Airplane accidents always attract attention because of the damage and loss of life they cause. Sometimes, however, an air crash is especially sad and remembered for many years afterwards.
On 6 February 1958, the Manchester United football team had played a match in Yugoslavia and were flying back to England. The plane stopped in Munich, Germany to get more fuel. There was a snowstorm. The pilot tried to take off twice without success. Finally, the airplane took off, but less than one minute later, it crashed into a fence and burst into flames. Twenty-three people of the forty-three passengers on the plane died, including eight football players.
What made this accident especially sad was that Manchester United was just beginning to become the great football team. With Matt Busby as their manager, the team was developing an exciting style of play and was enjoying a successful season. The average age of the players was just 22. Three of the players who died left young wives and children, and two others were planning to get married. These players’ lives were cut short, and we will never know how great they could have been.
Several months after the crash, someone wrote a song ‘Flowers of Manchester’ in honour of those who lost their lives. In 1960, a memorial was placed on the wall of Old Trafford, Manchester United’s stadium. On the memorial are the names of the players who died and a picture of a football field. Every year, on the date of the accident, hundreds of fans gather together at the memorial to remember the lost team members. In 2000, a new tradition started when Manchester United fan Gez Mason performed ‘Flowers of Manchester’ before a match at Old Trafford. That year, he sang by himself, but the next year, and every year since then, on the day of a match closest to the anniversary, hundreds of fans gather together to sing this song.
1. Why did the plane stop in Munich?| A．One of the passengers was ill. | B．The plane was short of fuel. |
| C．It was getting darker and darker. | D．Something was wrong with the plane. |
| A．Matt Busby’s wrong decision. | B．Passengers on the plane. |
| C．Manchester United’s bright future. | D．The severe snowstorm. |
| A．Air crashes are remembered forever. |
| B．More than half people on the plane died. |
| C．The names of the dead are on the memorial. |
| D．The football team is certain to become a great one. |
| A．A memorial was placed inside the stadium. |
| B．The football team was well loved and honored. |
| C．Someone wrote a song for the lost football players. |
| D．The football team performed a song before a match. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】There have been several incidents at some events in recent years where people died because of stampedes (踩踏).
·Don’t panic and conserve your energy
Panicking will not help you free yourself from a developing stampede. Stay calm and focused.
·Keep pace with the crowd
If the crowd is moving in one direction, it’s best to go with the flow.
·
One potential way to handle the situation is to shield yourself and allow the crowd to move past you. Look for a solid structure to stand behind such as a pillar or a wall, or other places to hide: behind a car or even a lamppost.
·Guard your head
Just remember to calm down, guard your head, and go with the flow of the crowd until you are able to safely escape.
| A．Move away from barriers. |
| B．Find somewhere to protect yourself. |
| C．Yelling and screaming will tire you out. |
| D．You can use sign language to communicate with people around you. |
| E．If you happen to fall down in a large crowd, try to get up as quickly as possible. |
| F．Once you try to resist, the sheer density of the crowd behind you could crush you. |
| G．These may leave some people thinking there’s little you can do to survive a stampede. |
【推荐2】I travel a lot with my sister Jane to attend a lot of jewelry(珠宝) shows as designers(设计师), so we can't pack lightly and usually bring about four suitcases filled with our work.
Most of our stuff is made from heavy materials and metals. So part of the routine for us when we fly is getting stopped by security(安检). Our jewelry sets off the alarms, and we've become accustomed to arriving early to go through private screenings. Most of the time, it's not troublesome.
However, on our recent trip to a Paris trade show, we were stopped at security and asked to empty our bags. One of the agents walked over to another agent and they started whispering to each other. Both gentlemen came back, and one of them then told us that it seemed that we were carrying a very dangerous object.
My sister and I just said, "Huh? Of course, we were a little concerned, thinking that maybe someone put something dangerous in one of our bags when we weren't looking.
One of the agents then started to unpack our bags. I kept asking what he was looking for and then the object in question finally appeared. It was our Cosima necklace. It's a piece of jewelry, with large, metal triangular spikes (三角形长钉).
My sister and I looked at each other and breathed a huge sigh of relief. We started laughing and explained to the two male agents that it was just a necklace from our collection, not a weapon of mass destruction. They thought we were lying, and one agent kept repeating that he believed it was a weapon.
I tried to explain that we were jewelry designers going to a trade show, and this was simply a piece from our collection. But the agents didn't buy it. Then a few women guards came over to assist. One of the women guards was holding an earring up to her ear and another was trying on a ring. Apparently, they liked our stuff.
It was only at this point that the male guards gave up and I think they also got tired of listening to a bund of women talk about jewelry. They let us through.
We took the names of the women agents and sent them a piece of jewelry when we got back to say thanks.
1. The writer and her sister were stopped by the agents because .| A．their suitcases were too heavy. |
| B．they were suspected to carry dangerous objects. |
| C．the agents wanted to play a joke on them. |
| D．the agents wanted to admire the jewelry inside the suitcases. |
| A．Doubt | B．Purchase |
| C．Believe | D．understand |
| A．show them her thanks for their assistance | B．get help from them next time |
| C．show them her talent in designing jewelry | D．persuade them to buy her jewelry later |
| A．The writer is always travelling on business. |
| B．The male agents didn't believe the writer at first. |
| C．The female agents liked the jewelry. |
| D．Someone put something dangerous in one of the writer's bags. |
【推荐3】A few years ago, a doctor gave a wrong prescription to a 9-year-old boy because he had accidentally clicked the next medicine listed in the drop-down menu. Unfortunately, the boy died.
Dr. Gidi Stein heard the story and felt forced to do something. “It was like killing someone with a spelling error. He just clicked on the wrong button,” Stein said. “One would have thought there’d be some kind of spell-checker to prevent these terrible things from happening. But apparently this is not the case.”
Several things were immediately obvious to the 54-year-old Stein, who had previously studied computer science. “If you look at this problem from a bird’s eye view, there were so many places down the line where this decision could have been stopped — from the physician to the pharmacy (药房) even to the mother. All of them had all the relevant information to have a judgment call that this was just the wrong drug for the wrong patient.” For Stein, it represented a systemic failure.
Stein compared this with credit cards. “If you use your credit card in the daily routine over time, a pattern of how we use our cards comes out: the grocery store, the gas station in our local town. If your credit card would appear tomorrow in Zimbabwe, it would be unusual. The credit card company would call you and say, ‘Hey, was that you?’”
But nothing like that existed in the field of prescription drugs. So Stein set up a company called MedAware. He came up with a machine learning outlier detection (异常检测值) system. In other words, he trained the computers to realize if a doctor accidentally prescribed the wrong medicine.
The system is already used in hospitals and doctor’s offices. To date, MedAware has used their technology to help nearly six million patients in the United States and Israel.
1. What led to the boy’s death?| A．The doctor’s carelessness. | B．The drawback of the computer. |
| C．The doctor’s poor medical skill. | D．The incomplete health care system. |
| A．Angry. | B．Frightened. |
| C．Embarrassed. | D．Regretful. |
| A．Help doctor choose right medicine. | B．Reminds patients to take medicine. |
| C．Introduce new drugs to doctors. | D．Check the prescription. |
| A．A diary. | B．A guidebook. |
| C．A magazine. | D．A science fiction. |
【推荐1】When I was eleven, my parents gave me the first book I ever owned--The Tales of Edgar Allan Poe. It was written by the famous novelist Edgar Allan Poe. I clearly remember opening it, reading the first lines of the book, and saying to myself, “So this is what reading is!” I was delighted. Little did I know at the time that I was at the beginning of a lifelong journey.
So, if I read my first real book at the age of eleven, what was I reading before then? In a word, these books are relatively plotless and repetitive, and they attempt to teach children to recognize letters and their sounds and to build their vocabulary. But I still had no idea what writing was. In Poe's stories, the sentences were more complex and stylish than anything I had ever read before.
Poe, in short, was a start. My parents gave me that first book, but then I searched for other books. I liked science, which led me to discover Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. Other writers followed in quick one after another, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and Arthur C. Clarke. But I didn't limit myself to science fiction. Other books that deeply impressed me, and which I have carried on my life's journey, include: The Yearling. Shane, Ivanhoe, Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Good Earth.
It went on from there. I became that kid who, long after his parents turned the lights off, hid under the covers with a flashlight, a book, and his greatest fear of being discovered and having his flashlight taken away. I realized that my parents must have known I was defying them. But in their wisdom they pretended to ignore it. And so I owe my start as a reader to my parents.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 1?| A．The first book the author read was a novel. |
| B．The author didn't read any books before 11. |
| C．The author developed an interest in reading. |
| D．The importance of reading was understood by the author. |
| A．To broaden children's visions. |
| B．To teach kids how to write. |
| C．To arouse kids' interest in novels. |
| D．To help children learn new words. |
| A．He tried doing scientific research. |
| B．He expanded the range of reading materials. |
| C．He started to write science fiction. |
| D．He advised his parents to buy more books. |
| A．disobeying | B．blaming |
| C．appreciating | D．satisfying |
【推荐2】Every Sunday morning I take a walk around a park near my home. There’s a lake in one corner of the park. Each time I walk by this lake, I see the same old woman sitting at the water’s edge with a small metal cage beside her.
This Sunday, I stopped walking and went over to her. As I got closer, I realized that there were three turtles(乌龟)，unhurt, slowly walking around the base of the metal cage. She had a fourth turtle on her knee that she was carefully cleaning it with a brush, which made me feel surprised.
“Hello,” I said. “If you don’t mind, I’d love to know what you’re doing with these turtles.”
“I’m cleaning off their shells,” she replied.
“Anything on a turtle’s shell weakens the turtle’s ability to take in heat and blocks its ability to swim. It can also impair and weaken the shell over time.”
She went on, “I spend a couple of hours each Sunday morning, relaxing by this lake and helping these little guys out. It’s my own strange way of making a difference. ”
“Well then, don’t you think your time could be better spent? It’s a waste of time. And 99% of these turtles don’t have kind people like you to help them clean off their shells. So, how exactly are your efforts here truly making a difference?”
The woman smiled, then looked down at the turtle on her knee, wiped off the last piece of algae(海藻) from its shell, and said, “Sweetie, if this little guy could talk, he’d tell you I just made all the difference in the world. ”
1. What was the writer surprised at according to Paragraph 2?| A．Four turtles in the cage. |
| B．The beautiful scenery in the park. |
| C．A small metal cage put beside the water. |
| D．A woman cleaning off the turtles’ shells. |
| A．Hurt. | B．Clean. | C．Protect. | D．Paint. |
| A．The woman had so much free time. |
| B．The woman didn’t protect the environment. |
| C．He thought the woman’s efforts meaningless. |
| D．He thought the turtles didn’t need to be cleaned. |
| A．A Strange Woman | B．The Power of Kindness |
| C．The Meaning of Cleaning | D．Turtles in the Metal Cage |
I spent that summer and autumn riding happily．My sister Liz, a prisoner（囚犯，俘虏） of her five-speed bicycle, never had a chance to keep up．Just before the Christmas deadline to pay my dad back, we were hit with several snowstorms．This allowed me to shovel enough driveways （车道） to pay off my debt．I was now officially a bike owner; it was a feeling unlike any other．
On that Christmas morning, my dad gave me a used portable （便携式的） record player．I was excited．However, my joy was short-lived after my dad called my sister to the kitchen．“We have one more gift for you．” he said as he opened the door that led to the garage．There, on the steps, stood a new ten-speed bicycle．
“It’s not fair,” I complained．“I worked so hard for my bike．and it’s not even new．Then Liz gets a new bike．She didn’t have to do anything for it．” My dad smiled．“She didn’t have to do anything for it because
By spring Liz and I were riding all over town together now that she could keep up．As we grew, Liz and I became true friends．
Still I wasn’t smart enough to figure out what my dad meant until years later．That new bike was not a gift for Liz — it was a gift for me．He’d given me the gift of my sister’s company, the ability to stay together rather than drift apart （逐渐疏远） in the face of my ability to travel．He gave me my best friend．
1. What do we know about the author’s bike?
| A．It was worth $120． |
| B．Allen bought it for him． |
| C．It was very fashionable． |
| D．He didn’t like it actually． |
| A．He had paid off his debt． |
| B．He had learned to ride a bike． |
| C．He could also own Liz’s bike． |
| D．He could sell his bike to Liz． |
| A．His sister got a new record player． |
| B．His father didn’t care about him． |
| C．The record player wasn’t new． |
| D．His sister got a better gift． |
| A．moved | B．satisfied |
| C．puzzled | D．disappointed |
| A．the new bike actually belonged to him |
| B．the new bike wasn’t bought by his father |
| C．his father actually gave him a more valuable gift |
| D．his father loved his sister more as a matter of fact |
