高飞吧,贝西·科尔曼
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Do you know you have never lived until you have flown?
只有亲自在天空翱翔过，你才能有真正活过的感觉，你知道吗？
Two thousand people sat with their faces turned to the sky. High above the airfield, a pilot had ust finished carving a crisp1 figure eight in the air. Suddenly, the plane seemed to stumble2. Twisting and turning, it began to fall from the sky.
But the woman in the cockpit3 of the plane on October 15, 1922, was in perfect control. Only two hundred feet above the ground she straightened out the tumbling aircraft and soared back into the sky. By the time she landed her plane, everyone cheered for Bessie Coleman, the first licensed black pilot in the world.
Growing UP Bessie Coleman was born on January 26, 1892. She was a bright girl and a star pupil in school. Bessie’s mother was proud of her daughter’s sharp mind. She urged Bessie to do something special with her life.
Learning to Fly In 1915, when she was 23, Bessie Coleman moved to Chicago. She found a job as a manicurist4 in a men’s barbershop5. Coleman loved her job and the interesting people she met there. After the United States entered World War I in 1917, soldiers returning from the war often came to the shop. Coleman was fascinated6 by their stories of daredevil pilots. She read everything she could about airplanes and flying. She later recalled, “All the articles I read finally convinced7 me I should be up there flying and not just reading about it.”
Bessie Coleman asked some of Chicago’s pilots for lessons. They refused. No one thought that an African American woman could learn to fly.
In desperation8, Coleman asked Robert Abbott for help. Abbott owned Chicago’s African American newspaper, The Chicago Defender. He had often promised to help members of the black community9 with their problems. Abbott told Coleman to forget about learning to fly in the United States. Go to France, he said to her, where no one would care if her skin was black or white.
On November 20, 1920, Coleman sailed for France, where she spent the next seven months taking flying lessons. She learned to fly straight and level， and to turn and bank the plane. She practiced making perfect landings. On a second trip to Europe, she spent months mastering rolls, loops10, and spins11. These were the tricks she would need if she planned to make her living as a performing pilot.
Performing in Airshows Coleman returned to the United States in the summer of 1922. She hoped that she could make enough money from her airshows to buy her own plane. Then she could open a school so everyone would have a chance to feel the freedom she felt in the sky.
By early 1923, Coleman was close to her goal. She had saved her money and bought a plane. Then, as she was flying to an airshow in California, her engine stalled. The brand-new plane crashed12 to the ground. Coleman suffered a broken leg and three broken ribs13. Still, she refused to quit. “Tell them all that as soon as I can walk I’m going to fly!” she wrote to friends and fans.
Early on the morning of April 30, 1926, Coleman and another pilot took off for a short flight around the airshow field. Suddenly, the plane flipped14 upside down. Coleman had not strapped15 herself in ,and she fell to the ground. Moments later, the plane crashed. At 34, Bessie Coleman was dead. Three years after her death, the Bessie Coleman Aero Clubs were formed. The clubs encouraged and trained African American pilots―just as Coleman had hoped to do . In 1931, the clubs sponsored16 the first All African-American airshow. Bessie Coleman would have been proud.
2000人坐在一起举头仰望着天空。在机场上空，一个飞行员在空中刚刚划出了一道明快的8字形曲线。突然，飞机好像被绊住了。它盘旋着，翻转着，好像要从空中摔下来似的。
1922年10月15日这天，稳坐在飞机驾驶舱中的妇女却牢牢地掌控着飞机。在离地面仅200英尺的空中她稳住颠簸的飞机后又拉起重新翱翔于空中。当她驾驶飞机着陆时，每个人都为贝西・科尔曼，这个世界上第一位拥有执照的黑人飞行员而欢呼。
成长 贝西・科尔曼生于1892年的1月26日，她是一个聪明的姑娘，同时也是学校的明星学生。贝西的妈妈为女儿机敏的思想感到骄傲，她敦促女儿这辈子去做一些特别的事情。
学习飞行 1915年，23岁的贝西・科尔曼迁居到芝加哥。她在一家男理发店里当指甲修理师。科尔曼热爱这份工作和她所遇到的有趣的人。1917年美国参加了一战后，从战场上归来的士兵们经常光顾这家理发店。科尔曼被那些不怕死的飞行员的故事所深深吸引。她读所能够读到的有关飞机和飞行的所有东西。她后来回忆道：“读完所有这些文章，我深信自己应该上天飞行而不仅是读读而已”。
贝西・科尔曼请芝加哥的几位飞行员教她飞行课程，但他们拒约了。没有一个人认为一个非洲裔的美国妇女能够学会飞行。
在失望中，科尔曼向罗伯特・阿博特求助。阿博特拥有芝加哥非洲裔美国人的报纸《芝加哥保卫者》，他曾经常答应帮助那些黑人社区的居民解决他们的问题。阿博特告诉科尔曼忘掉要在美国学习飞行的事。他建议她到法国去，那儿没有人在意她的皮肤是黑还是白。
1920年11月20日科尔曼乘船到了法国。在那儿她后来花了7个月时间学习飞行课程。她学会了直线和水平飞行，以及拐弯和倾斜飞行，练习完美的着陆。在第二次欧洲之行中，她花了几个月的时间掌握侧滚、翻筋斗和旋转。如果要做一名特技飞行员，这些都是她必需的技巧。
飞行表演 科尔曼在1922年的夏天回到美国。她希望能从她的空中表演中赚到足够的钱来购买自己的飞机。这样就可以办一所学校，让每一个人都有机会感受她在天空中享受到的自由。
1923年，科尔曼离她的目标接近了。她用攒下的钱买了一架飞机。后来，当她在加利福尼亚进行飞行表演时，飞机的引擎突然熄火。这架崭新的飞机冲向了地面。科尔曼的一条腿和3条肋骨骨折。但她仍然拒绝退出。“告诉他们所有的人只要我能走就会去飞行！”她这样写信告诉朋友们和仰慕者们。
1926年4月30日一大早，科尔曼和另外一名飞行员起飞围绕着飞行表演场地作短程飞行，突然，飞机整个翻转过来。科尔曼没扎好安全带，她坠落到地面。片刻之后，飞机坠毁了。贝西・科尔曼去世时年仅34岁。3年后，贝西・科尔曼飞行俱乐部成立。这个俱乐部鼓励并训练非洲裔美籍飞行员――就像科尔曼所希望的那样。1931年，该俱乐部发起了第一次全部由非洲裔美国人进行的飞行表演。贝西・科尔曼定会为此感到骄傲。
注解
1 crisp adj .轮廓分明的，弯曲的
2 stumble vi. 绊跌，绊倒
3 cockpit n. （飞行员）座舱
4 manicurist n. 修指甲师
5 barbershop n. 理发店
6 fascinate vt. 强烈地吸引，迷住，使神魂颠倒
7 convince vt. 使确信，使信服，说服
8 desperation n .绝望
9 community n. (由同住一地区或一国的人所构成的)社会，社区
10 loop n. [空]斛斗，翻斛斗（一种飞行特技）
11 spin n .[空]尾旋，螺旋
12 crash vi. （飞机）坠毁
13 rib n. （人的）肋骨
14 flip vi 翻转，急促地（转）动
15 strap vt. 用带扣住，束牢
16 sponsor vt. 发起，举办，主办