EXPLORATIONS - Sport Parachuting

EXPLORATIONS - Sport Parachuting
By Paul Thompson

Broadcast: Wednesday, May 12, 2004

VOICE ONE:

EXPLORATIONS -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.

(THEME)

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to jump out of an airplane with only a large round piece of material to keep you safe? Well, today, you will find out. I'm Shirley Griffith. Ray Freeman and I will describe the activity known as sport parachuting.

(THEME)

VOICE TWO:

 
Parachuting is a popular sport.
Excitement fills the early morning air as you arrive at the little airport for your lesson in sport parachuting. First you learn to recognize and name each part of the parachute. You also learn what each part does.

The excitement builds as your teacher describes each step of the jump from take-off to landing¹. He tells you what to do in an emergency. Again and again, he explains the need for safety.

By early afternoon, you have completed the schoolwork. Now it is time for your first jump. As you put on the equipment, you probably begin to think, "Do I really want to do this?" You are excited, of course, but a little afraid, too.

VOICE ONE:

The teacher inspects your equipment. Nothing is loose. Nothing is broken. He asks you questions about safety. Finally, he smiles and says you are ready.

Then you, two other students and the teacher climb into a small airplane. The pilot makes sure everyone is sitting down and that no one else is outside near the plane. The plane's engine starts. The pilot moves the plane to the end of the runway. Moments later, you are climbing into the sky.

The door of the plane has been taken off so you can get out more easily with all the parachute equipment. Without the door, the engine noise and the wind are very loud. Talking is almost impossible. So you sit there and think about everything you have learned². You go over each step for a successful and safe jump. You try to put the fear out of your mind.

While you are thinking, your teacher and the pilot are working. The teacher leans out the door, watching the ground far below. With one hand he points toward³ a spot in the sky above your landing area. When the teacher is satisfied that the plane is flying toward the right place, he shouts:

VOICE TWO:

"Jump-run!"

VOICE ONE:

This means you are getting close to the jump area. When the plane reaches it, your teacher tells the pilot:

VOICE TWO:

"Cut the engine!"

VOICE ONE:

The pilot slows the plane's engine. Then the teacher points at you, and says:

VOICE TWO:

"Sit in the door!"

VOICE ONE:

Still fighting your fear, you sit in the doorway⁴, with your legs outside the airplane. Then, you get the next command:

VOICE TWO:

"Climb out!"

VOICE ONE:

You reach out and hold the wing support. When you have a good, tight hold with both hands, you slide out of the plane using its wheel as a step. When you reach the right position, you step off the wheel.

Hanging by your hands, you look at your teacher and nod your head. You are ready and waiting for his final command. You look down at the ground, nine-hundred meters below your feet. The wind from the plane's propeller⁵ feels heavy against your chest.

Then your teacher shouts:

VOICE TWO:

"Go!"

VOICE ONE:

You let go of the wing support and fall away from the plane. You throw your head back, arms out, legs apart, as you learned. You fall face forward toward the Earth below.

The sound of the engine and the scream of the wind disappear immediately. There is only silence. You feel you are moving...but not falling.

Quickly, a line tied to the plane pulls the parachute from its pack. The lines of the parachute and the stiff⁶ straps⁷ of the parachute harness⁸ gently pull on your shoulders and legs.

 
Once considered an airplane safety device⁹, now parachuting is done for fun.
You look up. The big, colorful parachute is now fully¹⁰ open above you. You look at it carefully to make sure it is not damaged. Reaching over your head, you hold the left and right steering¹² lines. You pull the left one and begin a slow, smooth turn to the left.

VOICE TWO:

You still have no feeling of falling. You seem to hang in the air. There is no longer any feeling of fear. Yet your heart is racing¹³ with excitement. You look around. You can see for many kilometers. You look down between your feet. You can see people, cars and buildings. They look very small.

For a few moments, you enjoy the view and the silence of your first parachute jump.

VOICE ONE:

Too soon, it seems, it is time to prepare for landing. You watch the landing area and move toward it by pulling on the left or right steering lines. You aim for the soft sand in the center of the landing place.

Suddenly, the ground is moving quickly toward you. You bring your feet together and bend your legs at the knee. You reach high into the straps above your head. You keep your eyes straight ahead. You hit the ground, gently, it seems. And, as you learned, you roll on your side to the left and come back up onto your feet.

You gather up your parachute, being careful not to cross the many lines. Your first sport parachute jump has been safe, successful and great fun.

VOICE TWO:

The idea of the parachute is almost as old as man's dreams of flight. The first known parachute designs were drawn¹⁴ by Italian artist and inventor Leonardo Da Vinci as early as Fourteen-Ninety-Five. However, there is no evidence that Da Vinci ever built a parachute.

About two-hundred years ago, Louis-Sebastian Lenormand of France invented a kind of parachute to save people at the top of tall burning buildings. Historians¹⁵ say he jumped safely from a building in Montpellier, France, using his small device.

The first man to use a real parachute was Andre-Jacques Garnerin. In Seventeen-Ninety-Seven, he parachuted from a balloon six-hundred meters above the city of Paris.

VOICE ONE:

There were more and more parachute designs after the invention of the airplane. Early planes often crashed. Fliers needed a safety device that would let them escape from a falling plane. Parachutes saved many of their lives.

Parachutes became so dependable that military leaders believed they could be used to get soldiers to a battlefield quickly. American General Billy Mitchell tested the idea in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. Six soldiers jumped by parachute from an airplane. When they landed, they set up a machine gun. The test was a complete success. And the parachute became a useful military tool.

In the past thirty years, parachuting has become an exciting sport. It became popular when young men who learned to parachute in the military wanted to continue jumping when they returned to civilian¹⁶ life. Today, parachuting is enjoyed by men and women, young and old.

VOICE TWO:

There are many kinds of sport parachuting. One of the most interesting is skydiving.

Jumpers leave the airplane as it flies more than three-thousand-meters above the ground. They fall for about one minute before opening their parachute. They use their bodies, and the air that rushes past them, to control their flight while falling. They can speed up or slow down. They can turn left or right. They can turn over completely.

People who like to skydive say they can do anything an airplane can do, except go up! Those who jump say skydiving is as close as man will ever come to free flight...like that of birds.

VOICE ONE:

Today's parachutes are very different from the device Leonardo Da Vinci designed five-hundred years ago. They come in many different shapes and colors.

One of the most popular is shaped more like a rectangle¹⁷ than the traditional circle of old parachutes. This one works¹⁸ much like a jet¹⁹ airplane. It forces the air that passes through it to the back. Large openings in the back can be opened or closed to steer¹¹ it.

Some of the most modern kinds of parachutes give jumpers much more control over where they float. Jumpers can fall gently down. Or they can travel forward, while falling, at speeds of forty kilometers an hour.

(THEME)

VOICE TWO:

You have been listening to the Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Your narrators were Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman. Our program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. Listen again next week at this time for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America.

1 landing   

n.登陆；着陆；楼梯平台

参考例句：

• Owing to engine trouble,the plane had to make a forced landing.由于发动机出了毛病，飞机不得不进行迫降。
• When are we landing?我们什么时候着陆？

2 learned   

adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
• In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里，他被视为有学问的人。

3 toward   

prep.对于，关于，接近，将近，向，朝

参考例句：

• Suddenly I saw a tall figure approaching toward the policeman.突然间我看到一个高大的身影朝警察靠近。
• Upon seeing her,I smiled and ran toward her. 看到她我笑了，并跑了过去。

4 doorway   

n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径

参考例句：

• They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
• Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。

5 propeller   

n.螺旋桨，推进器

参考例句：

• The propeller started to spin around.螺旋桨开始飞快地旋转起来。
• A rope jammed the boat's propeller.一根绳子卡住了船的螺旋桨。

6 stiff   

adj.严厉的，激烈的，硬的，僵直的，不灵活的

参考例句：

• There is a sheet of stiff cardboard in the drawer.在那个抽屉里有块硬纸板。
• You have to push on the handle to turn it,becanse it's very stiff.手柄很不灵活，你必须用力推才能转动它。

7 straps   

n.带子( strap的名词复数 )；挎带；肩带；背带v.用皮带捆扎( strap的第三人称单数 )；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带

参考例句：

• the shoulder straps of her dress 她连衣裙上的肩带
• The straps can be adjusted to suit the wearer. 这些背带可进行调整以适合使用者。

8 harness   

n.马具；类似马具的装备；vt.给上马具

参考例句：

• He paid ten dollars for the new harness.他花十美元买了这件马具。
• I harness the horse to the cart. 我把马套在车上。

9 device   

n.器械，装置；计划，策略，诡计

参考例句：

• The device will be in production by the end of the year.该装置将于年底投入生产。
• The device will save much time and effort for us.这种装置会使我们节省大量时间和气力。

10 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

11 steer   

vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶

参考例句：

• If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车，我就来驾车。
• It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。

12 steering   

n.操舵装置

参考例句：

• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration. 他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。
• Steering according to the wind, he also framed his words more amicably. 他真会看风使舵，口吻也马上变得温和了。

13 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

14 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

15 historians   

n.历史学家，史学工作者( historian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Historians seem to have confused the chronology of these events. 历史学家好像把这些事件发生的年代顺序搞混了。
• Historians have concurred with each other in this view. 历史学家在这个观点上已取得一致意见。

16 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

17 rectangle   

n.长方形，矩形

参考例句：

• Suppose the width of a rectangle is x metres.设长方形的宽是x米。
• He handed me a little rectangle of white paper.他递给我一张小小的长方形白纸片。

18 works   

n.作品，著作；工厂，活动部件，机件

参考例句：

• We expect writers to produce more and better works.我们期望作家们写出更多更好的作品。
• The novel is regarded as one of the classic works.这篇小说被公认为是最优秀的作品之一。

19 jet   

n.喷气发动机，喷气式飞机；v.喷出，喷射

参考例句：

• Put a match to the jet to light the gas.将火柴放在煤气喷嘴上点燃煤气。
• I don't see the jet of your plan.我不明白你的计划的要点。