Braving the elements
On Dec.26, Gelinne, 60, was looking out the back windows of his home at the frozen lake. Then an airplane came into his sight. Gelinne looked up just in time to see that small air plane a few hundred yards away, losing control.
As the plane disappeared behind the trees, Gelinne, a former Navy officer, realized it was going to land in the lake. He flashed on a moment from more than 20 years earlier: Gelinne was at work in a bank. When a fire alarm rang, he escaped from the chaos but has always wondered if he could have stayed inside and helped.
On this day, Gelinne didn’t hesitate. He ran down to the waterfront. The plane had skidded (侧滑) to a stop on the broad, frozen lake, far from shore. It was now sinking. The pilot was standing on the wing. Gelinne knew from his Navy training that even a few minutes in the icy water could kill the pilot.
Gelinne tested the ice with his foot and decided not to take any chances walking on it. So he pulled a boat out from under his back deck.
Then he set off, pushing his boat across the ice. It was tough work. When Gelinne reached the plane, it had broken through the ice and sunk; only its tail was visible. The pilot was standing on a tail wing, submerged up to his chest, surrounded by open water. Gelinne pushed his boat off the ice and into the water, paddling (划) toward the pilot.
Gelinne focused on keeping the pilot calm, joking, “Just hang on to the boat as if you were hugging your wife.” The pilot grabbed the boat’s bow, but Gelinne knew he had to get the pilot out of the water and up onto the shelf of unbroken ice behind him before the man lost too much body heat.
By now a police officer had arrived and radioed for help. A lifeboat appeared, breaking through ice as it arrived. It picked up the pilot and rushed him to safety. Later the boat returned to help Gelinne, now extremely tired, to shore.
“I’m 60 years old,” Gelinne says. “There was no way I could get him to shore.” Still, he was satisfied he’d gone the right way that day.
1. Why did Gelinne run outside without hesitation?| A．He had rescucing experience. | B．He wanted to offer help in time. |
| C．He needed more time to prepare. | D．He was amazed at what had happened. |
| A．He made a call to the police. | B．He got the pilot out of the water. |
| C．He asked the pilot to grasp the bow. | D．He picked up the pilot onto the shore. |
| A．generous | B．brave | C．curious | D．strict |
| A．Think twice before action. |
| B．One good turn deserves another. |
| C．It’s never too late to make things right. |
| D．One should always be ready to seize chances. |
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【推荐1】London(AFP)— Friday the 13th proved suitably unlucky for one 13-year-old boy who was struck by lightning before being taken to hospital — at 13:13 on the dreaded date.
“They boy, who has not been named, was treated for a slight burn after being hit along with two others at an air show in Suffolk, eastern England.” a spokeswoman said.
Staff (人员) at eh St. Johns Ambulance service said there had been heavy rain all day before they saw a big flash of lightning and loud clap of thunder over the sea off the Suffolk coast.
“We got a call that someone had been struck by lightning so we immediately sent our first aid emergency stall to the scene, followed by an ambulance.” said Rex Clarke, head of the team of St. John Ambulance volunteers at the event.
“Lightning strikes can cause cardiac arrest (心搏骤停), but when our volunteers arrived the boy was conscious and breathing.”
Clarke added that two other people were treated for injuries from lightning burns in the space of twenty minutes, and that all three people were holding umbrellas at the time which “ acts as a conductor (导体) for electricity”.
Jason Gillingham, a County Ambulance officer on scene at the show, said, “This was a slight burn t the boy’s shoulder, but he was taken to hospital and is recovering well.”
1. According to the passage, 13 may be _____ in the UK.| A．a fortunate number that everyone likes |
| B．a number which can bring people bad luck |
| C．a common number which doesn’t have special meanings |
| D．a number which is only bad for kids |
| A．exciting | B．encouraging | C．interesting | D．frightening |
| A．His heart stopped beating. | B．He lost his umbrella. |
| C．He got hurt on the shoulder. | D．He lost his hearing. |
| A．become disable | B．lose his shoulder | C．pass away | D．get better |
| A．An Interesting Event | B．A Brave Boy |
| C．Boy Struck By Lightning On Black Friday | D．Danger Of Lighting to People Outdoors |
【推荐2】A new collection of photos brings an unsuccessful Antarctic voyage back to life.
Frank Hurley’s pictures would be outstanding — undoubtedly first-rate photo-journalism — if they had been made last week. In fact, they were shot from 1914 through 1916, most of them after a disastrous shipwreck (海难), by a cameraman who had no reasonable expectation of survival. Many of the images were stored in an ice chest, under freezing water, in the damaged wooden ship.
The ship was the Endurance, a small, tight, Norwegian-built three-master that was intended to take Sir Ernest Shackleton and a small crew of seamen and scientists, 27 men in all, to the southernmost shore of Antarctica’s Weddell Sea. From that point Shackleton wanted to force a passage by dog sled (雪橇) across the continent. The journey was intended to achieve more than what Captain Robert Falcon Scott had done. Captain Scott had reached the South Pole early in 1912 but had died with his four companions on the march back.
As writer Caroline Alexander makes clear in her forceful and well-researched story The Endurance, adventuring was even then a thoroughly commercial effort. Scott’s last journey, completed as he lay in a tent dying of cold and hunger, caught the world’s imagination, and a film made in his honor drew crowds. Shackleton, a onetime British merchant-navy officer who had got to within 100 miles of the South Pole in 1908, started a business before his 1914 voyage to make money from movie and still photography. Frank Hurley, a confident and gifted Australian photographer who knew the Antarctic, was hired to make the images, most of which have never before been published.
1. Who reached the South Pole first according to the text?| A．Frank Hurley. |
| B．Ernest Shackleton. |
| C．Robert Falcon Scott. |
| D．Caroline Alexander. |
| A．Artistic creation. | B．Scientific research. |
| C．Money making. | D．Treasure hunting. |
| A．They were made last week. |
| B．They showed undersea scenery. |
| C．They were found by a cameraman. |
| D．They recorded a disastrous adventure. |
【推荐3】An 80-year-old man and his family may soon get a bill for the cost of his rescue mission. After an all-night search by rescuers, James Clark of Dublin, Ohio, was found “not moving and exhibiting what appeared to be signs and symptoms on low nody temperature to the point of not being able to speak any clear words," according to a statement. Rescuers wrapped him in a sleeping bag and carried him out about 1.7 miles to safety.
Similarly, in 2015, a family of four received an about 8500 bill after their daytime hike left them lost in the dark and requiring search and rescue ( SAR). This raises an interesting question: Who pays for the cost when you get lost or injured in the great outdoors?
The high cost of SAR missions is what prompted states like New Hampshire to pass laws that establish programs like Hike Safe to hold individuals more financially accountable for their rescues. However, some people have called for more strict laws to shift SAR costs off taxpayers. They say such a move would ultimately make people more responsible, but it's a controversial idea. “Society rescues people all the time-auto accident victims, home fire victims-and at far greater cost than wildemess hiker rescues.” writes Backpacker.
Critics say putting a price tag on SAR could cause people to hesitate before calling for help in emergency situations. But Heggie says this isn't actually the reason why the National Park Service doesn't charge for SAR. “If an agency such as NPS starts charging the public for SAR costs, the agency essentially has to conduct SAR operations. If something goes wrong during the SAR operation, someone could lead to a lawsuit(起诉).”
Both Heggie and Kupper say the best way people can avoid needing rescue is simply by being prepared, suggesting that people research hikes before they go pay attention to their surroundings, pack essential gear and not rely on a cellphone as a survival kit. "The best time to prevent SAR incidents is when people are still at home，” Heggie said.
1. What state was James in when he was rescued?| A．He lost his way home. | B．He daren't move alone, |
| C．He was in danger of dying. | D．He couldn't express himself. |
| A．To reward the rescuers. | B．To reduce outdoor activities. |
| C．To prevent hikers calling for help. | D．To make hikers take responsibility. |
| A．The possibility of being charged. | B．The heavy burden of medical costs. |
| C．The difficulty in doing a SAR operation. | D．The fear of doing fewer SAR operations. |
| A．Packing necessary things. | B．Preparing well in advance. |
| C．Imagining accidents at home. | D．Taking a cellphone everywhere, |
【推荐1】What are we celebrating today? I asked the above question at the beginning of every one of my classes, whether I was teaching kids or adults. Sometimes I asked it a little differently, as in, “Who has good news?” or “Who has something good to say?” However I asked it, it always meant the same thing. It was a call for celebrating life, for focusing on what’s right and what’s good.
This was something that started by accident in the 1970 school year and continued until I stopped classroom teaching in 2001—thirty years of celebrating! Believe it or not, it started as the result of two things that are not so popular among kids: daily news and homework.
When I was teaching courses in history and government in high school, I would always ask students to read the latest news every night. After a few weeks, one student came to me and said, “Dr. Urban, did you notice that most of the news was bad news?” And he was right. Then we had a long class discussion about this, and finally we all agreed on one thing: We needed to receive more good news.
So the next day at the beginning of class I asked, “What are we celebrating today? Who has good news? Who has something good to say?” Later, I suggested that we should also include good things in our own lives.
They thought it was a great way to start class, and it developed into something that had a profound and lasting impact on both my students and me. Over the years of doing this, we heard just about every bit of good news possible. Some were small things, some were huge things. But the most important was that my students learned to look for the good in everyday life. They looked for it, they found it, and they celebrated it by sharing it with others.
1. What do we know about the author from the passage?| A．He was a primary school teacher. |
| B．He always asked his students to do some news writing. |
| C．He had been teaching for more than three decades. |
| D．He used to work in the government. |
| A．It started from an accident which happened 30 years ago. |
| B．It started because students wanted to receive some good news. |
| C．It started to make me popular among kids. |
| D．It started when I wanted my students to read more news. |
| A．To celebrate a special day |
| B．To check students’ homework |
| C．To learn about students’ life |
| D．To focus on good things in life |
| A．It’s great to focus on the good things in life. |
| B．The world used to be filled with bad news. |
| C．The teacher liked to celebrate his first class each year. |
| D．Only big and important things can be celebrated. |
【推荐2】Nikos was an ordinary man. He went through life accepting the mixture of good things and bad things. He never looked for any explanation or reason about why things happened just the way they did.
One morning Nikos woke up. He started to shave, as he did every morning, but then he noticed that the mirror on the bathroom wall wasn’t quite straight. He tried to adjust it, but as soon as he touched it, the mirror fell off the wall and hit the floor with a huge crash. It broke into a thousand pieces. Nikos knew that some people thought this was unlucky. “Seven years’ bad luck,” they said, “when a mirror broke.” But Nikos didn’t care.
After that he went to make himself a sandwich, which needed some tomato sauce. When he picked up a jar of tomato sauce, it fell from his hand. Tomato sauce was everywhere. Some people, he knew, thought that this was also supposed to bring bad luck. But Nikos didn’t care.
On his way to work, he saw a black cat running away from him. He didn’t care.
Even though Nikos wasn’t superstitious, he thought that something bad was certain to happen to him today. He told everybody at work what had happened. “Something bad will happen to you today,” they all said. But nothing bad happened to him.
That evening, his friend thought Nikos was going to have bad things. However, whatever they played, Nikos won. “Go on then, Nikos,” his friend shouted, “use all the money you have won to buy some lottery tickets!” Nikos did it. The next day, everybody was watching the draw for the lottery on TV. The first number came out, for the third prize. It was Nikos’ number. Then the second number, for the second prize. It was Nikos’ number. Then the first prize. It was Nikos’ number as well.
He WON all three of the big lottery prizes!
1. The following things are thought of as the signs of unluck EXCEPT ________.| A．A black cat | B．A sandwich with tomato sauce |
| C．A broken mirror | D．Spilt tomato sauce |
| A．Not studying or looking at things thoroughly. |
| B．Controlling bad luck to become good fortune. |
| C．Believing certain events bring good or bad luck. |
| D．Taking actions to keep bad things from occurring. |
| A．To test his luck. | B．To change his fortune. |
| C．To bring in more money. | D．To use up all the money. |
| A．Nikos went to great lengths to know what lay behind all the things. |
| B．The mirror on the bathroom wall broke into pieces out of no reason. |
| C．The occasional things failed to convince Nikos of the coming bad luck. |
| D．Nikos’ story tells what happens in life has nothing to do with the evil signs. |
【推荐3】If Natalie Morales had to describe her mom in just one word, she would pick: survivor. That’s because her mom, Penelope Morales had a tough childhood. “Her mother wasn’t ready to be a mom and gave her up to her grandmother,” says Natalie. “I think she often felt in life like she wasn’t wanted and wasn’t loved.”
Penelope Morales put herself through college and it was there that she met Natalie’s dad, who was serving in the army. They fell in love and married, and her life as a military mom of three children became a great adventure. “She basically raised us moving from place to place. I was born in India, but we lived in Panama, Brazil and Spain. And my mom was the constant,” said Natalie. “She would always make sure that when we got home from school, we felt like we had our number-one fan, our champion right there, waiting for us.” Along the way, Natalie learned many things from her mother, which she carries on in her role as a mother of two sons.
As a Mother’s Day gift, Natalie treated her mom to a day of pampering(宠爱). “I want my mom to feel like a queen,” she says. And as part of the surprise, Natalie brought along an old photo of her mother, which she wanted to recreate. “I think it was taken in the mid-60s. So she was in her early to mid-twenties. She’s just absolutely a beautiful woman. But she’s looking in the mirror. It’s like not knowing really her future, but knowing where she came from,” describes Natalie. “That picture just speaks so much to me. I want her to see what she created in that mirror, and that she gave us all something so great.”
“It’s just an amazing experience to take this picture and have Natalie do it. I could never imagine in my entire life,” says Penelope Morales, who adds that she’s very proud of her daughter. “All I want her is to be happy and to raise her children the same way.” She says.
1. What can be inferred about Natalie’s mother?| A．She luckily survived an adventure. |
| B．Her mother gave her up for poverty. |
| C．She and her husband were at the same college. |
| D．Poor childhood led to her lack of self-confidence. |
| A．Showing respect for others. | B．Being determined and brave. |
| C．Giving children great love. | D．Treasuring the present happy life. |
| A．It was expected. | B．It was a success. |
| C．It moved her mother to tears. | D．It made her mother proud of her. |
| A．The Celebration of Mother’s Day |
| B．The Childhood of Natalie’s Mother |
| C．Mother—The Greatest Person in the World |
| D．A Special Mother’s Day Gift for Natalie’s Mother |
【推荐1】A Way Out of Social Anxiety: Volunteering and Acts of Kindness
As a socially anxious introvert (内向的人), I can prove the benefits of serving others through volunteering in my community.
A volunteer job doesn’t need to require stepping into a busy room full of 100 people at a school or hospital.
Social scientists have an suitable name for stressful social situations where we need to perform and would likely be judged or evaluated. Any time we are in evaluative situations where we are judged by others, we face this social-evaluative threat and endure a sudden rush of stress hormones that increase anxiety. When we are in situations where we offer acts of kindness or help others, however, we tend to feel less judged by others.
“Kindness may help socially anxious people,” says Dr. Lynn Alden, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia.
| A．Some people are naturally reserved while others are rather outgoing. |
| B．Indeed, my own act of kindness has always been a sure bet to bring me out of my shell. |
| C．In social anxiety disorder, fear and anxiety lead to avoidance which can disrupt our life. |
| D．When I am giving my free time to help others, I feel truly liberated in my mission to serve. |
| E．Instead, my volunteer service consists of quiet one-on-one visits with isolated older adults. |
| F．These situations do not pose such a social-evaluative threat, but instead, calms and soothes us. |
| G．She and her colleagues conducted a study with 115 undergraduates who had reported high levels of social anxiety. |
【推荐2】Helen Keller once wrote, “The unselfish effort to bring cheer to others will be the beginning of a happier life for ourselves.”
Nineteen-year-old Andrew Makhoul was a communications major at the University of Pennsylvania. It was coming up to spring break, but unlike his classmates, Makhoul wasn’t planning on spending the break relaxing.
He traveled to Guatemala. He went to an orphanage in one of the most violent and poor parts of Guatemala City. It depends upon volunteers to stay open. Although he didn’t speak much Spanish, he found communication wasn’t a problem:
Makhoul’s first time as a volunteer only lasted a week, but by the end of that week, he knew he’d be back in the future.
About 2,400 years ago, Greek philosopher Aristotle said, “The essence of life is to serve others and do good.” Volunteers all around the world are making these words come true, each and every day.
| A．“You communicated with love.” |
| B．She volunteered in curing thousands of women. |
| C．She worked with the women as part of the programme. |
| D．Unexpectedly, volunteers benefit from their experiences. |
| E．Sometimes, volunteers themselves live with huge challenges. |
| F．He decided to spend his time doing something useful for people. |
| G．These words certainly prove true for the millions of volunteers all over the world. |
【推荐3】Give with Love
Choosing a charity to support isn't as easy as picking one out of a hat.
What cause do you want to support?
Typically, the first thing that people think about when choosing a charity to support is the cause. There are children’s charities, animal charities and charities that raise money and awareness for a wide range of illnesses, disabilities and issues.
Do you want to support a large or small charity?
There are big name charities such as the Red Cross, SPCA and Barnardos.
Find your reason
Once you have decided that you would like to give some of your time or money to help others, you need to make some decisions. For instance, volunteering.
Think about your existing skills: do you prefer hands-on work, are you good with people, do you have a background in administration or secretarial work? Charities need a wide variety of skills, such as working in shops, organising fundraising events, driving vehicles or. in the case of animal charities, walking dogs or checking out foster homes.
| A．Location is important |
| B．Decide on the kind of work |
| C．There are also many smaller charities |
| D．Some people want to give something back |
| E．Think about which organisation’s cause is dear to your heart |
| F．Larger charities will advertise vacant positions on their website |
| G．Your choice should be personal and your reasons unique to you |
