乘坐热气球用19天的时间周游世界，这是可能的吗？怎样控制热气球的方向和高度呢？
On March 20th 1999, Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones succeeded in meeting the world's last GREat aeronautical challenge by flying round the world in a hot-air balloon. It had taken them just 19 days. Gavin Sargent finds out how they did it.
Although the American newspaper publisher James Gordon Bennett first offered a prize for round-the-world ballooning in 1906, serious attempts to achieve this goal were only really made in the last decade of the century. Before Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones successfully completed the challenge, there had been 16 previous attempts, all of which had failed, some after travelling just 200 miles.
The technology required to make the flight is incredible. Piccard and Jones' balloon, the Orbiter 3, has two main components: the 55-metre high gas-filled envelope,and the capsule or ‘gondola’. Most balloonists stand in a large basket but the capsules in round-the-world ballooning are more like the pressurized, computer-controlled cabin of a jumbo jet. Astonishingly for its size, it contains two beds and a small toilet divided from the main cabin by a curtain. You can just about stand up in it, and since it is so cramped, moving about is not easy. You can't leave it or sit on top of it for any length of time because you need extra oxygen at over 10,000 feet, and the Orbiter cruises at around 26,000 feet.
Controlling and steering the balloon is not easy, and all the pilots can do is change the balloon's height until they hit a wind blowing in the direction they want to go. These winds, called jet streams, are high above the Earth's surface and very unpredictable. A previous attempt by Virgin boss Richard Branson had started in Morocco in order to pick up the jet stream. However, Swiss watch manufacturers Breitling, having paid millions in sponsorship, insisted on Switzerland as the departure point for the Orbiter 3, despite Piccard's worry that this would add three or four days to the flight.
1. Attempts to fly around the world in a balloon _________.
A. began in 1906
B. have nearly all failed
C. were all made in the 1990s
D. all lasted longer than 19 days
2. What do we learn about conditions in the capsule of Orbiter 3?
A. The pilots found it difficult to sleep.
B. The pilots had to wear oxygen masks.
C. There was no fresh food.
D. There was little room.
3. In order to change the direction of the balloon, the pilots _________.
A. fly very high above the Earth's surface
B. try to predict the direction of the wind
C. use the computers in the capsule
D. search for the right winds
4. What does the underlined word‘this’refer to?
A. Take-off from Switzerland.
B. Piccard's worry.
C. The Orbiter 3.
D. The jet stream.
参考答案：1. B 2. D 3. D 4. A
