As 17-year-old Norwood drove through St. Petersburg, Florida, last February, the laughter and chatter from the four teenage girls inside her car quickly gave way to screams. As they approached a crossroad, another car T-boned them, sending their black car sailing into the yard of a nearby house, coming to a stop only when it crashed into a tree.
As smoke rose from the other car, a bystander shouted, “It’s about to blow up! Get out!” .The impact had caved in Norwood’s driver’s side door, jamming it shut. Shaken, but still OK, she crawled out through the window. Along with two of her friends, who’d also managed to free themselves, she ran for her life.
But halfway down the street, she realized that her best friend, Simmons, wasn’t with them. Norwood ran back to the seriously damaged car and found Simmons lying in the back seat. “She wasn’t moving,” Norwood told the reporter. She threw open the back door and pulled her friend out, avoiding the broken glass as best she could. She dragged Simmons a few feet to safety and laid her on the ground. “I checked her pulse.” Nothing. “I put my head against her chest.” No sign of life. “That’s when I started CPR.”
If the accident had happened a few weeks earlier, she might not have known what to do. But Norwood, who wants to pursue a career in medicine, had earned her CPR certificate just the day before. Kneeling on the lawn and looking down at her dying friend, Norwood knew she had precious little time to practice what she’d learned.
She started pressing Simmons’s chest with her crossed fingers and breathing into her friend’s mouth in hopes of filling her lungs with the kiss of life. No response. And then, after the 30th press, Simmons began coughing and gasping for air. The CPR had worked!
Soon, an ambulance arrived and rushed Simmons to the hospital, where she received stitches(缝合) for a wound in her forehead. And then she heard how her best friend had saved her life. “I wasn’t shocked,” said Simmons. “She will always help any way she can.”
1. Norwood ran back to the damaged car just in order to ______.| A．practice CPR | B．help her friend out |
| C．open the back door | D．stop the explosion |
| A．Brave. | B．Creative. | C．Ambitious. | D．Optimistic. |
| A．Pursuit of dream | B．Breath of life |
| C．Recovery from injury | D．Loss of memory |
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【推荐1】I had been in the city for some time and was coming home. I missed my boat and decided to travel on an old ship. I knew that it would not be a comfortable journey but I had no time to wait for another boat.
Hardly had we left the port when I saw the dog Gulliver, the captain’s favourite dog, for the first time. What a big dog it was! I had never seen one that could frighten me so much!
On the third day the ship caught fire. Nobody tried to put it out. The ship began sinking and all the men rushed to the life-boats. I saw no chance of getting away in a boat. Suddenly I remembered there was a life-raft on the ship. I had no time to lose, so I immediately rushed towards the raft and pushed it overboard.
In jumping down onto the raft I hurt myself badly and was unconscious for some time. When I came to, I found there was no sign of a life-boat. Every man who had been on board the ship must have gone down with her. I was the only one who was saved.
Then I saw Gulliver was coming fast towards the raft. He struggled a long time before he managed to get onto it. I wanted to push him back into the water but did not dare to move. The dog shook himself, went to the other end of the raft and lay down. I didn’t dare to sleep that night. I must watch him. In the moonlight I could see his eyes were open. He was watching, too.
1. In what situation did the author first meet the dog?| A．While waiting for the boat. | B．While travelling in the city. |
| C．Upon leaving the port. | D．Upon getting onto the ship. |
| A．Get away with a raft. | B．Board a life boat. |
| C．Jump into the water. | D．Put out the fire. |
| A．It was unfriendly. | B．It had a good sleep. |
| C．It enjoyed the moon. | D．It feared the author. |
| A．Rescuing a Dog | B．A Narrow Escape |
| C．A Sleepless Night | D．Caught in a Fire |
【推荐2】In a close-up (特写), one man is pulling the other with all his strength through the window of an SUV, a type of vehicle, which is stuck dangerously on a cliff (悬崖) 30 feet above a busy roadway.
Jason Warnock, then 29, is the man performing the life-saving action. He was driving in Lewiston, Idaho, in April 2015 when he came upon a fallen tree in the middle of the road. “I was like, ‘What happened’?” he told a news website. Warnock stretched out his neck to stare up the side of a cliff. At the very top, where the tree should have been, was an SUV swinging on the edge, held back from falling to the road by a delicate, heavily damaged chain-link fence. Looking inside the car, Warnock could see a panicked Matthew Sitko, 23, beating on the passenger-side window.
That’s when Warnock sprang into action. He crossed a nearby footbridge, and climbed up the cliff to get to the vehicle. When Warnock got to the car, he tried breaking the window with a tool he had on him, only to realize that his cracking was shaking the car and might cause it to slip down the hill. He stopped and turned to calming Sitko enough to get him to open the window. “Give me your hand,” Warnock said. “If this thing goes, I want to have a hold of you so I can at least get you out of there.” Before reaching for the lifeline, Sitko had one request: “Can I grab my phone?” Soon enough, Warnock had freed both man and his machine.
According to the Lewiston police chief, the accident was caused when Sitko, who suffered only minor injuries, lost control of his car. For his part, Warnock insisted he came to Sitko’s aid for one simple reason: “I just did what anyone would do.”
1. Where was Matthew Sitko’s SUV when spotted?| A．On a cliff. | B．By a river. |
| C．On the road. | D．Under a tree. |
| A．His strength ran up. |
| B．His tool stopped functioning. |
| C．He worried about his own safety. |
| D．He realized the possible consequence. |
| A．The SUV was beyond repair. | B．The SUV was out of control. |
| C．Sitko was severely injured. | D．Sitko was sleepy and tired. |
| A．Calm but stubborn. | B．Daring but anxious. |
| C．Caring and decisive. | D．Optimistic and strong. |
【推荐3】I was in seat 10F next to the emergency exit. A few minutes after take-off there was a loud explosion. Everybody gasped (倒抽气) and there were a few screams. Then, surprisingly, it went very quiet — everyone was assessing the situation.
It soon became obvious we weren’t going back to LaGuardia Airport and that we were heading for the water. I started thinking this was it. Then I heard the announcement, ‘This is the captain, brace for impact,’ and everything suddenly got clear. I had to stop thinking about death, and instead, about what I should do once the pilot landed in the water. ‘You sat in this seat,’ I thought, ‘you’ve got to get this door open.’
At about 300 feet (91.5 meters), I started reading the instructions. There were six steps, and I had just read them two or three times when we hit the water. It felt like the worst car crash you could imagine. Fortunately, I’d just read the instructions and managed to get the door open. The wing was sinking lower and lower. I walked out onto it and walked as far along as I could to make room for other people. It was freezing, and nobody had a jacket. Some people were underwater to their waists.
It felt like half an hour before we saw the first ferry, though it could have been only five or ten minutes. I was fourth onto the ferry, and I started helping people onto the boat. To our relief, everyone had survived the crash.
I got through the whole incident by taking it one step at a time: get the door open, throw the door out, figure out if you’re sinking. I just kept on doing that until I reached solid ground. Only then did I go into the men’s room and cry for a few minutes.
1. After hearing a loud explosion, what did passengers, including the writer, do?| A．They put on life jackets as instructed. |
| B．They tried to figure what had happened. |
| C．They couldn’t help shouting for help on end. |
| D．They asked the pilot to fly to LaGuardia Airport. |
| A．He sat by the emergency exit. | B．He had an experienced neighbor. |
| C．He was once taught how to open it. | D．He read and understood the instructions. |
| A．Humorous. | B．Aggressive. | C．Organized. | D．Expressive. |
| A．No one got killed in it. | B．It happened at the end of the trip. |
| C．The pilot managed to land the plane safely. | D．A ferry came to the rescue the moment it happened. |
【推荐1】Alexander simply liked singing. He sang in the shower, and he sang while he walked to school. He couldn’t have cared less what he sounded like until Kevin started talking about the tryout for the City Boys’ Choir(合唱团).
“Yeah, I’m attending the tryout this weekend,” he heard Kevin boasting. “With my voice, they’ll want me to perform lots of solos(独唱).” Everyone around the school knew that Kevin had a fantastic singing voice.
Bright and early Saturday morning, Alexander came to the tryout. Every boy looked nervous except Kevin. When Alexander’s turn came, he pretended he was singing in the shower. He felt satisfied when he was done, at least until Kevin’s turn came. As Kevin’s confident voice filled the room, Alexander realized that he would never sound that good.
After the individual performances, Mr Robeson, choir director, put them into groups of four and asked them to sing again as a group. When the groups finished singing, Mr Robeson began the interview process. He asked Alexander about his performance experience and any training he’d received. All Alexander could say was “I just really enjoy singing. I sing all the time, and I want to learn more.”
The next afternoon, Alexander anxiously rode his bicycle to see the list of new members. There must have been some mistake. His name was on the list, and Kevin’s name was not. Curiosity drove Alexander to Mr Robeson for the reason.
“You love singing. Your voice isn’t the best, but with training it will improve quite a bit. Talent alone is not enough. We needed boys who were willing to work hard. We weren’t looking for soloists. We were looking for boys who seemed to have the right voice and attitude to be part of the choir.” On this explanation, Alexander nodded and climbed on his bicycle, singing all the way.
1. What is true about Kevin?| A．He performed solos in the City Boys’ Choir. |
| B．He was nervous in the tryout. |
| C．He failed to join the City Boys’ Choir. |
| D．He was ignored by Alexander. |
| A．particular. | B．separate. | C．indifferent. | D．careful. |
| A．He had a better schedule for practising. |
| B．He loved to sing and had the right attitude. |
| C．He was brave enough to try out. |
| D．He didn’t want to be a soloist. |
【推荐2】It’s January and time to go back to school. For some, that might be a gloomy prospect after the joys of the post Christmas festive period. For me, though, it’s as exciting as a trip to Antarctica, also as scary as starting a job for which I’m not sure whether I’m qualified.
To be embarking on a master’s degree in Psychotherapy and Counselling at Regent’s University at 71 is perhaps an unlikely route for someone who dropped out of school at 17. But now I’ve come full circle to the conclusion that nothing, for me, feels more stimulating at this point in my life than learning new things. That studying, far from being the bore and the chore it used to be, is a treat.
Turning 70 came as something of a shock. I started to feel I was drifting (飘). Without a big project, and without any major family responsibilities, I was starting to feel I was lying on a bed of thorns. Friends of similar age were lapping up their lives, socializing and travelling. However, I longed for something more. Or perhaps not more, but different.
As the gloom grew, I thought perhaps I needed to see a therapist. A friend, a psychotherapist, suggested that while therapy might be useful, doing a course on the basics of psychotherapy and counselling might be more up my street. Without too much thinking, I decided to give it a shot.
So that’s how every weekday I beep (发出哔哔声) myself through the gate with my student pass, which makes me smile every time. I felt privileged to be exposed to a group of my fellow students who were willing to be open to me.
While ageing is an inevitable process, we can get rid of a lot of the rules about what’s age-appropriate. Studying for a master’s degree in old age is a challenge, but it has provided me with a new perspective on life. Hence, ageing should never limit your ambitions.
1. How did the author feel when going back to school?| A．Unrealistic. | B．Resistant. |
| C．Awkward. | D．Expectant. |
| A．She achieved nothing before. | B．She lived without a purpose. |
| C．She had to support her family. | D．She was separated by her fellows. |
| A．Keeping your passions alive. | B．Seeking support if needed. |
| C．Behaving age-appropriately. | D．Socializing with young students. |
| A．Returning To School—My Dream Since Childhood |
| B．My Efforts To Learn At An unlikely Age Paying Off |
| C．Learning—My Way To Overcome The Ageing Crisis |
| D．My Tough Journey To Pursuing A Master’s Degree |
【推荐3】Hannah Burrows isn’t able to put into words how much she loves water, but when you see the 6-year-old in a pool there’s no doubt about it. “As soon as you put her in a swimsuit, she’s flapping (摆动) her arms and getting excited,” said Hannah’s mom, Kristy Burrows.
Hannah is in kindergarten at Longview School, a school for children with severe intellectual and physical disabilities. Last year, the family was referred to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, an on-profit (非盈利的) organization that brightens the lives of kids who face health challenges. They considered what that wish might be. “We wanted to do something that would last a long time and that she would get a lot of use out of,” Kristy said. Weekly swimming is part of Hannah’s physical therapy at Longview, so they decided on a pool.
But building a pool in your back yard means getting a permit. But the Burrowses didn’t have one. If they wanted to get one, they should spend hundreds of dollars, which could be too much for the family.
AS it turned out, a local company volunteered to do a site plan free. Followed were discounted products or services. Kristy said, “The permit was issued on the 5th of June and the pool was built in the next five days...We went from, ‘Oh, it will be next summer’ to 15 days later there was a pool in my backyard.”
It’s an aboveground pool, 3.5 feet deep, perfect for Hannah.
“She loves it,” said Kristy. She’s been swimming almost every day for an hour. “Hannah is delighted to be in water, of course, but her family has noticed that the pool has improved her life out of it, too. She struggled with sleeping through the night,” Kristy said. “But now, she’s had a couple of great nights of sleep just from the activity.”
| A．She can’t express her excitement to be in water. |
| B．She is good at swimming though she is young. |
| C．Her health condition has greatly improved with the pool. |
| D．She has severe intellectual and physical disabilities. |
| A．More than satisfied. | B．Very disappointed. | C．A little annoyed. | D．Very discouraged. |
| A．Swimming Helps Improve Little Girl’s Health | B．Six-year-old Girl Enjoyed Swimming |
| C．A Special Girl’s Wish Came True | D．Building a Swimming Pool Needs a Permit |
