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考点规范练22(必修4 Module 4) 考点规范练第44页 .阅读理解 A In the 1700s,a scientist was someone who thought about the way things work and tried to find out ways to make things work better.Today,that definition is still true.Every time Ben Franklin saw a question and tried to answer it.He was a scientist.Ben is most famous for his questions about electricity,but he also experimented with many other ideas in nature. In 1743,Ben observed that northeast storms begin in the southwest.He thought it was strange that storms travel in an opposite direction to their winds.He predicted that a storm’s course could be charted.Ben rode a horse through a storm and chased a whirlwind three-quarters of a mile in order to learn more about storms.So,in a way,Ben was a weatherman too! Since Ben spent so much time sailing to Europe across the Atlantic Ocean,he became very interested in both ocean currents and shipbuilding.Ben was actually one of the first people to chart the Gulf Stream. In November of 1783,Ben happened to be in Paris,France,working on a peace treaty to end the American war against England.From his hotel window,he was able to watch the world’s first known hot-air balloon flight.The balloon lifted the Montgolfier brothers off the ground as the first human beings ever known to fly.Ben was very interested in the idea of flight,predicting that one day balloons would be used for military spy flights and dropping bombs during the battle.Soon,balloons were actually being used for entertainment,military,and scientific purposes.Even though they could not yet be steered,many people volunteered to take a ride just for fun!Sadly,Ben Franklin died three years before the first American hot-air balloon voyage.In 1793,Jean-Pierre Blanchard lifted off from the Walnut Street Prison Yard in Philadelphia,beginning the hot-air balloon craze in America. | 
