Who Was Neil Armstrong - 尼尔·阿姆斯特朗 Chapter 1 A Boy Who Loved Flying

Just after midnight on August 5, 1930, Neil Armstrong was born in the Ohio farmhouse¹ that belonged to his grandparents.
Neil was the oldest of Stephen and Viola Armstrong’s three children. He had a younger sister named June and a younger brother named Dean. Neil was always his mother’s pet. She once wrote that he was “a pleasure for us to raise” in every way. Maybe that was because Neil was a lot like his mother—calm, serious, and determined². Neil never had trouble making friends. Still, he was shy and not as fun-loving as Dean.
Neil’s mother stayed at home caring for the children. She also taught Sunday school. Neil’s father worked for the Ohio state government. Because of his job, the family had to move many times—in fact, they moved sixteen times before Neil was thirteen! Finally the Armstrongs settled in the little Ohio town of Wapakoneta.
In the 1930s planes were still thought of as unusual—and exciting. Many people had never flown in one. Only three years before Neil was born, in 1927, Charles Lindbergh flew nonstop across the Atlantic. He was the first person to make a transatlantic flight, and it took thirty-three and a half hours! To get to Europe, people from the United States still traveled by ship, which took four days on a luxury liner. For long trips across the country, people took trains. In 1930 it took about a week to get from New York to California by railroad.
From the time he was a little boy, Neil was fascinated by airplanes and flying. When he was just a toddler, he saw an air show in Cleveland, Ohio, with his dad. Neil took his first plane ride when he was only six. The plane was called the Tin Goose. It wasn’t really made out of tin. Its strong body was made of aluminum³. The Tin Goose could carry up to twelve passengers, who sat on scratchy wicker seats. Its engines rattled⁴ and roared as “the goose” reached a little over a hundred miles an hour. Later on, Neil’s father confessed that he had been “scared to death.” As for Neil, he had enjoyed every minute.

Neil loved building model planes out of balsa wood, wire, and tissue paper. They were powered by wound-up rubber bands. In the basement, he set up a wind tunnel with a fan so he could see how well his models flew. According to his brother Dean, sometimes Neil would fly one of his old model planes out the window. He thought it was exciting to watch it crash on the driveway.


Neil belonged to a Boy Scout⁵ troop for many years. In fact, Neil became an Eagle Scout, the highest level in scouting⁶. It was the 1940s by this time, and the United States was fighting against Germany in World War II. Neil and the other scouts⁷ made models of different enemy planes. No warplanes ever came anywhere near Ohio. Still, if one had, Neil could have identified it right away!
Neil read airplane magazines; he drew detailed⁸ sketches⁹ of his favorite planes. Learning about planes, however, wasn’t the same as learning to fly planes. And that’s what Neil wanted to do most of all.
 

1 farmhouse   

n.农场住宅（尤指主要住房）

参考例句：

• We fell for the farmhouse as soon as we saw it.我们对那所农舍一见倾心。
• We put up for the night at a farmhouse.我们在一间农舍投宿了一夜。

2 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

3 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

4 rattled   

慌乱的，恼火的

参考例句：

• The truck jolted and rattled over the rough ground. 卡车嘎吱嘎吱地在凹凸不平的地面上颠簸而行。
• Every time a bus went past, the windows rattled. 每逢公共汽车经过这里，窗户都格格作响。

5 scout   

n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索

参考例句：

• He was mistaken for an enemy scout and badly wounded.他被误认为是敌人的侦察兵，受了重伤。
• The scout made a stealthy approach to the enemy position.侦察兵偷偷地靠近敌军阵地。

6 scouting   

守候活动，童子军的活动

参考例句：

• I have people scouting the hills already. 我已经让人搜过那些山了。
• Perhaps also from the Gospel it passed into the tradition of scouting. 也许又从《福音书》传入守望的传统。 来自演讲部分

7 scouts   

侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员

参考例句：

• to join the Scouts 参加童子军
• The scouts paired off and began to patrol the area. 巡逻人员两个一组，然后开始巡逻这个地区。

8 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

9 sketches   

n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概

参考例句：

• The artist is making sketches for his next painting. 画家正为他的下一幅作品画素描。
• You have to admit that these sketches are true to life. 你得承认这些素描很逼真。 来自《简明英汉词典》