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Wilbur and Orvill Wright were two American brothers with a vision as sweeping as the sky and a practicality as down-to-earth as the Wright Cycle Co, the bicycle business they founded in Dayton, Ohio, in 1892. But (A)while there were countless bicycle shops in America, in only one were wings being built as well as wheels. When the Wight brothers finally realized their vision of powered human flight in 1903, they made the world a smaller place. I've been to *Kitty Hawk, and seen where the brothers imagined the future, and then literally flew across its high frontier. It was an inspiration to be there and to soak up the amazing *preservance and creativity of these two pioneers.
The Wight brothers had been fascinated by the idea of flight from an early age. In 1878 their father gave them a flying toy made of cork and bamboo. It had a paper body and was powered by rubber bands. The young boys soon broke the ragile toy, but the memory of its *faltering flight across their living room stayed with them. By the mid-1890s (B)(Wilbur は見つけることのできたあらゆる本を読んでいた) on the science of human flight. And four years before they made history at Kitty Hawk, the brothers built their first small flying machine made of wood, wire and cloth. Based on that experiment, Wilbur became convinced that he could build an aircraft that would be capable of sustaining a man.
It was Wilbur's lasting dream of building a full-size flying machine that inspired their work. For many years, he once said, he had been *"afflicted with the belief that flight is possible." The reality of that obsession was a lonely quest for the brothers in the workroom behind their bike shop, planning to solve a problem. It was a force that led the Wight brothers to invent each of the technologies they needed to pursue their dream.
The genius of Leonardo da Vinci imagined a flying machine, but it took the methodical application of science by these two Ameican bicycle mechanics to create it. The unmanned gliders produced by their first efforts flew *erratically and were at the mercy of any strong gust of wind. But the brothers study, they developed the powered 1903 Flyer.
On Dec. 17, 1903, with Orville at the controls, the Flyer lifted off shakily from Kitty Hawk and flew *120 ft. -- little more than half the wingpan of a Boeing 747-400. (D)That 12-second flight changed the world, giving mankind access to places it had never before dreamed of reaching. Although the Wight brothers' feat was to transform life in the 20th century, the next day only four newspapers in the U.S. carried news of their achievement -- news that was widely dismissed as exaggerated.
The Wight brothers gave us a tool, but it was up to individuals and nations to put it to use. The airplane (E)revolutionized both peace and war. It brought families together: once, when a child or other close relatives left the old country for America, family and friends mourned for someone they would never see again. Today, the grandchild of that immigrant can return again and again across a vast ocean in just half a turn of the clock. But the airplane also helped tear families apart by making international warfare an *effortless reality.
The Wrights created one of the greatest cultural forces since the development of writing, for their invention *effectively became the *World Wide Web of that era, bringing people, languages, ideas and values together. It also *ushered in an age of globalization, as the world's flight paths became the superhighways of an emerging international economy. And they set travelers on a path that would eventually lead beyond Earth's atmosphere.
The Wright brothers and their invention, then, brought about a revolution as far-reaching as the industrial an digital revolutions. But (F)that revolution did not come about by luck or accident. It was vision, quiet resolve and the application of scientific methodology that enabled Orville and Wilbur to carry the human race skyward. Their example reminds us that genius doesn't have a *pedigree, and that you don't discover new worlds by *plying safe, conventional waters.
By *Bill Gates
注 sweeping: 広範囲にわたる down-to-earth: 現実的な Kitty Hawk: キティーホーク（米国ノースカロライナ州の村；ライト兄弟（ウィルバーとオーヴィル）は1903年ここで世界初の友人動力飛行に成功した） perseverance: 忍耐力 falter: ふらつく afflict: 悩ます erratically: 不安定に 120 ft.: 約37メートル effortless: 簡単に生じる effectively: 事実上 World Wide Web: インターネット上の情報ネットワーク usher in: 〜の先がけとなる pedigree: 血統 ply: 〜を定期運行する Bill Gates: ビル・ゲイツ（米国の実業家；マイクロソフト社を創立する）
１. 下線部(A)を日本語に訳しなさい。
２. 下線部(B)を英語に訳しなさい。
３. 下線部(C)は具体的にどのような信念を指すか、日本語で説明しなさい。
４. 下線部(D)を日本語に訳しなさい。
５. 下線部(E)が指す内容を、本文に即して60字以内（句読点も含む）の日本語で具体的に書きなさい。
６. 下線部(F)の "that revolution" を可能にしたものは何か、それを示している箇所を本文中より英語のまま書き出しなさい。
――三重大学 前期日程 （２月25日実施）――2005年
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- 06/7/1(土) -
