof of concept. It could make straight-line flights, but the design didn’t yet have any     9    use for society. In the     10    years of hard work and devotion, the brothers refined their aircraft. In1908, Wilbur demonstrated their plane in France, successfully proving what he and Orville had done.

In the 1920s, the American economy was very strong, and life was good. World War I     1     (end). So people were interested in peace, not war. They had jobs and were making a lot of money. There were new technologies     2     (create) and people could afford to buy them. They began moving to the suburbs and living in houses. People had leisure time, so they could go out and enjoy     3    .

Then, on october 24, 1929, the stock market crashed. Suddenly, life changed for millions of people. Instantly, people lost billions of dollars in stock. Companies went bankrupt.     4    they went out of business, millions of people lost their jobs. The unemployment rate climbed. The president at the time, Herbert Hoover, was blamed    5    the economic problems. Only by resigning     6     he relieve people’s anger.

In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt was elected the new president of the United States. Roosevelt had a plan to end the Great Depression. His plan was called the New Deal. He increased the influence of the government on the economy. He tried to have the government     7     (give) people jobs. During the 1930s, life in the U.S. Was very difficult. It was only in 1941    8     the Great Depression ended. Then the U.S. Economy began to recover.

English spelling is ridiculous. Sew and new don’t rhyme. Kernel and colonel     1    . The English spelling system, if you can even call it a system, is full of this kind of thing. Most people     2    (raise) with whatever language learn to read and write it to a very high level of accuracy.

Admittedly, for a non-native speaker, precise mastery usually involves a great deal of confusion and frustration. Part of the problem is that English spelling looks deceptively similar to other languages that use the same alphabet but in a much     3    (consistent) way.

English began its return as a written language in the 14th century. Over generations, it had crept back in among the nobility, as well as the clergy,     4     French and Latin were still the languages of educated and official pursuits.

Some spellings got entrenched this way, by     5    (print) over and over again in widely distributed texts, very early on. The word ghost, which had been spelled and pronounced in Old English, took on the ‘gh’ spelling     6     the influence of Flemish-trained compositors. It was such a commonly encountered word in English text, particularly in the phrase holy ghost and other translations of Latin,     7     it just began to look more common.

Other spellings     8    (arise), and were then cemented through the power exerted by the visual shape of similar words. The existence of ‘would’ and ‘should’, for example, brought about the spelling of ‘could’. There was no explicit intention     9    (make) them look the same, but the frequency of their appearance nudged (推动) them toward ending up that way.

Had the Norman invasion not interrupted the literary tradition of Old English, we might have ended up with a similar situation — old English would have continued to be the basis of the writing tradition that would have later been set into type. Instead, we had     10     number of parts moving and changing independently from each other.

9 . In Central America, scientists have made some recent discoveries about the ancient Maya people. These findings show that the Maya developed their civilization centuries earlier than experts thought. While Europe was still in the midst of the Dark Ages, these Maya had charted the heavens, evolved the only true writing system native to the Americas and were masters of mathematics and calendar. Without advantage of metal tools, beasts of burden or even the wheel, they were able to construct vast cities. Their legacy in stone, which has survived in an impressive fashion at places, lives on as do the seven million descendants (后嗣) of the classic Maya civilization.

Scientists have made some recent discoveries about the ancient Maya people. Experts call the time between the year 250 and the year 1900 the Classic Maya Period. It was a period of great civilization. Until now, scientists think that earlier Maya people were simple farmers. The discoveries show that they used writing, drew pictures and built complex structures. Three separate teams made the discoveries in the rainforest of Guatemala (危地马拉).

Scientists have found some things they say are more than 2000 years old. For example, a team found two masks inside the main pyramid in a city. These masks are three meters tall. They are cut in the image of a sun god. The Maya used the pyramid as a temple. The masks may have been a part of ceremonies led by a king.

At Waka, scientists found the burial place of a woman they think was a Maya queen. They believe she ruled more than 1,200 years ago. Her bones were lying on a stone table. Many jewels surrounded her remains. The team also found pieces of green stone that appeared to be the remains of the kind of war helmet worn by rulers. Scientists say the discovery will help them understand how Maya women shared power with men. Not many burial places of important royal women have been found. Also in northern Guatemala, scientists found a stone showing an 8th-century king playing a game of ball with visiting rulers. It is the third such stone found at the city of Cancuen. They also found large pieces of stone with writing and pictures of leaders. A Guatemalan expert called it one of the greatest masterpieces of Maya art ever discovered in Guatemala.

A Very Brief History of Greetings

Physical greetings may be part of human nature, but they also vary hugely from culture to culture. The oldest evidence of the handshake, for example, can be seen in an Assyrian (亚述人) relief from the 9th century BC, which shows King Shalmaneser’s     1    (seal) an alliance with a clasp of the hand. Handshaking can also be found in ancient Greek literature as a sign of hospitality.

Evidence of kissing is even older. The social kiss dates to at least the Roman Empire, where it     2    (see) as a greeting between equals. The emperor Tiberius, who reigned from AD 14 to 37, banned the practice at court receptions, since it was believed to spread a dangerous facial infection. The ban didn’t last for long; cheek-kissing     3     (remain) particularly popular across southern Europe so far.

Some cultures touch noses as a greeting. This is known as the hongi to New Zealand’s Maori population, to     4    the “sharing of breath” is considered to symbolize the unity between two people. It can also be found in some Inuit (因纽特人) cultures,    5    it isn’t as widespread as the cliche of the “Eskimo kiss” would suggest.

Many cultures prefer socially distanced greetings, such as bowing, to symbolize trust and cooperation, and these, too, are ancient. Bow greetings are still common in countries such as India, Japan, and Thailand. In Tibet, China, people will stick their tongues out of their mouth     6    (show) their friendly intentions.

These distanced greetings remain the safest option for anyone who wants to convey good wishes     7    getting too close and personal. However, some more recently     8    (invent) greetings might serve as alternatives. There is evidence     9    the fists bump, which emerged in the 1960s, lowers the risk of transmitting a disease compared with a more formal handshake. Along with the elbow bump, which seems     10    (originate) in the 1980s, it may become much more common now that the covid-19 pandemic has increased our awareness of the disease-transmitting potential of more intimate greetings.