VOA · Science & Technology
Intermediate · B1–B2learner speed4:262025-03-05public domain
Science & Technology reports explain discoveries and inventions in plain English. Technical terms are always introduced with context, making this program a low-stress way to build the science vocabulary that exam listening loves to test.
Hit "Start dictation practice" — all 4 minutes are already sliced into sentences, so practice starts immediately. No wait.
Learner-speed news English: clear delivery, everyday vocabulary, natural sentence rhythm.
Switch to Dictation mode, type each sentence, and get a word-by-word diff with your accuracy score.
01Wilbur and Orville Wright are the American inventors who made a small engine-powered flying machine.
02They proved that flight without the aid of gas-filled balloons was possible.
03Wilbur Wright was born in 1867 near Melville, Indiana.
04His brother Orville was born four years later in Dayton, Ohio.
05As they grew up, the Wright brothers experimented with mechanical things.
06Later, the Wright brothers began to design their own flying machine.
07They used ideas they had developed from earlier experiments with a toy helicopter, Kites.
08The printing machine, and bicycles.
09Soon, they needed a place to test their ideas about flight.
10The best place with the best wind conditions seemed to be a piece of sandy land in North Carolina along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.
11It was called Kill Devil Hill, near the town of Kitty Hawk.
12The Wright brothers did many tests with gliders at Kitty Hawk.
13With these tests, they learned how to solve many problems.
14By the autumn of 1903, Wilbur and Orville had designed and built an airplane powered by a gasoline engine.
15The plane had wings 12 meters across.
16It weighed about 340 kilograms, including the pilot.
17On December 17, 1903, they made the world's first flight in a machine that was heavier than air and powered by an engine.
18Orville flew the plane 36 meters.
19He was in the air for 12 seconds.
20The two brothers made three more flights that day.
21Four other men watched the Wright brothers' first flights.
22One of the men took pictures.
23Few newspapers, however, noted the event.
24It was almost five years before the Wright brothers became famous.
25In 1908, Wilbur went to France.
26He gave demonstration flights at heights of 90 meters.
27A French company agreed to begin making the Wright brothers' flying machine.
28Orville made successful flights in the United States at the time Wilbur was in France.
29The United States War Department agreed to buy a Wright brothers' plane.
30Wilbur and Orville suddenly became world heroes.
31But the brothers were not seeking fame.
32They returned to Dayton, where they continued to improve their airplanes.
33They taught many others how to fly.
34Wilbur Wright died of typhoid fever in 1912.
35Orville Wright continued designing and inventing until he died many years later, in 1948.
36Today, the Wright brothers' first airplane is in the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
37Visitors to the museum can look at the Wright brothers' small plane.
38Then they can walk to another area and see space vehicles and a rock collected from the moon.
39The world has changed a lot since Wilbur and Orville Wright began the modern age of flight over 100 years ago.
40I'm John Russell.
// transcribed with Whisper AI — reading it is easy; catching it by ear is the skill
Practice it by ear
