Reading Comprehension. 1.5. Choose the most suitable heading for Text A

1. Pre-aviation devices.

2. General overview of the history of aviation.

3. The main stages in the history of aviation.

4. The foundations of aviation.

5. General types of flying devices.

Language focus

1.6. Define the form of the verb (Participle II, Participle I, Infinitive, Gerund, Past Simple) of the words given in bold:

1. The history of aviation has extended... from the earliest attempts in kites and gliders to powered heavier-than-air... flight.

2. The earliest known record of kite flying is from around 200 BC...,

3.... a general flew a kite over enemy territory to calculate the length of tunnel required to enter the region.

4.... gases such as hydrogen were discovered.

5.... he did not attempt to demonstrate his ideas by actually constructing them.

The... forms of a verb are the forms where the verb shows tense, person or number.

... verb forms have no person or number, but some types can show tense.

• Finite verb forms include: I go, she goes, he went
• Non-finite verb forms include: to go, going, gone

Find more examples of the verb forms in Text A and define whether they are finite or nonfinite forms of the verbs.

Reading

1.9. Read and translate the following international words:

Read Text B below and choose proper subtitles A-H for paragraphs 1-7. One subtitle is extra.

A. Hot air balloons, and kites in China

B. Flight automaton in Greece

C. Mythology

D. Flying devices for entertainment

E. A spy pilot

F. First prototypes of gliders in Europe

G. First aircrafts in America

H. The absence of an important structural element

Text B

1. Human ambition to fly is illustrated in mythological literature of several cultures; the wings made out of wax and feathers by Daedalus in Greek mythology.

2. Around 400 BC, Archytas, the Greek philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, statesman and strategist, designed and built a bird-shaped, apparently steam powered model named “The Pigeon”, which is said to have flown some 200 meters. The mechanical bird was suspended on a string or pivot and was powered by a “concealed aura or spirit”.

3. The Kongming lantern (proto hot air balloon) was known in China from ancient times. Its invention is usually attributed to the general Zhuge Liang (180–234 AD), who is said to have used them to scare the enemy troops.

An oil lamp was installed under a large paper bag, and the bag floated in the air due to the lamp heating the air.... The enemy was frightened by the light in the air, thinking that some divine force was helping him.

However, the device based on a lamp in a paper shell is documented earlier, and according to a famous British historian, hot-air balloons in China were known from the 3^rd century BC.

In the 5^th century BC Lu Ban invented a ‘wooden bird’ which may have been a large kite, or which may have been an early glider.

4. In 1^st century AD, when Wang Mang tried to recruit a specialist as a scout, a man having bound himself with bird feathers glided about 100 meters, but finally landed.

5. During the Yuan dynasty (13^th c.) under rulers like Kublai Khan, the rectangular lamps became popular in festivals, when they would attract huge crowds. During the Mongol Empire, the design may have spread along the Silk Route into Central Asia and the Middle East. Almost identical floating lights with a rectangular lamp in thin paper scaffolding are common in Tibetan celebrations and in the Hindu festival of lights, Diwali. However, there is no evidence that these were used for human flight.

6. In the 9^th century, at the age of 65, the Berber Ibn Firnas is said to have flown from the hill Jabal al-‘arus by employing a rudimentary glider. While “alighting again on the place whence he had started,” he eventually crashed and sustained injury which some contemporary critics attributed to a lack of tail. However, the only source describing the event is from the 17^th century.

7. Between 1000 and 1010, the English Benedictine monk Eilmer of Malmesbury flew for about 200 meters using a glider (c. 1010), but he too sustained injuries. The event is recorded in the work of an eminent medieval historian in about 1125. Being a fellow monk in the same abbey, William almost certainly obtained his account directly from people there who knew Eilmer himself.

*divine – божественный

*scare – пугать

*monk – монах