1 . Every Christmas, the firm I worked for raised money for disadvantaged kids. I’d dress up as Santa and ______ out with some colleagues to deliver gifts. Some years ago, we were returning and ______ right in front of the lights as they turned red.

I became aware of a car coming up behind us at speed. It ran ______ another vehicle and then they both came to a stop. I asked my workmates to ______ the police and fire department. In order not to put others at risk, I turned my truck sideways(向旁边) to block the traffic. Then I jumped out and ran to the cars. There was a loud bang and flames shooting from one car’s front. As a volunteer ______ , I knew the car’s battery had ______ and that there was no time to lose. Still wearing my costume, I ______ to tear the door open and walked the driver over to the safety of my truck.

Other than some cuts, he was fine. I left him with my workmates and went to check on the driver of the other car. ______ , he was also unhurt. Then I headed back to direct traffic around the ______ vehicle until the emergency services arrived. The first two police officers on the ______ laughed as they jumped out of their car. “What’s happened here, Santa? OK, you probably have ______ to make,” one of them said. “We will ______ from here.”

Weeks after the accident, I agreed to meet the guy I’d ______ from the car in a local park, where he was sitting with a girl, his daughter, Amber. It ______ out that she had been estranged(疏远的) from her mum and dad, but ______ home after the accident. What’s more, she was the girlfriend of Jordan, my son.

4 . The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC)confirmed on Monday that a Boeing 737 passenger plane with 132 aboard crashed in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The CAAC has activated an emergency mechanism and sent a working group to the scene.

The crash site of the Chinese passenger plane was located at Molang Village, Langnan Town in Tengxian County, Wuzhou City in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, according to the local emergency department.

The Wuzhou City Fire Rescue Detachment immediately dispatched 23 fire trucks and 117 fire rescue personnel to the site. The Guangxi Fire Rescue Corps launched an emergency plan and reinforced 538 fire rescue personnel from nearby detachments for further help.

The forest fire bureau has deployed 450 firefighters stationed in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, and Guilin in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region to the scene.

China Eastern Airlines has grounded all Boeing 737-800 aircraft after the crash, company officials said.

Rescuers are making all-out efforts to retrieve (检索、找回) the black boxes of a passenger plane with 132 people aboard that crashed in South China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region Monday afternoon, an official with the Civil Aviation Administration of China said Tuesday night.

The plane was severely damaged and the investigation is very difficult, Zhu Tao, head of CAAC aviation safety office, told a press briefing.

At present, the investigation team is carrying out a full search in accordance with the procedures, with rescuers exploring the crash site and going all out to search the black boxes, Zhu said.

The team is also thoroughly investigating other aspects, including flight, maintenance, air traffic control, meteorology (气象学), aircraft design and manufacturing, Zhu said.

Based on known information, the authorities do not yet have a clear clue to the cause of the passenger plane crash, the official said.

Some years ago, a ship headed for China. All the passengers boarded the ship, including an officer, his wife, their only child—a little boy five years old, and a large Newfoundland dog called Bobby. Everybody in the ship liked Bobby, he was so good - tempered and playful, but the boy was the dog’s constant playmate. He was a happy little guy, and the two are so fond of each other.

One evening while the little boy and the dog were playing together, the ship shook suddenly, and splash (扑通一声) went the child into the sea!

A cry was raised, “A hand over! A hand over!” and the brave dog jumped over the side of the ship, and swam towards the boy.

The little boy’s father, half crazy, jumped with others into a small boat; but it was too dark to see far before them. All gave the child up for lost.

At last they heard a splash on the left side of the ship. “Pull on, quick!” cried the father. The boat was turned, the men pulled with all their strength, and in a moment brave Bobby was alongside, holding up the child in his mouth! Joy! Joy! Joy!

The boat was rowed back to the ship; the half-drowned (差点淹死的) boy soon got better; the parents were delighted; and brave Bobby was caressed (抚摸) by all.

At the Cape-of-Good-Hope, the passengers were to be landed. The officer going to the boat, with his wife and child; but he told the sailors to hold the Newfoundland dog tight by the collar till the boat was some distance from the ship. “You will then see,” said he, “what a strong swimmer he is.”

Brave Bobby pulled again and again to get loose, but all failed; for they held him till the boat was near the shore. But as soon as the officer gave the signal, the dog was set free, and away he went into the sea to chase after (追赶) his masters.

Suddenly the poor animal set up a shrill howl, and threw himself out of the water.

Just at that moment the shark, which had got very close to the dog, turned on his back and opened his frightening mouth!

7 . Two students were eager to get off their bus at the end of the school day when their driver saved them from a_________tragic(悲惨的) accident in East Syracuse,New York,on February 3.

Jay Leo, who has been driving a school bus for 28 years, told Newsweek that he saw a_________car behind the bus as he was stopping at the children’s house with his red lights_________.

The car_________the open bus door and kept going. Leo stopped the children from going down the stairs by holding out his arm to stop them, saying, “Woah, woah.”

Afterward, the two students Lily and her younger brother Lincoln—_________walked off the bus when Leo saw the road was_________“That’s why you check your step when you get off the bus,” Leo said as they got off. “Check your steps, kids. Have a good_________.”

The children’s mom, Jennifer Blowey, saw the_________from her window. She thanked Leo for his quick_________, posting on the Internet: “__________, my children were not hurt but this could have ended so terribly ! Pay attention while driving and STOP for buses!”

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the school bus is the safest means of__________on the road. However, Leo said that after nearly thirty years of driving a school bus, he knew that close calls happen “more than everybody thinks.” Students are often__________to get home and see their parents, he said, and no matter__________often he reminds them of safetysteps, they are__________to forget those steps in their rush from the bus to the house. “People need to pay more attention to the most valuable treasure we transport,” he said. “That’s a__________.”

8 . 200,000 miles from Earth, the crew (机组成员) of the third manned mission (飞行任务) to the Moon faced an astronaut’s worst nightmare: an explosion on the spacecraft. It’s what happened in the Oscar-winning film Apollo 13, but it’s also a true story.

The lift-off of Apollo 13 took place on 11th April 1970. Two days into the mission, the three-man crew were in big trouble. They had been carrying out routine checks when there was a loud bang. Warning lights were starting to flash. Looking out into space, they could see a trail of gas — the spacecraft was leaking (漏) oxygen. They sent out a short message to the scientists back on Earth: “Houston, we’ve had a problem here.” At first, they thought that a meteor (流星) had hit them, but they later found out that a short circuit (短路) had caused an oxygen container to explode. Whatever the cause, they knew there was no time to lose. Their electricity supply in the command module (指令舱) depended on that oxygen and pretty soon they would run out of both.

The only solution was to move into the lunar module — the section of the spacecraft that would have landed on the Moon. Now though, they were using it as a kind of lifeboat. With its own power supply, oxygen and water, the three men could survive in the lunar module and return to Earth. There was another problem though. In an enclosed space like a lunar module, the carbon dioxide the crew was breathing out was dangerous. The equipment to clear the air of carbon dioxide was only built for two people. Now it had to deal with three. Amazingly, the crew managed to build an adapter out of materials onboard to reduce the carbon dioxide to a safe level.

There was one final obstacle. The lunar module wasn’t strong enough to reenter Earth’s atmosphere so the crew had to go back into the damaged command module. To everyone’s relief, the crew of Apollo 13 arrived safely in the South Pacific Ocean on April 17th. Although the crew didn’t land on the Moon, NASA still considered the mission a success.