I am an outdoor lover and I’ve made it a routine to explore different regions annually with a friend during our vacation. This year, in addition to beauty of nature, I’ve experienced something more.

It was late afternoon. A few hours before sunset, Darcy and I decided to hike to Acomat Falls, hidden in the rainforest.

Expecting to spend no more than an hour at the falls, we wore T-shirts and swimsuits and hadn’t told anyone where we were going. After crossing the wide river at a shallow spot and walking upstream about 100 yards, we reached the falls at around 4 pm. We dived into the green pool and floated on our backs, amazed at the canyon(峡谷) walls.

By 4:30, Darcy reminded me that we needed to head back to the car before dark, but I was waist-deep in the river trying to photograph the falls, the hanging vines(葡萄藤), and the dreaminess of the place. Darcy had to wait on a stone. I finally took a good photo—and then she screamed.

With a crack like thunder, a violent wall of water rushed over the falls, turning the dreamy swimming pool into a churning(旋涡的) monster. Flash flood! I jumped out of the river seconds before the flood crashed over the spot where I’d just been standing. Darcy climbed barefoot off toward higher ground. Darcy and I climbed up the canyon on all fours, grabbing vines to pull ourselves up. I looked over my shoulder and saw that the water had risen 20 feet in less than a minute.

Darcy led us through the dense bush, prickly trees, and ankle-deep mud. After we’d climbed 200 feet, we stopped to catch our breath. Now we had a different problem: The road was on the other side of the swollen river. We were stuck in the forested mountain.

We had no rain jackets and were exhausted from the climb. Darcy asked if I had my phone. It was soaking wet, but still blinked on. No service. We decided to move toward higher ground to get a better signal. It was almost dark. For a moment, I got through, and I heard the faint voice of Grace, our rental host. She said she’d call for help. Then the phone went silent—no signal again.

It seemed that we were in a desperate situation.

Trapped there, we wondered whether and how rescuers could find us.

4 . New York factories in the early 1900s were busy and dangerous places to work. Most factories were housed in brick buildings that were overly hot in the summer and extremely cold in the winter. Workers at the time often worked more than 12 hours each day, receiving few breaks and no overtime pay. The floors were crowded with people and equipment, and the doors were often locked to prevent employees from leaving early. In fact, most factory owners and managers mistreated those who asked for changes or directly fired them. The people in charge believed that they did not owe anything more than a paycheck to their workers.

Everything changed when a fire broke out at the Triangle shirtwaist factory in 1911. During that tragic event, about a quarter of the workers (mostly young immigrant women) lost their lives. The factory workers, located on the ninth floor of the building, could not get the door open. The fire escape led only to flames below. The fire truck ladders were not long enough, nor were the water hoses (水管). Fire nets were inadequate.

After the fire, people marched and protested in order to change conditions in factories. Many large protests took place in New York. Eventually, politicians took up the cause, and legislators (立法者) passed workplace laws regulating child labor and the number of workers allowed on a floor. They also called for sprinkler systems (自动喷水系统) to be placed in all factories. The rights of workers were important and valuable.

Today, working in a factory is still a demanding, difficult, and often dangerous job. The victims of the Triangle shirtwaist factory did not die in vain, however. Because of their experience, the workplace was forever changed for the better.

5 . 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 _______ on autopilot: a left onto Station Road, then a left on Montauk Highway, and then—wham! Out of nowhere a car T-boned Esposito’s minivan, _______ her to move backward some 100 feet onto the railroad tracks. She _______ in the minivan, bruised (撞伤) but mostly just knocked out by the _________ and the airbags.

As it happened, Pete DiPinto was getting ready for _______. He’d just closed his book   and was getting under the covers when he heard the sound of metal on metal and breaking glass coming from not far outside his bedroom window. A volunteer_______and retired teacher, DiPinto, 64, never _______to think. He grabbed a flashlight and, still dressed in his pajamas   (睡衣), ran out the door. “Any firefighter would have done what I did,” he told Newsday. “We’re always on_______.”

The first car he came upon, 2,000 feet from his front yard, was the one that had _______Esposito. Once DiPinto concluded the driver was OK, he looked around and __________Esposito’s minivan positioned on the railroad tracks. And then he heard a terrible sound: the bells signaling an oncoming __________.

“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 __________ looked at him, her eyes unfocused. “I don’t know where I am,” she said. She     seemed unhurt. “Honey, you’re on the railroad __________,” DiPinto shouted. “We have to get   you off right now!” He pulled hard on the __________, but the door was crashed in and __________. The   heavy diesel train, traveling at 65 miles per hour, was moving fast toward them. DiPinto ran to the passenger side and threw open the __________. “Please, don’t let her be __________,” he thought.     He pushed aside the deflating (瘪了的) airbags, grabbed Esposito’s arms, and__________her toward him across the passenger seat until he could help her out and quickly get her to ____________ behind a signal box a few feet away. Within six seconds, he estimated, the train crashed into the minivan. “It was like a Hollywood movie,” DiPinto told reporters the next day.

But this one had a twist. “Last night,” South Country Ambulance chief Greg Miglino told CBS New York, “the__________ arrived in pajamas, not in a fire truck.”

6 . An abandoned car in Chicago worth about $600 has been issued more than $100, 000 in parking tickets (罚单) over the past three years. Now Jennifer Fitzgerald, 31, is stuck with the bill but says the 1999 Chevy Monte Carlo actually belongs to an ex-boyfriend who registered   (登记注册) the car in her name without informing her.

The Expired Meter ( 停车计时器) reports that from May 23, 2009 to April 30, 2012, the Chicago Department of Finance (DOF) issued 678 tickets against the car, totaling $105, 761.80. It set a Chicago record both for the total number and amount of parking fines issued. In fact, it blew past the previous record holder, which was $65,000 from about 400 tickets.

But Fitzgerald says she doesn’t owe the city a dime (10 分硬币) and has filed a lawsuit (诉讼 ) in Cook County Circuit Court against the city of Chicago, United Airlines and the ex-boyfriend. Fitzgerald has two main arguments in her case. First, she says her ex-boyfriend, Brandon Preveau, is the actual owner of the car, having bought it from her uncle for $600 in 2008. In fact, Brandon paid for the car’s title (所有权), registration and insurance, but it was registered in Fitzgerald’s name. “Brandon used his 2007 income tax refund ( 退 款 ) to pay Patrick $600 for the car,” reads Fitzgerald’s complaint. “For reasons not recalled by Patrick, however, Patrick signed the title to the car over to Fitzgerald.”

Second, Fitzgerald’s lawyer is arguing that the city should have simply towed (拖走) the car after 30 days from O’Hare Airport, where it was parked and where Brandon worked at the time. According to Fitzgerald’s complaint, on or before November 17, 2009, Brandon drove the car into the parking lot and never drove it out again. And as the Expired Meter reports, Chicago law does state exactly that an abandoned vehicle is to be towed 30 days after being illegally parked.

7 . It was reported last week that developers could take photos from Apple mobile and Google Android devices without the phone owners knowing that the pictures were being taken. In Apple’s case, developers can also obtain the location information for each photo.

Senator(参议员) Charles Schumer said in a telephone interview that his office had spoken with officials at both Apple and Google on Monday. “We asked them if they could find a way on their own to prevent Apple from having access to private(私人的) information,” Mr. Schumer said. “They were friendly and open to the idea that this ought to be changed.”

On Sunday, Mr. Schumer said that he planned to send a letter to the Federal Trade Commission asking the agency to investigate Apple and Google after the privacy concerns came to light. Claudia Bourne Farrell, an F.T.C. spokeswoman, said the agency had received the letter but she could not comment further.

“It worries people to think that one’s personal photos, address book, and who knows what else can be obtained and even posted online without permission,” Mr. Schumer wrote in his letter to the F.T.C. “If the technology exists to open the door to this kind of privacy invasion（侵犯）, then surely technology exists to close it, and that’s exactly what must happen.”

Mr. Schumer said if Apple and Google could not come to an agreement to fix the problem, then he would be forced to take the issue further.

He said other companies had been willing to work with his office to deal with problems. “I’m optimistic that we can get this changed without any regulation,” he said. “If it’s not changed, then we’ll turn to the F.T.C., and if that doesn’t work then we’ll consider law ways.”

The F.T.C. has warned companies to try to be more vigilant(警醒的) in their efforts to protect consumers when it comes to privacy.