3 . No visit to the beautiful city of Paris, France is complete without a visit to the Notre Dame de Paris. The cathedral, built from 1163 to 1345, is one of the world's best examples of ancient architecture. It lies in the center of Paris, along the Seine River. French writer Victor Hugo used it as the setting of his famous story The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Unfortunately, on April 15, 2019. the old cathedral was covered in a big flame.

The initial fire alert sounded at 6:20 pm local time. Church officials quickly evacuated the tourists inside. As it turned out, they made the right decision when the second alarm went off twenty-three minutes later at 6:43 pm, the flames were visible. Thousands of passers-by watched in horror as the fire began destroying Notre Dame's rooftop. It took hundreds of firefighters, who worked through the night, over 12 hours to put out the fire. By the time the fire was fully contained in the early hours of Tuesday, April 16. 2019, most of the cathedral's ceiling, as well as its wooden spire — which had proudly stood 93 meters above the root for centuries — had collapsed.

Fortunately, thanks to quick action by Paris firefighters, the cathedral's most sacred relic — the Crown of Thorns — was safely transported after the fire broke out. Church officials and firefighters formed a human chain to remove other priceless treasures, such as artworks and furnishings, and load them onto waiting police cars. The cathedral's famous 18th-century organ, which boasts more than 8.000 pipes, also survived the disaster.

The tire is believed to be caused by the cathedral's ongoing repair work. Meanwhile donations to help restore the structure are pouring in worldwide at an unprecedented rate, reaching almost$ 1 billion within just two days after the fire. French President Emmanuel Macron described the fire as a “terrible tragedy”, but added, “the worst had been avoided”. Macron has promised that the French people will “rebuild the cathedral together”. “Notre Dame is ours, it's our literature, and it's our imagery. We will rebuild it. This is probably part of the French destiny, and we will finish it in the next five years.” Macron said, “Paris without Notre Dame? Madness.” While Macron is optimistic that the cathedral will be ready to welcome visitors by the Paris 2024. Summer Olympics, experts believe it will take a lot longer to restore the old structure.

I boarded a small plane together with my sister and 42 other passengers. While flying over the mountains, the plane     1     (encounter) violent airflow. Losing control suddenly, it hit an unknown mountain peak. The impact of the crash claimed the lives of a few passengers immediately, leaving many injured including my sister.

Adding a slight chance of being found out, we waited in the open, as opposed to waiting in the plane,     2     it was freezing cold. At night, we slept side by side to keep ourselves warm and melted snow into water. We knew our food couldn’t last us long, sticking to the hope that we     3     (rescue) soon.

We knew from radio that the outside world     4     (try) to look for the missing aircraft. However, the aircraft was white and blended in with the snow, making it impossible to be seen from the sky. Later, our hope was dead when we found out via our radio that the rescue effort ended.

Now climbing over the mountains ourselves to search for help seemed to be our only chance of survival.     5     the crash site was an awful place, with urine (尿) everywhere and smelling of death, I still wished to stay there. But my sister would give in to her injuries soon     6     we were not rescued. Thus, together with two other people, Canessa and Vizintin, I decided to walk through the icy wilderness for help. Carrying some food and water, the three climbers started our journey. If we had known anything about climbing, we would have realized that we were already finished. The mountain we were about to challenge was one with slopes so steep     7     it would scare away a team of expert climbers. Our ignorance provided our only chance.

We endured exhaustion and starvation and we had reached the top.

To our horror, we found nothing. Disappointed, we were about to give up hope     8     I spotted a valley at the base of the mountain and again we started making our way down the mountain.

Eventually, at the bottom of the mountain we were helped by a local farmer who called the police for help. I then     9     (guide) the rescue team via a helicopter to the crash site. Finally, after we had endured nineteen cruel days, the world found out that there were 16 survivors who     10     (cheat) death despite the odds (困难).

In South Korea, smartphone cases come with rings tied on the back of the mobile phones to prevent clumsy owners from dropping them. This makes people look like they literally are     1     to their phones. In many of Seoul’s most Instagrammable coffee shops, couples on dates spend     2     more time looking at their screens than at each other. The results go beyond the potentially damaging consequences this may hold for romance.

Walk around the streets of Seoul or any other South Korean city, and there is a real risk of bumping into people whose eyes are     3     to their smartphone screens. Insurers     4     that around 370 traffic accidents annually are cause by pedestrains using smartphones. That figure does not include those who bump into lamp posts and the like while watching the latest cat videos.

The government     5     tried to fight the “smombie” (a combination of “smartphone” and “zombie”) epidemic (传染病) by distributing hundreds of stickers around cities appealing to people to “be safe” and to look up. This seems to have had little effect, so the South Korean-capital has recently     6     the stickers with sturdier (结实的) plastic boards.

Instead of appealing to people’s good     7    , the authorities have therefore tried to save them from being run over. Early last year, they began to     8     with floor-level traffic lights in smombie hotspots in central Seoul. Since then, the trail has been     9     around and beyond the capital. For the moment, the government is     10     old-fashioned eye-level pedestrian lights as well. But in the future, the way to look at a South Korean crossroads may be down.