2 . 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.

3 . 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.”

4 . 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 _______ carefully, he heard another sound, this one coming most definitely from outside. Looking out of his bedroom window, he noticed a tree _______ in smoke about 500 yards away. A car was wrapped by smoke around the tree’s base, and its engine was on fire.

Seeing that, he immediately grabbed buckets of water and ran to the crash site. Up close, the _______ looked worse. The car was split nearly in two, and the tree was where the driver’s seat ought to have been, as if _______ there. He thought that no one could have survived this crash, and yet there was 15-year-old Quintin Thompson, still _______ with his terrified face pressed against the driver’s side window, in visible pain. Vaish tried putting out the fire with his buckets of water yet with no success. When the   _______ got into the front seats, he realized he had to get the boy out of there as soon as possible.

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 _______. The back door was opened and Vaish crawled in. Thompson was struggling to get free when Vaish noticed how _______ his legs were. Using a pocketknife, Vaish sawed through Thompson’s seat belt. Now that Thompson was free of restraints (束缚), Vaish pulled him out of a window, and then dragged him to safety before the car was _______ surrounded by flames. Vaish called an ambulance as Thompson suffered severely. Soon, the doctors arrived and Vaish felt ________.

﹡After the fire, what now?

Bishop Patrick Chauvet, Notre Dame (巴黎圣母院)’s manager, admitted that the famous building would close for “five to six years” as he spoke with local business owners Wednesday. He added that it was unclear what the church’s 67 employees would be doing in the future. French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that he wanted the church rebuilt in five years.

﹡What are the new rules?

While tourists can’t go inside the site itself, the area still may prove popular to those paying their respects. Visitors are welcome to write messages of support in both the main and local city halls.

The island that houses the church has been closed and the people there have been evacuated since the fire. Paris businessmen who depend on Notre Dame tourism are worried about the church’s future as well as their own.

﹡_________________________

It’s known that spring is a busy time for tourists in Paris. The travel company recommends people visit other places, like the Basilique Saint-Denis, the Sacre-Coeur and so on. Those who tend to observe church services during Holy Week are advised to go to Saint-Eustache.

﹡Looking ahead to rebuilding

It seems rebuilding can begin, since firefighters put out the fire early Tuesday, more than 12 hours after nearly 400 firefighters had battled the flames that changed the city’s skyline. Two policemen and one firefighter were not badly injured, according to the Paris Fire Service.

A large campaign to raise money already is underway to rebuild the church. Up to Wednesday, donations came to $1 billion.

6 . Alexis, 17, sat quietly in the passenger seat of her dad’s car. She let her eyes lazily scan, the landscape for wildlife. Then a deer came into view about 200 yards in front of them. “Dad, there’s a deer there!” Alexis said. It was a male deer with sharp sntlers(角) on each side of its head.

As the car moved closer, Alexis saw that the deer’s head was bent toward the ground. Then she heard a scream and saw an arm fly up near the deer’s head. Alexis realized the deer was attacking a woman. Sue, a 44-year-old mother, had been out for her morning run. The deer followed her and edged closer. “I knew I was in trouble,” Sue says. She went to pick up a stick for self-defense, and the deer charged. It lifted her with its antlers and threw her into the air. Sue could feel blood flew down her leg. Within seconds, the deer had pushed her off the road.

When Alexis and her father pulled up, the deer was throwing Sue like a doll. Alexis looked into the woman’s terrified eyes, and before her father had even stopped the car, the teenager jumped quickly out of the car and ran toward the deer. “I was kicking it to get its attention,” she says. Then her father, who had followed his daughter, pushed the deer away from the women.

Alexis helped Sue into the car, and then applied a piece of cloth to Sue’s injured leg. “We’re going to get you to a hospital,” Alexis said. Then she heard her father shout loudly. He had been knocked to the ground. Alexis took hold of a hammer from the car and ran to where her father lay on his back. She beat the deer’s head and neck, but the blows didn’t scare it away. “I was losing faith,” she says. “A couple more strikes, Alexis,” said her father. “You can do it.” Turning the hammer around, Alexis closed her eyes and beat the deer’s neck with all her strength. When she opened her eyes, the deer was running away. Alexis got in the driver’s seat and sped toward the nearest hospital.

After Sue was treated, she tearfully thanked her rescuers. “You expect a teenage girl to get on the phone and call for help,” she says, “not to beat up a deer.”

7 . “I wish we hadn’t come on this trip!” Jeff’s voice echoed across the narrow canyon （峡谷）. His father stopped, breathing heavily. “This is hard on you, but you’ve got to come through with courage!” He gently placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Now, I don’t know if I can make it without stopping every so often. You’re young, but you’re strong and fast. Do you remember the way back from here to the road, if you had to go alone?”

Jeff flashed back to the painful scene of Mark, his seventeen-year-old brother at their campsite. He was bitten by a snake yesterday. This morning he couldn’t move, and the pain got worse. He needed medical attention right away. They had left their phone in the car, and it must have been out of power by then. Leaving Mark at the campsite and seeking help was their only choice.

“Jeff, could you do it?”

Jeff looked to the end of the canyon, several miles away. He nodded and a plan began to take hold in his mind. “What is the name of that little town we stopped, Dad??” There must be a hospital there.

“Flint. We parked at the side of the road a few miles out of Flint.”

Jeff nodded. Then they continued climbing. Stone by stone, they made their way up the canyon. Gradually, Jeff’s father grew smaller and smaller in the distance. Jeff waved to him and then climbed toward the road. Two hours later, he finally reached the road and struggled toward the town, almost exhausted.

“Can’t stop.” He thought. “Mark’s in big trouble. Keep going.” Suddenly, he saw a truck heading toward him. “Hey, mister!” He shouted, waving both arms. He began to jog toward the truck, and then broke into a full-speed run.

His chest was burning with every breath when the truck driver stopped by him. Jeff explained breathlessly. The driver reached for his cellphone as soon as he heard about Mark. “Better get the helicopter in there,” he said immediately. But Jeff wasn’t sure about that because everything got unclear and then went black and quiet.

Hours later, Jeff opened his eyes to find his father on a chair nearby. “You’re a hero, son,” his father said with a smile. “You had the helicopter sent into the canyon after Mark. I can’t tell you how happy I was when I saw it overhead. They got him to the hospital. He’s going to be fine soon. I’m so proud of you!”