5.spendersRefer to the following passage for questions 40-45.Many great inventions are initially greeted with ridicule and disbelief. Theinvention of the airplane was no exception. Although many people who heardabout the first powered flight on December 17, 1903 were excited and impressed,others reacted with peals of laughter. The idea of flying an aircraft was repulsiveto some people. Such people called Wilbur and Orville Wright, the inventors ofthe first flying machine, impulsive fools. Negative reactions, however, did notstop the Wrights. Impelled by their desire to succeed, they continued theirexperiments in aviation.Orville and Wilbur Wright had always had a compelling interest in aeronauticsand mechanics. As young boys they earned money by making and selling kitesand mechanical toys. Later, they designed a newspaper-folding machine, built aprinting press, and operated a bicycle-repair shop. In 1896, when they read aboutthe death of Otto Lilienthal, the brothers’ interest in flight grew into acompulsion.Lilienthal, a pioneer in hang-gliding, had controlled his gliders by shifting hisbody in the desired direction. This idea was repellent to the Wright brothers,however, and they searched for more efficient methods to control the balance ofairborne vehicles. In 1900 and 1901, the Wrights tested numerous gliders anddevelopedcontrol techniques. The brothers’ inability to obtain enough lift powerfor the gliders almost led them to abandon their efforts.After further study, the Wright brothers concluded that the published tables of airpressure on curved surfaces must be wrong. They set up a wind tunnel and begana series of experiments with model wings. Because of their efforts, the old tableswere repealed in time and replaced by the first reliable figures for air pressure oncurved surfaces. This work, in turn, made it possible for the brothers to design amachine that would fly. In 1903 the Wrights built their first airplane, which costless than $1,000. They even designed and built their own source of propulsion-alightweight gasoline engine. When they started the engine on December 17, the
