Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America.

I'm Katie Weaver.

And I'm Mario Ritter Jr.

This program is designed for English learners, so we speak a little slower and we use words and

phrases especially written for people learning English.

On today's program, John Russell tells about the Wright Brothers invention of the airplane on our All About

America series. After that, I chat with John about several terms in the story. From discussing

words to sites beyond words, we hear about the Grand Canyon on our National Park series.

Then, The Lesson of the Day, find out about the difference between Borrow and Lenn.

But first, Wilbur and Orville Wright are the American inventors who made a small engine-powered flying machine.

They proved that flight without the aid of gas-filled balloons was possible.

Wilbur Wright was born in 1867 near Melville, Indiana. His brother

Orville was born four years later in Dayton, Ohio. As they grew up, the Wright brothers

experimented with mechanical things.

Later, the Wright brothers began to design their own flying machine.

They used ideas they had developed from earlier experiments with a toy helicopter, kites, the printing machine, and bicycles.

Soon they needed a place to test their ideas about flight.

The 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. It was called Kill Devil Hill, near the town of

Kitty Hawk. The Wright brothers did many tests with gliders at Kitty Hawk.

With these tests, they learned how to solve many problems.

By the autumn of 1903, Wilbur and Orville had designed and built an airplane powered by a gasoline engine. The plane had

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