职称英语理工类阅读理解复习必备练习题(21)

　　The story of mans 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 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 flight and reached Sicily, several hundred miles away. 　　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 . ach of the four balls was to be 20 feet in diameter 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. 　　41 How did Daedalus manage to escape to Sicily, according to the passage? 　　B A god came to rescue him and took him away. 　　D He made wings of wax and flew away from the island. 　　A he flew too far. 　　C he fell to the ground, 　　43 The first scientific air flight was designed by__________. 　　B an Englishman. 　　D an Italian. 　　A he could not raise enough money. 　　C he could not find enough copper. 　　45 According to the last paragraph, man could not fly with flapping-wing flying machines because__________. 　　B he knew nothing about the movement of the air. 　　D they were made of light feathers.