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b Complete the following sentences about the flying garden chair using the prepositions in
the box. Check your answers against the text in Exercise 13b.
in above around beneath within

1 Projecting the chair was a cluster of ropes, tied to 42 helium-filled
weather balloons.
2 Anchor ropes were fastened the bumper of the car.
3 Larry Walters had an airgun inserted his pocket.
4 The helium contained the balloons warmed up in the sun.
5 After takeoff, the anchor ropes remained suspended the chair.

c Complete the following descriptions of how the garden chair airship was
assembled by underlining the correct words.
1 A quantity of helium gas was contained/suspended inside each balloon.
2 A tube was inserted/projected inside the openings of the balloons, to inflate them.
3 The balloons were situated/suspended over the chair, in a large cluster.
4 The chair was contained/suspended under the balloons by ropes.
5 Arm rests, contained/located beside the pilot, at each side, helped to hold him in place.
6 The landing gear, inserting/projecting below the seat, consisted, simply, of the chair
legs.
7 The pilot was positioned/projected underneath the balloons, so his weight was low
down.

d Which two other words have the same meaning as positioned?
contained fastened inserted located projected situated suspended

b ►3.9 Eva and Lenny, two engineers working for an extreme sports equipment
manufacturer, are discussing cluster ballooning.

Lenny: So a typical cluster consists of somewhere in the region of a hundred balloons. That's
using ordinary-size weather balloons. With about twenty people helping it takes an hour or so to
inflate them all.
Eva: An hour or more with twenty people?
Lenny: Yeah. It’s pretty time-consuming.
Eva: And is each balloon tied on individually? Lenny: That’s the way it's often done, yeah.
Eva: And is the rope just fastened around the bottom, or... ?
Lenny: Well, some people use plastic cable ties. Or you can use tape.
Eva: So it’s a big job, then, putting everything together. The harness is suspended from a
hundred or so ropes, then. Well, how is it fastened?
Lenny: Well, you can put nylon straps beneath the ropes. So you have several ropes tied to a
single strap, then each strap is fastened to the harness.
Eva: I see. So it’s like a kind of tree structure.
Lenny: That's right. And you have different lengths, so the balloons aren't all at the same level,
so they fit above and below one another in a round-shaped duster.
Eva: I see. So you inflate the balloons, keep tying them to the harness, via the straps, and keep
doing that until you take off.
Lenny: Basically, yeah. The pilot’s roped to sandbags on the ground. So the balloons are added
progressively until there’s a marginal amount of lift. Then the anchor ropes are released, and up
you go, nice and gently.
Eva: And how do you control your altitude? You carry ballast, presumably.

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