The Wright Brothers Practice Questions

Read this sentence from page 1 of Into the Air. It’s my two feet, along with my back, that I’m worried about! The print feature surrounding this sentence indicates that it is —

• being said loudly

• an internal thought

• being spoken by the narrator

• something the character dreamed

Read these sentences from page 4 of Into the Air.

Are the glider’s wings too long for its body? Are they too thin or too heavy? Are they curved at the wrong angle?

From these questions, readers can infer that the Wright brothers are —

• tired of working long hours

• carefully considering every possibility

• close to finishing their work on the glider

• beginning to question whether they will succeed

Which aspect of the Wright brothers’ accomplishments does Into the Air address?

• Contacting several governments to promote their aircraft

• Opening and operating a shop for selling and repairing bicycles

• Influencing other inventors with their gliders and flying machines

• Drawing on the work of an experimenter in flight who came before them

Which statement best describes a key idea of The Wright Brothers?

• A partnership can sometimes lead to disagreements.

• Organization and research can lead to quick success.

• Creating something new requires a lot of trial and error.

• Few inventors were interested in solving the problem of flight.

Read the definition of calculate from paragraph 8 of The Wright Brothers.

calculate \kăl´kyə-lāt'\ v 1. determine mathematically 2. determine by reasoning or experience 3. include as part of one’s plans 4. intend to have a certain effect

Which words from paragraph 8 of The Wright Brothers indicate that definition 1 is the correct meaning in the context?

• absorbed, painstaking

• systematic, measuring

• unlock, secrets

• tedious, repetitious

Read these sentences from paragraph 16 of The Wright Brothers.

“Thinking of nothing else . . . I threw the wingtips to their greatest angle. By this time I found suddenly that I was making a descent backwards toward the low wing, from a height of 25 or 30 feet. . . . The result was a heap of flying machine, cloth and sticks in a heap, with me in the center without a bruise or scratch.”

Which organizational pattern do these sentences use?

• definition

• classification

• cause and effect

• advantage and disadvantage

Which key idea is central to both Into the Air and The Wright Brothers?

• The Wright brothers faced a great deal of criticism from many people.

• The Wright brothers were not always confident that they would succeed.

• Building an airplane was expensive and difficult, but it was accomplished quickly.

• Building an airplane was important, but it was not the most remarkable feat in history.

Which two ways are "Into the Air" and "The Wright Brothers" similar?

• Both selections explain in detail how the brothers built the first powered airplane.

• Both selections describe how the brothers solved problems of their previous designs.

• Both selections describe a time when the brothers began to doubt their work.

• Both selections describe the lives and deaths of the brothers after Kitty Hawk.

• Both selections compare the gliders built by the brothers to modern planes.

The authors of both "Into the Air" and "The Wright Brothers" organize their selections —

• by comparing and contrasting the achievements of the Wrights with others

• by chronologically describing the steps the Wrights took to achieve flight

• by chronologically listing the major events of each Wright brother’s life

• by comparing and contrasting the work before and after the wind tunnel

The text "Into the Air" includes illustrations of the Wright brothers' experiments to--

• show that testing ideas was important to their work

• make us think the Wright brothers were intelligent

• show how they were always doubting themselves

• help describe outdated technology