SAT备考资料：ESSAY写作素材（3）

　　SAT的写作在于平时的积累，考生们可在日常生活中多累积写作的素材，多练笔，培养出好的语感和逻辑，这样就能在考试中写出优秀的作文。为此，和谐英语网综合整理了一系列SAT的ESSAY写作素材，供考生们参考使用，更多有关留学考试的资讯与辅导资料敬请关注和谐英语网留学考试频道。

　　Adventurer Fossett launches solo balloon trip The giant high-altitude balloon, bathed in the desert's golden morning light, drifted slowly into the sky above Northam, a small mining town 100 km (62 miles) east of Perth, just after 7.00 a.m. (2300 GMT). Fossett had delayed inflating the aircraft for six and a half hours due to unfavourable winds, but with time running out before the arrival of the morning's hot thermals, he gave the order to fill the balloon with helium for a dawn launch. Fossett waved to around 100 townsfolk as he entered the capsule for an eastward circumnavigation that he expects will take 15 days. "I am a bit nervous about the first night," Fossett said before take-off. "On the first night I will find out if everything works, if there are any leaks in the balloon, if there are any failures in communications and if the all-important heating works," he said. The millionaire former stockbroker has made a series of failed attempts to fly solo in a balloon around the world. The last attempt to inflate the giant balloon for a launch on June 17 from the Australian gold mining town of Kalgoorlie ended in disaster when a freak wind tore it apart. Fossett's fourth solo bid ended in near disaster in 1998, when a thunderstorm off Australia's northeastern coast shredded his canopy and sent him plummeting 29,000 feet (9,000 metres) into the Coral Sea. He was unhurt. This year Fossett, 57, decided to launch in western Australia, some 600 km (400 miles) from the Indian Ocean, to have a better chance of avoiding thunderstorms in the South Pacific and gain time to detect problems while still over land.