Розробка серії завдань для учнівських олімпіад (для учнів 10 класу)

3.3 Розробка серії завдань для учнівських олімпіад (для учнів 10 класу)

Listening Comprehension 10^th Form

Text: "The Birdmen" from A History of the US – An Age of Extremes by Joy Hakim

Glossary:

daredevil – шибайголова

apiary – пасіка

beekeeper – пасічник

Suppose, tomorrow, you open your front door and there before you is a flying saucer. A spaceman steps out and smiles.

The next day you go to school and tell your friends what you saw. Do you think they will believe you?

Today, it is hard for us to understand what people thought when they first heard that men had flown. Mostly, if they hadn’t seen it themselves, they didn’t believe it. Why, if people were foolish enough to say men could fly, the next thing they might say was that someday men would walk on the moon!

But on December 17, 1903, two men flew. They were brothers from Dayton, Ohio, and they owned a bicycle shop. They had attended school, but neither had graduated from high school. Their names were Wilbur and Orville Wright. It was not luck that made them the first people in all of history to build and fly an airplane that lifted off the ground with its own power. It was hard work and determination. Before they built the plane they studied all that was known about flying. They thought, argued, and experimented. They built a wind tunnel and tested 200 differently shaped wings. Then they drew plans and built carefully.

When they flew, it was from Kill Devil Hill at Kitty Hawk, on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. The Outer Banks are islands that run like a row of beads along the Carolina coast. Back in the 17th century, Sir Walter Raleigh planted a colony there, the Lost Colony. In the 18th century, the Outer Banks were home base to Blackbeard the pirate.

Today the islands are filled with tourists and hotels and cottages. But in 1903, Kitty Hawk was an empty sandy beach, with a few fishermen and a lifeboat station where men stood by to aid shipwrecks. Kill Devil Hill, which is just a big sand dune, was a good place to test an airplane.

On that windy December day, Orville won the toss of a coin. He got to fly first, lying flat on his stomach on the wing of the kite-like biplane. Wilbur ran beside him; the plane lifted a few feet above the sand and stayed in the air for 17 seconds. The brothers took turns and flew four flights that day. The longest lasted 59 seconds. It was enough. They had flown. The men from the lifeboat station had seen them and taken a picture.

The headlines in the morning newspaper in nearby Norfolk, Virginia – the Virginian Pilot – told of the flight, although most of the details in the story were wrong. The brothers were upset about the poor reporting, but it didn’t much matter: no one paid attention, and other newspapers didn’t carry the story. No one understood that birds now had competition: people would soon be flying.

Orville and Wilbur went home to Dayton and set to work. They knew they could fly, but they also knew their plane needed improving. They flew around a big pasture in Ohio. Neighbors saw them and talked about the flights. In 1904 a group of newspaper reporters came to see for themselves.

Now, the Wright brothers were not daredevils. They were very methodical and precise. They did everything as well as they could. They checked and tested and checked and tested again, each time they flew. That made sense.

When the reporters arrived, the brothers were having mechanical problems with the plane. The reporters stayed two days. The Wright brothers wouldn’t fly on those days; the plane wasn’t ready. The reporters left. Some wrote that the Wright brothers were fakes.

One writer did stay and see them fly. He was the editor of an apiary journal. An apiary is a place where bees are raised for their honey. Yes, you heard that right: the first long article about the Wright brothers’ flight was in a beekeepers’ magazine!

In September of 1908, in Virginia, Orville showed Americans that people could fly. He lifted his plane into the air and swung around an army field one and a half times before he landed. The crowd of watchers rushed forward "screaming as loudly as they could, overwhelmed by the miracle that had taken place before their eyes."

Try to imagine that scene in 1908. For thousands and thousands of years, men and women looked at birds and dreamed that they too could lift themselves into the air. Some tried. Mythical Icarus, back in ancient days, took birds’ feathers and a frame and made something like a hang glider. But when he soared into the air the sun melted the wax that held the feathers and Icarus fell into the sea. Others, who we know were real, had built gliders, or hot-air balloons that floated on the wind. What the Wrights did was different. They didn’t depend on the wind. They used their intelligence to build a machine that conquered the skies. They solved the problem of flight. Now everyone believed it – people could fly!

Section 1. True or False Statements (+/-). Listen to the story and decide which of these statements are true and which of them are false.

1.  People have always believed that man can fly.

2.  Orville and Wilbur Wright owned a shop that sold and repaired bicycles.

3.  They were the first men to fly because they were very lucky.

4.  The Outer Banks are islands that run along the Carolina coast.

5.  Orville and Wilbur were comprehensive students of flight.

6.  Orville sat on the wing when flying his first flight.

7.  The brothers were pleased with what the reporters wrote about their first flight.

8.  The first long article about the Wright brothers’ flight was in an apiary journal.

9.  In Virginia, Orville flew around an Army field 2 times to prove he could fly.

10.  The Wright brothers’ depended on the wind to help them fly their plane.

Section 2. Multiple choice. For each question, listen to the story and decide which of the statements is the best answer.

11.   Orville and Wilbur…

A.  graduated from high school.

B.  didn’t finish high school.

C.  graduated from vocational school.

D.  the article doesn’t say.

12.   Their first flight was...

A.  at Dayton Ohio.

B.  at Kitty Hawk.

C.  at Norfolk Virginia.

D.  in a big pasture.

13.   The Lost Colony was established…

A.  In the 18^th Century.

B.  To bring tourists to the area.

C.  In the 17^th Century.

D.  The article doesn’t say.

14.   The Wright brothers were…

A.  methodists.

B.  medical.

C.  methodical.

D.  merry.

15.   Orville got to fly the plane first because…

A.  he won the coin toss.

B.  he could run faster than Wilbur.

C.  he had more courage than Wilbur did.

D.  he convinced Wilbur he should be first.

16.   The newspaper article that appeared about their first flight…

A.  was also carried by many other newspapers.

B.  pleased Orville and Wilbur very much.

C.  was talked about by everyone.

D.  had most of the details wrong.

17.  You could describe the Wright brothers as…

A.  daredevils when it came to flying.

B.  very thorough about everything having to do with flying.

C.  men who enjoyed arguing with reporters.

D.  being from Kitty Hawk.

18.  The Wrights did NOT work in which U.S. state?

A.  Nevada

B.  North Carolina

C.  Virginia

D.  Ohio

19.  The flight by Orville and Wilbur Wright took place approximately…

A.  86 years ago.

B.  125 years ago.

C.  106 years ago.

D.  150 years ago.

20.  You could describe Icarus as…

A.  a brave man.

B.  having flown successfully.

C.  having built a glider.

D.  a mythical character.

Section 3. Fill the gaps in the sentences.

A.   It was not luck that made them the first people in all of history to build and fly an … that lifted off the ground with its own power.

B.  When the reporters arrived, the brothers were having … problems with the plane.

C.  . No one understood that birds now had … : people would soon be flying.

D.  They used their … to build a machine that conquered the skies.

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