Object: A blown-up balloon

Good morning, boys and girls. We've all seen little balloons like this, haven't we? Well, did you know that some balloons are so big that you can attach a basket to them and people can fly in them? We call them "hot air balloons," don't we?

When big balloons like this were first invented, people were too afraid to ride in them. They didn't believe they would really work, so the first people to ever ride in a balloon weren't people, they were animals. The very first time a balloon wa…