Lesson one Text A Reading comprehension Charles Lindbergh Passage Two Charles Lindbergh Slightly before 8 a.m. on May 21, 1927, a young pilot named Charles Lindbergh set out on an historic flight across the Atlantic Ocean, from New York to Paris. It was the first continent-to-continent non-stop solo flight( 单独飞行) in an airplane, and its effect on both Lindbergh and aviation was enormous. Lindbergh became an instant American hero. Aviation became a more established industry, attracting millions of private investment dollars almost overnight as well as the imagination and support of millions of Americans. In planning his transatlantic( 横跨大西洋的) voyage, Lindbergh daringly decided to fly by himself, without a navigator(领航员), so he could carry more fuel. His plane carried 450 gallons of gasoline that comprised half its takeoff weight. There was too little room in the cramped cockpit for navigating by the stars, so Lindbergh flew by dead reckoning(航位推测法). He divided maps from his local library into 33 100-mile segments, noting the heading he would follow as he flew each segment. When he first sighted the coast of Ireland, he was almost exactly on the route he had plotted, and he landed several hours later with 80 gallons of fuel to spare. Lindbergh's greatest enemy on his journey was fatigue. The trip took an exhausting 33 1/2 hours, but he managed to keep awake by sticking his head out the window to inhale cold air, by holding his eyelids open, and by constantly reminding himself that if he fell asleep he would perish. Lindbergh landed at Le Bourget outside of Paris at 10:24 p.m. Paris time on May 22. Word of his flight had preceded him and a large crowd of Parisians rushed out to the airfield to see him and his little plane. There was no question about the magnitude of what he had accomplished. The air age had arrived. (297 words)