①700 years before the Wright brothers began experimenting with human flight, the Chinese had already got its secrets—with kites.
②Kites may have been invented in China as early as 500 B.C.E. While some kites were flown for fun, other kites provided key technologies for daily life. Chinese fishermen used kites to carry their lines far out to sea. Sailors used them to take a measurement of the wind.
③The Chinese craftsmen were very clever! They made their kites from bamboo and silk, and they came in all kinds of cool shapes, like 80-foot-long dragons. These kites showed off ancient China’s great technology. Their wings and tails could even move! As Chinese engineers experimented to make the kites fly even higher, they discovered the science of aerodynamics (空气动力学). They made the wings of their kites work like airfoils (机翼)—the same design used in modern planes.
④And the man-carriers were the most amazing Chinese kites. Ancient Chinese people may have made them a common sight by the 1200s. The kites were much larger than a small airplane. They were made from strong bamboo poles tied together and then covered with silk. During wars, Chinese scouts used man-carrying kites to fly high in the sky and spy on their enemies—similar to modern spy planes.
⑤In the late 1200s, the Italian businessman and explorer Marco Polo was amazed by what he saw in China, and he wrote a detailed description. When he returned to Italy, most people refused to believe him. They could not imagine that a person could fly.
⑥Centuries passed before Europeans learned the secrets—often by flying kites imported from China. In 1804, an English engineer, Sir George Cayley, built the first model airplanes. He used kites to make the wings. About 100 years later, American inventors, including the Wright brothers, also found ideas for their flight experiments by flying kites first.
【小题1】What does Paragraph 2 mainly tell us?| A．How people made kites. | B．When kites were invented. |
| C．What kites were used for. | D．Where kites were invented. |
| A．To describe the popularity of ancient Chinese kites. |
| B．To get readers to learn about the history of Chinese kites. |
| C．To show the excellent skills of kite making in ancient China. |
| D．To tell the differences between modern planes and Chinese kites. |
a. Sir George Cayley built the first model planes.
b. Ancient Chinese made large man-carrying kites.
c. Marco Polo told Italians about Chinese amazing kites.
d. The Wright brothers did flight experiments by flying kites first.
| A．b-c-d-a | B．b-c-a-d | C．c-d-a-b | D．c-b-a-d |
A． | B． | C． | D． |
