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高中英语课文阅读材料 Furthermore...
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The great escape
(Key words: escape, entertainer, strength, successful, train, key, fame)
Harry Houdini was one of the greatest American entertainers (1). He was a man famous for his escapes -- from prison cells, from wooden boxes floating in rivers, from locked tanks full of water. He appeared in theatres all over Europe and America; crowds came to see the great Houdini and his "magic" tricks.
Of course, his secret was not magic, or supernatural powers. It was simply strength. He had the ability to move his toes as well as he moved his fingers. He could move his body into almost any position he wanted.
Houdini started working in the entertainment world when he was 17, in 1891. When Harry married in 1894, he and his wife Bess worked together as magician and assistant. But for a long time they were not very successful. Then Harry performed his first prison escape, in Chicago in 1898. He persuaded a detective (2) to let him try to escape from the prison, and he invited the local newspapermen to watch. This successful escape made him famous.
Harry had fingers trained to escape from handcuffs (3) and toes trained to escape from ankle (4) chains. But his biggest secret was how he unlocked the prison doors. Every time he went into the prison cell, Bess gave him a kiss for good luck -- and a small key, which would fit many locks, passed quickly from her mouth to his.
Harry used these escapes to build his fame. He did entertain millions of people even in hard times. What was the result? World-wide fame, and a name remembered today.
Question
1. What abilities did Harry Houdini boast to escape from prison cells or other locked containers?
Astronaut in flight
(Key words: astronaut, support, speed, separate, weightlessness, strap, float, strain, return, reduce, landing)
As you sit in a chair the seat supports you by pushing against you. The astronaut's seat not only supports him but lifts him up at very high speed. It pushes against him far more strongly than our chair does against us.
When the rocket has reached a speed which will let the spacecraft travel in the correct orbit freely, the rocket and the spacecraft are separated. The astronaut is now in a strange state of weightlessness (1). If his spacecraft was large enough, and he was not strapped (2) down, he would float about weightlessly. To move about he would have to kick against a wall, and then he would move away in a straight line until he hits the opposite side.
Eating and drinking would bring some tricky (3) problems. It would not be easy for him to pour a liquid down his throat. His pen or pencil would float about if he let it go.
A man who is shut up inside such a small space, with only a limited amount of air, water and food, cannot stay alive for very long. Apart from the strain on his body there is a very great strain on his mind.
For the spacecraft to return to earth, its speed must be reduced. The spacecraft must spiral (4) slowly towards the earth by firing the retro-rockets (5) to slow the speed. Then as the spacecraft enters the atmosphere and receives the earth's pull, a parachute (6) is released and this enables the astronaut to make a safe landing.
Question
1. What is the function of retro-rockets to a spacecraft?
Notes: 1. (n.) 失重 2. (v.) 用带系牢 3.(adj.) 不易处理的，错综复杂的 4. (v.) 盘旋 5. (n.) 制动火箭，减速火箭 6. (n.) 降落伞
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