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1、 VOA慢速英语听力：第一位独自飞越全世界的飞行员Wiley Post:The First Pilot to Fly Around the World AloneMARY TILLOTSON: Now the VOA Special English program, Explorations. Today Shirley Griffith and Doug Johnson tell about pilot Wiley Post. He set new records when he flew his own airplane around the world in nineteen thirt
2、y-three.(MUSIC)SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: It was nineteen thirty-three. Only six years earlier Charles Lindburgh became famous around the world as the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. Now, a young pilot was trying to fly across Russia. He had left Moscow several hours before. All he heard
3、 was the sound of the one engine that powered his plane. Hour after hour the same sound. Now the weather was bad. He could not see much ahead, only the fog. Flying in fog is very dangerous. Yet the sound of the engine made everything seem warm and safe. Then, out of the fog he saw a mountain. He had
4、 only seconds to bring the airplane up. It was a narrow escape, one of many he would have during his long flight.DOUG JOHNSON: The young pilot was Wiley Post. He was trying to fly around the world by himself. He made the trip in less than eight days. He stopped eleven times for fuel, food and a litt
5、le sleep.Wiley Post made his famous flight in July, nineteen thirty-three. Not many flight instruments existed that could help him find his way. He was alone, fighting against sleep. If he fell asleep he would die.(MUSIC)SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Nothing in Wiley Post”s early years suggests that he would be
6、come a famous pilot. He was born in Grand Saline, Texas, in eighteen ninety-eight. His family were farmers. In nineteen thirteen, Wiley saw something that forever changed his life - an airplane. After watching the plane fly, young Wiley waited until most people had left the area. He then began inspe
7、cting and studying the plane. He measured different parts of the plane with his hands. Many years later, Wiley Post would say that first airplane was the most wonderful thing he had ever seen.DOUG JOHNSON: Wiley Post began to study everything he could find about flying. He began to educate himself a
8、bout subjects such as mathematics, radio and machinery. His self-education would continue the rest of his life. Post finally rode in an airplane in nineteen nineteen. At the time, many people believed all pilots were special people. They believed it took special skills and courage to fly an airplane
9、. But after his first ride, Wiley Post knew that flying was something he could learn to do.SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Wiley Post began his career in flying, not as a pilot, but as a performer who jumps from airplanes using a parachute. He did this with a group that performed flying tricks to earn money. He j
10、umped ninety-nine times in two years with the flying show. When he was not jumping with a parachute, he was being taught how to fly by pilots in the air show. But he could not fly as often as he liked.DOUG JOHNSON: Wiley Post then decided the only way to become a good pilot was to buy an airplane of
11、 his own. He needed more money than he earned in the flying show. He went to work in the oil-producing areas of Texas. But he damaged his left eye in an accident. Doctors had to remove his eye. At first, Post thought his days as a pilot were ended. A pilot needs to be able to judge distance. Judging
12、 distance is difficult without two eyes. It seems impossible to tell how big objects are and how far away. Wiley Post began teaching himself to judge distance with only one eye. He worked hard at training his eye and brain to tell the correct distance. It took a long time, but he succeeded. He conti
13、nued to fly and soon became a very good pilot.SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In nineteen twenty-eight, he got a job flying the plane that belonged to a rich oil producer from Oklahoma. The man”s name was F.C. Hall. He bought a new airplane for Post to fly. Mister Hall named the airplane the “Winnie Mae“ after on
14、e of his daughters.F.C. Hall told Post he could use the plane to enter flight competitions. Post did. In nineteen thirty, he entered the National Air Races. The race called for flying without stopping from Los Angeles in the western state of California, to the city of Chicago, in the middle western
15、state of Illinois. Post won the race. He defeated several well known pilots. It was the first time the public heard the name Wiley Post.DOUG JOHNSON: Post was not really interested in racing airplanes. He wanted to be the first person to fly around the world. Many pilots had talked about trying to m
16、ake such a flight. But no one had done it.Post believed he would need someone to help him in the effort. He chose an Australian man, Harold Gatty, to do the mathematics that decided the plane”s direction. Post would fly the plane. On June twenty-third, nineteen thirty-one, Post and Gatty took off from Roosevelt Field in New York. They returned to Roosevelt Field eight days, fifteen hours and
