Read the passage carefully and then answer the questions that follow:
I wonder why I do this each time I jump out the door. I leave the airplane with the ground 12,000 feet below me. I hover for a brief moment. Then the air rips at my clothes and hair as I fall 200 miles per hour towards the earth. I smile to myself. I do this because I enjoy it.
Only about 20 people in the U. S. do what I am doing. But I was the first. If you want to try this, you need a board three feet long and eleven inches wide, about the size and shape of a skateboard. It should have an aluminum honeycomb core, a graphite-fiber finish and rubber edges. My other equipment includes sports shoes, colourful tights and jacket, gloves, dark sun glasses and, of course, a parachute. I also have lots of training. This includes over 350 solo skydives and many hours of free fall time. With the specially designed board strapped to my feet I jump out of an airplane. The sport is called skysurfing.
During the sixty second free-fall before I open my parachute, I feel the sensation of skiing down a steep mountain or surfing the side of a huge ocean wave. The airplane is far above me as I turn and guide my board down through the clouds. Gravity pulls me through space closer and closer to the earth. I try to stay in control as the blasting wind hits my body. I fall through the sky upright and then maneuver my board across the sky just like a skier on a snow covered slope. This is only one of the tricks I have developed. Others include flips, spins and something I call the helicopter. When I do this, I fall head first with the board spinning above me.
I must not remain like this for long because only half of my free-fall time remains. I do one last flip and enjoy the view and the solitude while soaring through the clouds upside-down.
I look at the altimeter attached to my wrist. I am at the altitude where I must open my parachute. My sixty second ride down through the sky was so fast. As I complete my descent with my parachute open, I still enjoy the freedom that a bird must feel.
I release the board when I am five or six feet above the ground. This is so that I can glide down and land on my two feet.
1a Say whether the following statements are true or false:
1b Why do you think that such few people in the U.S. have tried skysurfing?
1c What is the sensation of skysurfing like?
1d Pick the correct option:
i A skysurfer ……………
a. is pulled behind a speed boat b. jumps out of an airplane
c. is pulled behind an airplane d. causes his airplane to spin and flip
ii Skysurfing requires……………….
a. no training b. a parachute
c. a little training d. colourful clothing
iii A skysurfer…………….
a. can hover for six minutes b. opens his parachute six feet above the ground
c. can free fall for sixty second d. releases his board sixty feet above the ground
1e Make sentences with the following words/phrases:
hover, free fall, blasting, upside-down, descent
1f Fill in the blanks with appropriate word:
brief, equipment, sensation, maneuver, solitude
i The ………….of skysurfing is like skiing down a deep mountain.
ii A skysurfer’s most important piece of ……………is his parachute.
iii A skysurfer can ………….his board to make turns across the sky as he falls.
iv Skysurfers enjoy the excitement and ………….of skysurfing.
v The fall from the aircraft for over 12,000 feet is ………….and swift