新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第四册 课文 te-09c_new

[-1:-2.00]But its most popular attraction is the tall tower where I lined up.
[-1:-3.00]For a fee of $15.60 per jump, Tokyo Roof rented me a flight suit,
[-1:-4.00]special shoes, gloves, earplugs, a crash helmet, a face mask,
[-1:-5.00]a tooth guard and a safety harness (but no parachute).
[-1:-6.00]Enclosed in this outfit, I waited in line for an hour with other adventurers,
[-1:-7.00]mostly office workers in their 20's.
[-1:-8.00]Finally it was my turn to climb the stairs and step out onto the narrow platform.
[-1:-9.00]I was looking into a 6-meter-high cylinder of netting with a wire net floor.
[-1:10.00]Taking directions from my "coach", who was standing at the bottom of the tower,
[-1:11.00]I tightened my helmet, closed my eyes and leaped into the air.
[-1:12.00]I found myself suspended in the middle of the air —
[-1:13.00]held up by a 130-kilometer-an-hour blast of wind
[-1:14.00]coming from an industrial-strength fan in the bottom of the tower.
[-1:15.00]This is the trick that permits indoor, parachute-free "sky diving".
[-1:16.00]To my tremendous relief, it worked.
[-1:17.00]For three minutes I flapped on the whistling, pounding, deafening column of wind.
[-1:18.00]It did seem like sky diving, except that there is no diving involved;
[-1:19.00]I floated at about the same level in the tower for the whole bone-shaking ride.
[-1:20.00]There was a bar hanging from the top of the tower, and I seized it for balance.
[-1:21.00]I struggled uselessly to respond to the instructions of my coach,
[-1:22.00]who was shouting above the roar of the fan to tell me
[-1:23.00]how to ride the wind funnel up and down, left and right,
[-1:24.00]by bending various limbs.
[-1:25.00]Eventually I acquired just enough control to move over to the exit platform.
[-1:26.00]With my blood pressure going crazy but my pride intact,
[-1:27.00]I exited the tower, only slightly shaken after a thrilling encounter
[-1:28.00]with the Japanese concept of leisure.