A long trail of smoke followed the plane\'s looping, spinning path through the sky, and then it slowly drifted away with the light breeze and disappeared. Victor thought the soft white lines against the blue sky looked a lot like cursive writing, although the smoky scribbles didn\'t add up to anything legible. Still, Victor could read one message clearly: that pilot sure knew how to fly a plane!

Next, the plane grew tinier and tinier as it climbed high into the atmosphere above the airfield. The plane became just a dark speck in an ocean of blue, and then the crowd watched as the pilot pointed the nose back toward Earth, and the plane began plummeting straight down to the ground. Victor and his dad, Mr. Robinson, both stopped breathing as an ever-extending line of smoke marked the plane\'s vertical descent. At the last possible second, the pilot changed course and the plane zoomed horizontally across the airfield, only a few yards above the grassy surface. The crowd erupted wildly with cheers.

After one last lap through the air around the audience gathered below, the pilot brought the plane in for a safe landing on the thin strip of concrete runway. Victor gave his dad a high five, and yelled, \"That was awesome!\"

At the end of the runway, Victor saw the pilot, Stuart Tucker, climb from his plane and jump down into the crowd gathered around him for autographs. Victor turned to his dad and said, \"I can\'t believe he isn\'t keeling over from dizziness! How does he fly like that and not get sick?\"

\"Why don\'t we ask him?\" Mr. Robinson suggested. \"Let\'s wait here for a few minutes until the crowd dies down a bit.\"

As Mr. Robinson predicted, the crowd of autograph seekers quickly dispersed, and Stuart Tucker turned back to his plane to inspect it and get it ready for his next performance later in the afternoon.

As Victor and his dad approached the pilot, Victor called out, \"Mr. Tucker, that was so cool! Would you mind if I asked you a few things? I love airplanes and I\'m really interested in the idea of being a stunt pilot someday.\"

Stuart Tucker smiled and nodded, \"I\'m glad you enjoyed the show, and of course you can ask me anything you\'d like about aerobatics. By the way, that\'s the term we like to use, rather than \"stunts\" or \"tricks.\" It\'s important to understand how carefully everything you saw today was planned out and practiced beforehand. We don\'t just go up there in a plane and start flying around doing tricks. It\'s more like gymnastics, where every move is choreographed and precise, and each step leads to the next step. That\'s the only way it can be safe.\"

\"So how can you fly upside down and do flips in the air like that and not end up getting nauseous? That\'s the first thing I imagine when I see myself in the cockpit doing stunt... I mean, aerobatic flying.\"

\"Believe it or not, that really doesn\'t end up bothering most people, especially if someone has been flying long enough to start working on aerobatic maneuvers. Partly it\'s because, as the pilot, you\'re too focused on flying the plane and reading the gauges and other controls to notice much else. But you also learn where to focus your eyes as you turn upside down or go into a spin, and that helps keep you from feeling disoriented or dizzy. Mostly, though, you just get used to it. If you\'re really interested in aerobatics, I take people up for flights. Here\'s my card.\"

\"Thanks!\" Victor said as he took the card.

As Mr. Robinson and Victor walked away. Victor turned to his dad and said, \"I guess I know what I want for my next birthday.\"

Mr. Robinson laughed and replied, \"Let\'s just be sure to serve the cake after your flight.\"

单词:

cursive writing- n. 草书

plummet- v. 直线下降(plummeting-现在进行时)

keeling over- v. 昏倒

aerobatic- n. 特技飞行

stunts- n. 特技

maneuver- n. 演习

gauges- n. 仪表

disoriented- adj. 失去方向感

问题:

1. What are two possible reasons why Victor and his father are attending the air show?

2. Why do Victor and Mr. Robinson wait a few minutes before approaching the pilot?

3. What three reasons are given by Stuart Tucker to explain why he does not feel sick after flying?

4. Complete the following sentences to identify the similes in this selection. (填空题)

a. In paragraph 1, __________ is compared to __________.

b. In paragraph 2, __________ is compared to __________.

5. What does Stuart Tucker compare aerobatics to?

6. What does Victor want to do on his next birthday?

7. Why does Mr. Robinson think it would be the best to serve cake after Victor gets his birthday present?

8. What are three adjectives that would describe the experience of attending an air show?