Passage One
A few centuries ago, people looked at the birds and wondered what it would be like to fly like them. There were stories of heroes who glued bird feathers on their arms and flew up into the sky. About 500 years ago, some people dreamed a different dream. Instead of flying up to the sky, they dreamed of falling from the sky!
In the 15th century, Italian inventors designed a cone-shaped(锥形) device that was supposed to bring a man down safely from a great height. The operator held on to a handle with a straps strapped to his waist. This was the first known design for a parachute (降落伞).
Even the great inventor Leonardo da Vinci sketched a type of parachute. His parachute design was in the shape of pyramid(金字塔). Other inventors also sketched their own designs for a parachute. Unfortunately, these were only designs on paper and no one tested them.
A Croatian inventor named Fausto Veranzio looked at Leonardo da Vinci’s parachute design and replaced the pyramid shape with one that looked like a sail from a ship. When Veranzio was 65years old, he fell ill. Thinking he would not live longer, he decided to try out his parachute invention. He built his parachute using wood and cloth. Straping his invention to his waist, he jumped off the tall bell tower in his city. He landed safely! He was supposedly the first man to successfully use a parachute. However, some other people thought this story was not true. If that was the case, then the first person to successfully use a parachute would go to a Frenchman named Louis-Sebastien Lenormand in 1783.
The first known parachute was designed by ______.
A. Frenchman B. Italian C. Croatians D. Englishmen正确答案B
