65-year-old Mr. Fairfax had retired from teaching. He was very interested in adventure. This time he made an adventure on a sparsely (稀少地) populated land. In the cold winter, he tried a new place and forgot to bring his cell phone, the only time on the trip. He trekked (艰苦跋涉) more than half an mile with two dogs to a harvested wheat field.

With his dark staring eyes at the horizon in expectation of another rabbit, Mr. Fairfax stepped on the thin snow on a canal. Suddenly, it collapsed (坍塌) and dropped him four feet to the bottom.

Realizing that he was in trouble and was going to hurt himself, Mr. Fairfax was suddenly picking up a lot of speed. His left leg hit first, and he lay on his side to reach for his shotgun, unloaded it and used it as a crutch (拐杖). He spent an hour and a half climbing the canal but slipped and slid back down when he was partly up. This time, one of his feet got fixed between two rocks. Mr. Fairfax told himself that if he didn’t get himself out of that canal, he wasn’t going to have a very good night.

Mr. Fairfax walked his foot free and climbed more slowly and cautiously out of the canal. He immediately realized the difficulty of the task before him. The accident occurred about 2 p.m., and it was nearing 5 p.m. with the road far away as the sun was setting.

Mr. Fairfax focused on crawling to safety. Even with his gun supporting him, hopping was impractical. Instead, he sat down and pushed himself backward less than 40 inches at a time with his good leg. He was determined and sure that he must hold on. He was in exhaustion and had more frequent breaks. Temperatures dropped overnight, and his gloves and boots got wet. His hands and feet soon were completely numb.

Mr. Fairfax’s dogs had been playing in the field and eventually came up to him.

However, gleams (微光) of daylight remained — Mr. Fairfax saw the sixth car.

6 . I was recently involved in a bad traffic accident. I was knocked unconscious by the impact so I don’t __ anything about the accident. My first memory is being given oxygen as the doctors and nurses tried to ____ me back to life.

As I lay in the emergency room, I found myself ____ my life and thanking God that I was still __. The good news is that nobody else was __.

Since that day, the physical recovery has been __ but not as tough as the emotional recovery. I've learned a lot about myself and about what really ____ in this world. Things that are really important are not“things”. I’m not invincible(无敌的)and I cannot ____ everything that happens in my life. I need to be better at ____ the things that come into my way that I didn’t plan for. As someone who was always in a ____，it taught me to slow down a little. I have learned to live each day honestly and ____.

___ I continue to heal physically and emotionally，I have a different opinion on ____ . When tragedy strikes，you can either let it ____ your spirit，or use it as an opportunity to grow. I have chosen to ____ from it.

Mr. Taylor checked again: water, food, bandage, medicines, a compass, and a map wrapped in plastic... Bingo! He put all that he prepared for the coming hiking into his backpack.

Mr. Taylor was fond of hiking, this time in particular, for it was the first time for him to hike with his two sons, Harry and Joel. Joel liked reading books about explorers and Harry joined the hiking club in his school this term. “It will be an unforgettable experience, definitely.” he whispered to himself, unconsciously a smile spreading over his face.

Harry and Joel, however, argued for the first three miles of their hiking trip. Harry accused Joel of wearing smelly old shoes. Joel blamed Harry for using all of the bug spray (喷雾防虫剂). Harry told Joel he smelled terrible. Joel called Harry a coward (懦夫).

“Will the two of you just quiet down and enjoy our hike together?” their father said. “You’re missing all of the beautiful scenery!”

It was true. Neither Joel nor Harry had taken notice of the bear their father had spied at the start of their trip. They hadn’t looked up at the eagle he pointed out overhead. Worst of all, they hadn’t paid any attention to the turns and twists along the way while they continued their argument.

“Joel threw a stick at me!” Harry screamed. “That’s not true!” Joel shouted back.

Mr. Taylor could no longer contain his anger. “And both of you need to stop arguing!” he erupted. As he turned to face them, his left foot caught on a root. He slipped backward and down muddy bank, falling into the river that ran alongside the path.

Harry and Joel raced to their father’s assistance. They helped him up out of the water, and then dragged his wet backpack up onto land.

Fortunately, their wet-through father found himself just slightly injured.

But his glasses came off when he fell in the water.

“Just calm down.” Mr. Taylor shouted, “Without my glasses, we need to work together to find our way.

8 . The sound that woke Damian Languell at 8:15 in the morning was so loud he assumed it came from inside his house in Wade, Maine. As he got up to investigate, he heard another sound, this one coming most definitely from outside. Looking out of his bedroom window, he noticed a tree enveloped in smoke about 500 yards away. A car wrapped around the tree's base, its engine on fire.

Grabbing buckets of water, he and his wife ran to the crash site. Up close, the accident looked worse. The car was split nearly in two, and the tree was where the driver's seat ought to have been, as if planted there. No one should have survived this crash, and yet there was 20- year-old Quintin Thompson, his terrified face pressed against the driver's side window, in visible pain.

Languell tried putting out the fire with his buckets of water but failed. When the flames got into the front seats, he knew he had to get the young man out. So Languell opened the car's back door and climbed in. Using a pocket knife he'd brought with him, he cut through Thompson's seat belt. Now that Thompson was free, Languell pulled him out, and dragged him to safety before the entire car was in flames.

It is empathy that drove Languell to help, just as he said, "My heart goes out to Thompson. When you are that close to that level of hurt, you feel it so directly." For his heroic action, Languell was added to the list of real-life heroes changing the world.