Dreams of Flight
The story of man’s dream of flight, of his desire to reach the stars, is as old as mankind itself. According to Greek legend, Daedalus was the first man to fly. He and his son had been kept on an island, in order to escape, Daedalus shaped wings of wax (蜡) into which he stuck bird feathers. During their flight, his son flew too high and the sun melted the wax. He was drowned in the sea. The father was supposed to have continued his Night and reached Sicily, several hundred miles away.
There is also an English legend of King Bladud who, during his rule in the ninth century B.C., used wings to fly. But his flight was short-lived and he fell to his death. The dream of flying continued, but in all the legends, the flier rose like a bird only to fall like a stone. It took hundreds of years that men flew up into the air and returned to earth safely.
The first man to approach flying on a scientific basis was an Englishman who lived during the thirteenth century. He looked at the air about us as a sea, and he believed that a balloon could float on the air just as a boat did on water. Almost four hundred years later, an Italian priest applied his principle of air flight. He designed a boat, which would be held in the air by four hollow spheres (空心球). Each of the four balls was to be 20 feet in diameter (直径) and made of very thin copper. But his boat was never .built since it was not possible to make spheres of such thin metal and such size in those days.
According to the English legend, King Bladud lost his life because()
A. he flew too far.
B. he flew too high.
C. he fell to the ground.
D. he was hit by a stone.
