A Kentucky pizza driver, Ralph Letner, is a hero after he helped to evacuate people from a home
2 . Colleen and her husband were part of a group walking the Overland Track. It was the fifth day of a 6-day walk. The guide, who was waiting for them at the nearest camp, had
"When I realized what was happening, I was heading to a deep ditch (沟壑), my pack on my back." Colleen's fall was only
Colleen hit her head badly and went into
Her husband took her pack along with his own and together they struggled for the final three kilometers to the camp. Once they reached the camp, the guide gave her first aid and called for the rescue helicopter immediately.
Colleen was
Later, Colleen recalled with emotion, "After this personal experience of near-death and being saved, I realized that in some situations there's absolutely no
A.interviewed | B.warned | C.asked | D.taught |
A.curious | B.independent | C.cautious | D.patient |
A.opposite | B.ahead | C.faraway | D.above |
A.broken | B.caused | C.followed | D.protected |
A.shock | B.action | C.silence | D.panic |
A.lay | B.settled | C.bent | D.crashed |
A.straight away | B.after all | C.at times | D.without hesitation |
A.forced | B.guided | C.rushed | D.invited |
A.possibility | B.privilege | C.alternative | D.necessity |
A.familiar | B.wonderful | C.deafening | D.unexpected |
3 . I know what courage looks like. I saw it on a flight I took six years ago, and only now can I speak of it without tears filling eyes at the memory.
Our flight left the Orlando Airport one Friday morning. But immediately upon take-off, it was clear that something was wrong. The aircraft was bumping(颠簸) up and down. All the experienced travellers, including me, looked around with knowing smiles. If you fly much, you see these things and learn to act calmly about them. However, we did not remain calm for long.
Minutes after we were in the air, our plane began falling quickly. The pilot soon made a serious announcement. “We are having some difficulties,” he said. “Our indicators show that the control system has failed. We will be returning to the Orlando Airport. The flight attendants will prepare you for a bumpy landing. Also, if you look out of the windows, you will see that we are dumping fuel from the airplane. We want to have as little on board as possible in the event of a rough touchdown.” In other words, we were about to crash. Many travellers looked visibly frightened now. No one faces death without fear, I thought.
Then a couple of rows to my left, I heard a still calm voice, a woman’s voice, speaking in an absolutely normal conversational tone. I had to find the source of this voice. All around, people cried. Many screamed. Finally, I saw her. In this chaos, a mother was talking to her child. The woman, in her mid-30s, was staring full into the face of her daughter, who looked to be four years old. The child listened closely, sensing the importance of her mother’s words. The mother’s gaze held the child so fixed that she seemed untouched by the sounds of grief and fear around her.
Finally, I leaned over and by some miracle could hear this soft sure voice with the tone of comfort. Over and over again, the mother said, “I love you so much. Remember, no matter what happens, I love you always.” Fortunately, our landing gear held at last and our touchdown was not a tragedy.
However, the voice I heard that day never faded. That mom showed me what a real hero looks like.
1. What does the author imply by saying “some travellers’ knowing smiles” in Paragraph 2?A.They were used to this kind of experience. |
B.They were quite familiar with each other. |
C.They were well-educated passengers. |
D.They were pretending to be calm. |
A.The plane met bad weather and had to return immediately. |
B.The flight indicators showed the plane’s control system failed. |
C.One of the passengers was badly ill and the plane had to turn back. |
D.A flight attendant explained flight safety instructions to the passengers. |
A.They asked for help. |
B.They remained calm. |
C.They cried and screamed. |
D.They rejected the bumpy landing. |
A.The shape of love. |
B.The voice of courage. |
C.The wisdom of a pilot. |
D.The danger of a journey. |
4 . Surfer Dudes to the Rescue!
About 50 feet from shore of the Northern California’s Trinidad State Beach, two brothers were fighting for their lives. They had been swept out to sea in a rip current (激流), their mouths barely able to stay above the water. Thick fog made it difficult for beachgoers to see the guys, but the screams were unmistakable. And every second counted. The brothers, ages 15 and 20, were wearing shorts and T-shirts, unsuitable for a November day, let alone the freezing water. Keven Harder, a supervising ranger (巡查员), told the North Coast Journal in nearby Eureka that swimming in such a temperature “takes the fight right out of you.”
Luckily, four surfers in wet suits were nearby. Narayan Weibel, Spenser Stratton, and Adrian York, all 16, along with Taj Ortiz-Beck, 15, were on their surfboards riding up and down the coast on five-foot waves when they heard the cries. They turned and saw two bobbing heads and four struggling arms. “We looked at each other and knew these guys were about to drown,” Weibel told the Washington Post.
Weibel, Stratton, and Ortiz-Beck paddled toward the distressed swimmers while York headed to shore to warn someone to call 911. He then dived back in to help his friends.
As the surfers drew close, the brothers were still fighting hard for their lives. “It was pretty stressful, but there wasn’t any time to think about it, and that helped me keep my cool,” Ortiz-Beck says.
Ortiz-Beck pulled up alongside the younger brother. Grabbing him under his arms, he raised him up onto his board. Stratton and Weibel, meanwhile, hurried to help the older brother. He was large, 250 to 300 pounds, and he was panicked.
“I told them, ‘Calm down—we got you!’” says Weibel. “They thought they were going to die.”
York arrived in time to help get the older brother atop the second board. The surfers then paddled several minutes through choppy water to the medical help waiting onshore. The brothers were scared but fine.
“When we get a call like this one, it’s usually too late by the time we get there,” says Dillon Cleavenger, a first responder. “I can’t say enough about what these boys did. They were willing and prepared to risk their lives.”
1. What can we know from the first paragraph?A.Two brothers were almost drowned in the sea. |
B.Beachgoers happened to meet the two brothers. |
C.The supervising ranger warned them not to swim then. |
D.Surfers barely wore T-shirts and shorts in such weather. |
A.Swimming in a rip current. | B.Surfing on high waves. |
C.Struggling with their arms to shore. | D.Practising diving in the sea. |
A.Andrian York dived back to call the police |
B.Keven Harder played the most important role |
C.Narayan Weibel tried to calm down the brothers |
D.Ortiz-Beck saved the larger and panicked brother |
A.Hardworking and friendly. | B.Kind and humorous. |
C.Devoted and talented. | D.Brave and determined. |
5 . On a foggy Sunday morning, Amrisha Vaish was sleeping soundly at home in Arlington, Virginia. The sound that woke him at 7:15 was so loud that he assumed it came from inside his house. As he got up to
Seeing that, he immediately grabbed buckets of water and ran to the crash site. Up close, the
Instantly, Vaish tried to open the back door, but he failed. He picked up a stone beside the tree and hit the back door. This time, it
A.analyse | B.view | C.examine | D.question |
A.enveloped | B.choked | C.marked | D.rescued |
A.wound | B.damage | C.engine | D.smoke |
A.drawn | B.guarded | C.sent | D.planted |
A.calm | B.curious | C.conscious | D.confident |
A.water | B.driver | C.passengers | D.flames |
A.responded | B.changed | C.worked | D.failed |
A.dirty | B.bad | C.unique | D.normal |
A.slowly | B.entirely | C.simply | D.deadly |
A.relieved | B.touched | C.recognized | D.satisfied |
6 . One Sunday night, a high school student, Rory Campbell, heard noises next door to his home in Bonita Mews, off St Asaph Road, Brockley. When he went outside, he saw his neighbor climbing out of a front window of his second floor flat, which was on fire. He then saw the man covered in black soot(黑灰), shouting for help.
The 15-year-old boy called the fire service and tried to calm the neighbor, who is in his thirties, until firefighters arrived. Rory said, “He was shouting ‘Help me, help me! Get a ladder, get a ladder!’ He was a bit hysterical(歇斯底里的). I didn’t have time to think. I just tried to calm him by telling him the firefighters were on the way.”
Rory was told by the man that the fire had been caused by a candle falling over. Firefighters from New Cross, Peckham, Lewisham and Forest Hill rescued the man by ladder and got the fire under control within minutes of arriving. The man was taken to a south London hospital where he is still recovering from smoke inhalation(吸入).
25% of the flat was damaged by the fire.
Rory, studying music, added, “As the man walked past me, he said ‘Thanks’ and that meant a lot to me. I do feel good because I helped save his life.”
Another neighbor said, “I heard a lot of noise but thought it was coming from the railway opposite. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the man hanging there. The boy next door really did save his life by calling the firefighters.”
1. According to the passage, what caused the fire?A.Rory’s smoking. |
B.Careless cooking. |
C.The gas fire. |
D.A lighted candle. |
A.He lighted the candle. |
B.He calmed his neighbor. |
C.He closed doors to stop the fire. |
D.He held a ladder. |
A.He was rescued by ladder. |
B.The boy carried him out. |
C.He was carried by a firefighter who got into the room. |
D.He got out himself. |
A.much of the flat was destroyed |
B.Rory was sent to hospital for injuries |
C.Rory studied music |
D.Rory led an important part in saving the man’s life |
Four teams of mountaineers set out on a race to conquer (征服) an unclimbed mountain peak in the Himalayas. The Canadian team chose a long, but safe route, while the British, Chinese and Russian teams chose a faster but steep and dangerous route up the mountain.
When night fell, the teams made camp on the mountainside. But the next morning, the sun rapidly rose air temperature and the strong wind caused a heavy snowfall, which led to a terrible avalanche. The disaster struck and some members of the British, Chinese and Russian teams were swept away and killed. But the Canadians didn’t know what had happened.
It was an hour after the disaster and there was no hope of finding any survivors. The leaders of the British, Chinese and Russian teams, met to discuss how to successfully keep all the survivors alive.
Britain | Russia | China | |
Members | 3 | 2 | 2 |
Tents | 1 two-man | None | 1 four-man |
Sleeping bags | 3 | 2 | 2 |
Rope | 25 metres | 50 metres | None |
Food | 1 person for 3 days | 2 people for 4 days | 2 people for 2 days |
Medicine | None | None | None |
The table above was a summary of what they could collect. The leaders made a final decision that they had to find a way to conquer the mountain and put their flags on the peak.
假设你是领队之一,请你联系加拿大领队David,告知你们的遭遇和决定,并向对方求助。内容包括:1. 你们的遭遇及目前的困难;2. 你们的决定及理由;3. 向对方求助。
Dear David,
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Steve
8 . High-Wire Act
Mickey Wilson had been on the mountain only a few seconds when he heard the scream. Wilson, 28 years old, had just gotten off the cable car (索道缆车) at the Arapahoe Basin Ski Area in Keystone, Colorado, along with his friends Billy Simmons and Hans Mueller. Their friend Richard had been on the cable car ahead of them, but when the men reached the top of the lift, he had disappeared. The men walked toward the source of the scream and found skiers stopped on the slope, pointing to the cable car. And then the friends screamed too.
“Oh, Richard!” yelled Mueller.
When Richard had tried to jump off the cable car, his backpack had been caught in the chair, which then dragged him back down the hill. In the process, the backpack belt twisted around his neck, making him breathless. Now Richard’s body was swinging four feet above the snow. The cable car operator had quickly stopped it, and the friends kicked off their skis and ran toward the scene. They made a human pyramid to try to reach Richard, but the unconscious man was too far off the ground. With the clock ticking, Wilson ran to the ladder of a nearby lift tower. Scared skiers watched as he struggled the 25 feet. After he reached the top, Wilson’s first challenge was to climb onto the two-inch steel cable that held the chairs. He handled the balance and height bravely, but he knew he could not walk on the cable. Therefore, he calmed down and sat over it and then used his hands to pull himself to Richard quickly. Wilson’s greatest fear wasn’t that he’d fall, but that he wouldn’t reach Richard. “This was life or death,” he said.
When he reached Richard’s chair, Wilson swung a leg over the cable and attempted to drop down onto it. But as he did that, his jacket caught on the movable footrest, which was in the up position. The footrest began to slide down, with Wilson attached. But before that could happen, he managed to free himself and reached Richard.
Fortunately, the ski patrol (巡查) had gathered below and performed emergency treatment on Richard, who had been hanging for about five minutes, then skied him down to an ambulance.
That night, Richard called from the hospital to express his thanks to Wilson, his other friends and the workers at the Arapahoe Basin Ski Area.
1. What happened to Richard when he tried to jump off the cable car?A.He was sick and became unconscious. |
B.He left his skis which stopped the cable car. |
C.He was too afraid to move forward in the cable car. |
D.He was caught by the neck, hanging down the cable. |
A.People worked together and saved him. |
B.Wilson climbed on the cable and saved him. |
C.The ski patrol got him down and treated him. |
D.Skiers treated him and carried him to the hospital. |
A.the rescue process was dangerous |
B.something was wrong with the cable car |
C.Wilson could manage the process very well |
D.the operator of the cable car ignored his duty |
A.it is very dangerous to go skiing |
B.he that climbs high often falls heavily |
C.bravery and calm can help you make a difference |
D.a person with a great talent always has great will-power |
9 . It was late, about 10:15 p.m., when Janice Esposito arrived at the Bellport train station; she jumped into her Honda Odyssey and began the 20-minute drive home to her husband and seven-year-old son. She’d just returned from visiting her mother and had traveled the route many times before. She practically
As it happened, Pete DiPinto was getting ready for
The first car he came upon, 2,000 feet from his front yard, was the one that had
“The gates were starting to come down,” he told Newsday. “I see the headlight of the train.” DiPinto ran quickly to Esposito’s minivan and knocked on the driver’s side window. She
But this one had a twist. “Last night,” South Country Ambulance chief Greg Miglino told CBS New York, “the
A.drove | B.walked | C.rode | D.hiked |
A.allowing | B.forcing | C.ordering | D.reminding |
A.sat | B.stood | C.hid | D.waited |
A.action | B.noise | C.impact | D.bomb |
A.class | B.work | C.dinner | D.bed |
A.doctor | B.driver | C.firefighter | D.engineer |
A.stopped | B.troubled | C.intended | D.wanted |
A.duty | B.time | C.target | D.schedule |
A.warned | B.caught | C.hit | D.followed |
A.observed | B.spotted | C.realized | D.predicted |
A.train | B.truck | C.car | D.ambulance |
A.yet | B.just | C.still | D.even |
A.yards | B.stations | C.bridges | D.tracks |
A.belt | B.key | C.bell | D.handle |
A.unlocked | B.jammed | C.open | D.gone |
A.bag | B.door | C.book | D.box |
A.scared | B.ignored | C.trapped | D.defeated |
A.carried | B.rushed | C.guided | D.pulled |
A.return | B.work | C.safety | D.life |
A.police | B.actor | C.reporter | D.hero |
Basketball hero Kobe Bryant's death has drawn an outpouring of shock and sadness across China. Basketball fans in China are now sad after learning that the former Los Angeles Lakers' 18-time NBA All Star had died at the age of 41 in a helicopter crash