When Ruth was sixty-eight years old, she visited her daughter Judy and teenage granddaughter Marcy in California. They headed for their cabin, moving forty miles up and down the mountains in their car,along a narrow one-lane road that wound terrifyingly close to cliffs (悬崖).

After dinner, Marcy announced the water tank was low and that she would drive the car down to the pump and get water. Ruth was nervous about her young granddaughter driving down the narrow road by herself, but Judy reminded her that Marcy had been driving vehicles up there roads for many years

“Just be careful, Marcy”, her mother warned. “They’ve had a drought up here and the road along the cliff is pretty shaky. Be sure to hug the mountain side.”

Ruth and Judy watched Marcy from the big window where they could see the road winding down the mountainside. Fifteen minutes later, Judy was still watching when suddenly she screamed,”Oh no! She went over the cliff, Momma! The car and Marcy--they went over! We have to help her!Come on!”

Judy took off running desperately. Grabbing a three-foot-long walking stick against the cabin door, Ruth ran behind her, but Judy was quickly out of sight after the first turn in the road. Breathing hard, Ruth ran on and on, trying to catch up with her daughter. It was getting harder and harder to see anything at dusk.

Suddenly she stopped, not knowing where she was.”Marcy!Judy!”she shouted.

A faint voice .”Momma!”It was Judy.

Ruth screamed into the darkness “Judy,where are you?” Off to her right and down the cliff she heard, “Down here,Mother!Don’t come near the edge! I slipped on loose rocks and fell over. I’m down about ten feet.”

“Oh dear! Judy, what can I do?”

“Just stay back, Momma!”

Facing the situation, Ruth felt her heart was pounding, and chest pains almost took her breath away. She started to sob, totally at a loss what to do.

At that moment, Ruth glimpsed at the walking stick, an idea striking her.

Ruth held her close and said anxiously. “Judy. We have to get help for Marcy!”

Snow began to fall across the Apennines Mountain in January and lasted for days. From his home in the suburbs, Matrone watched the weather with concern. He and his wife, Cicioni, had planned an overnight getaway to the hotel halfway up the mountain. But now he wondered whether they should go. After phoning the hotel, they decided to make the trip. When they finally arrived six hours later, they were both cold and exhausted. They checked into their room and went to bed early.

As they awoke the next day, they discovered that their difficulty had worsened overnight. The cars in the parking lot were invisible. The phone and power lines were down. Many people were digging their cars.

With a dozen vehicles freed by noon, the guests set off down the driveway. But when they reached the main road, the path was blocked by a six-foot-high wall of snow. Matrone climbed out of his car and there was no road in sight. “We're trapped! he told his wife. So they had no choice but to make their way back to the hotel.

As it was getting dark, they managed to be back. That was when the snow on the mountain began to slide. They heard the avalanche（雪崩）before they saw it. The avalanche gathered speed and size, grabbing anything in its way down the mountain and tearing the hotel from its foundation. When the avalanche came to a stop, those caught inside the hotel were left buried in the icy rocks and ruins.

When Matrone came to himself, he was stuck in the darkness. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was not until the next morning that the rescuers finally arrived.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It happened when Tom was only ten years old. That day he was at home with his elder sister Jane. Tom was doing his homework when he heard raised voices. At first he didn't think seriously about it, since it was always noisy downstairs, but he soon realized this time it was different.

“Quick! Quick! Remove the motorcycles from the shop,” someone yelled.

Then a thick burning smell filled the air. When Tom opened the front door of their flat to investigate, a thick cloud of smoke greeted him. The motorcycle shop had caught fire and people were running and crying.

Jane, who had been playing the violin in her room, hurried to the living room. They rushed out of the door and along the corridor（走廊）through the smoke.

They were heading towards the stairway at the far end of the corridor when Jane suddenly stopped. She turned around and headed back the way they came. Tom had no idea what she was doing, but he followed her.

Jane had suddenly remembered the lady in her 70s who lived next door to them, who they called Makcik. Jane began banging on Makcik's door, but got no answer. As the smoke thickened around them, Tom could see many of their neighbours—some still in their pyjamas—running for safety. The thought of fear crossed his mind.

"She would have run for safety like everyone else!" Tom cried. However, Jane refused to give up. "I know Makcik's still inside.” She said she was familiar with Makcik's daily routine and was certain she would still be sleeping. She pounded against the door. "Go downstairs. Go now! Go!”

Tom noticed the flame was reaching up.

Luckily, some neighbours passing by stopped and offered help.

7 . Mike was 11. As his birthday was coming up，he _____ his father to buy him a bike, so that he could go to school cycling and not by _____ or relying on his father to _____ him at school, which was _____ a mile away from his home.

On his _____ , seeing a set of books wrapped nicely in his father's hand, though _____ , he thanked his father. Mike's father was _____ as he didn't have enough money to buy a bike.

After a week，when Mike was walking home from school, he saw a boy riding a bike. Mike _____ that the bike was too small for the big boy. _____，the boy ran into a post and fell on the street. Mike rushed to him and ______ him who was his schoolmate Sam.

Mike helped him stand up and provided him with water. _____ Sam was riding the bike fast, his left leg and hands were ______ injured. Mike asked him to sit in a corner and took the bike and rushed to a ______ nearby.

An ambulance （救护车）came and carried Sam to hospital. He then rushed to Sam's home and ______ his parents about the accident.

Sam and his parents thanked Mike for the ______ help. Mike in turn said, “It was all ______ just because I rode Sam's bike. ” He added, “The bike is too small for Sam to ride and that's why he was _______” Mike met Sam every day in hospital until he ______.

Sam got a new bike and he came to know that Mike didn't have the ______ to own a bike. He gave his old bike to Mike and with his parents' ______, Mike accepted the gift.

8 . On September 11, 2001, I was in my fifth grade at Hutchinson Elementary School in New York. During the day, I ____ that something had happened at the Twin Towers. But nobody seemed to really ____ what was going on. It wasn’t until school let out that I realized something might be ____. My dad usually ____ me up, but he wasn’t there. My dad was a firefighter. His ____ was less than a mile from the Twin Towers.

When I got home, my mom told me that the Twin Towers had been attacked, and my dad had gone there to ____. Most of the rest of that day is unclear. I ____only bits and pieces, like my mom calling hospitals all over New York City, ____ to find my dad. Two days later, she told me that he was probably ____.

We didn’t learn exactly what had happened to my father until much later. We ____ that he had sent a radio message at 9:56 am, when he and hundreds of other ____firefighters were in the burning South Tower, trying to ____ as many people as possible. Just three minutes later, the tower ____. The other tower came crashing down about a half hour later.

17 years later, I still ____ my dad every day. He instilled(灌输) in me a ____ for my community, and his ____ encouraged me to volunteer with the 9/11 Legacy Advocates, a group made up of people who ____ family members on 9/11 like me.

When I look back. I don’t think only of the sad ____. I also remember the great acts of so many people, ____ my dad. I’m really ____ to call him my hero.

In 1986, the drug company Johnson & Johnson was faced with a crisis. Several people had died after taking Tylenol（泰诺）, a Johnson & Johnson product. The deaths were not the ________ of the company, but the work of a criminal who had put poison in some of the Tylenol capsules（胶囊）. The criminal was later caught and punished, but ________ the deaths, people stopped buying Tylenol. The management of Johnson & Johnson realized that they had to act _______and quickly to prevent serious consequences for the company. Within days, in fact, they ________ every Tylenol capsule in the United States to check for ________. Soon afterword they also introduced “tamperproof” bottles to prevent future problems. Sales of Tylenol ________ again, and in the end, people felt that Johnson & Johnson had acted well.

Not all companies respond to crisis as well as Johnson & Johnson. Some failed to realized the importance of acting responsibly and suffered a dramatic ________ in sales. Consumers no longer trusted the companies.

The key to managing a crisis lies in the company’s ________ reaction. If they recognize a problem immediately and take measures to deal with it, they are less likely to suffer long-term consequences. One example of a quick reaction was that of the Pepsi Company in 1992, when hypodermic syringes （皮下注射器）were found in several soda cans. In a short time, the company was able to prove that the syringes had nothing to do with the production process, and they also found the criminals who had put the syringes in the cans. ________, they lost few customers. On the other hand, Wendy’s fast-food company ________ millions of dollars in 2004 because it tried to deny bad news and did not act quickly enough.