Озвученный английский онлайн текст Balloons.
September 19, 1783, was a great event at the King’s residence in France. The Montgolfier brothers were going to send a balloon up into the sky. They had tried a balloon a few months before, and it had worked. Now they were going to try again before the King. And this time the balloon was to have passengers in its basket: a hen, a duck, and a sheep.
The balloon was made of linen and was open at the bottom. Ropes held it in place over a fire of straw. A mixture of smoke and hot air rose from the fire into the balloon. The mixture was lighter than the cool air around. The ropes were made free and the balloon rose. When the smoke and hot air cooled, the balloon came down.
Soon there were balloons that could carry people. Many of these balloons were filled with hydrogen, the lightest known gas. But it was dangerous as it was easy to catch fire. So people switched to helium which is not as light as hydrogen but is much safer.
The passengers could not guide the first balloons. But they could make them go up by throwing bags of sand overboard or down by letting some gas out of the balloon.
Balloons are still used nowadays to explore the upper atmosphere.
