I’ve always known that I’m very quick with my hands. If someone throws something, I catch it almost before I’m aware it has been thrown. When I was young, I had no idea how useful this skill would become.
Last week, I was going to visit a friend with her newborn and was on my way to a toy store to buy a gift. I’d once lived in the neighbourhood and I decided to head back to my old cupcake shop for a coffee. Sitting alone at a table outside with my drink, I was approached by an older man, who in a calm and very matter-of-fact way told me to call 911, because there was a baby on a fire escape.
I jumped up to see where the baby was. I was so surprised to see it, wearing a little onesie (连体衣) and lying on the fire escape railings (栏杆) between the second and third storeys. I was nervous, so the baby boy became my only priority.
As I was on the phone to the emergency services, I made eye contact with the child, keeping him calm, telling him to stay there. Some people were going up the stairs to find the parents, who were apparently sleeping through the whole drama.
I just wanted the child to feel safe. I hoped he’d stay there until somebody could rescue him. Apparently he had slipped through pieces of cardboard placed next to an air-conditioning unit in the window, and without bars to protect him he’d crawled (爬) out and up the fire escape towards the next storey. He was only 16 months old. For him to even climb up and balance in that position was incredible.
Then he slipped. Instinctively (本能), he grabbed on the railing as he fell, hanging by his arms. I knew he couldn’t hold on, 25 feet above the street, for long. I sensed people had gathered behind, but my attention was purely focused on my intention to catch the baby.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
I made sure I was positioned to catch him.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The moments after he was saved were exciting.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . Where probably are the speakers?
| A．In the street. | B．In the police office. | C．In the doctor’s office. |
3 . Sean looked at his father, who was standing confidently at the helm(舵). Sean couldn’t
Suddenly, the sky turned grey and the wind began blowing wildly. “Sean, take the helm.” father called Sean
“Just keep her going straight. I’ ll check something.” Sean
Then he saw his father in the water! Sean
As he
| A．revise | B．choose | C．translate | D．remember |
| A．approval | B．response | C．encouragement | D．understanding |
| A．repeatedly | B．sadly | C．firmly | D．politely |
| A．refused | B．cheered | C．waved | D．hesitated |
| A．blank | B．curious | C．pained | D．disappointed |
| A．grasped | B．righted | C．shifted | D．missed |
| A．calm | B．fresh | C．soft | D．strong |
| A．tipped | B．stopped | C．sank | D．floated |
| A．anger | B．complaint | C．voice | D．body |
| A．view | B．way | C．action | D．thought |
| A．packed up | B．wound up | C．reached for | D．wished for |
| A．recorded | B．recited | C．shared | D．explained |
| A．end | B．side | C．net | D．rope |
| A．saved | B．changed | C．defined | D．shaped |
| A．puzzle | B．relief | C．guilt | D．gratitude |
Lost at sea
Two men from the Solomon Islands have been rescued after spending 29 days lost at sea.
The men
“I look forward to going back home
Nanjikana and Junior Qoloni took off from Mono Island on Sept. 3 in a motorboat to travel 200 km to Noro on New Georgia Island. However, soon after they set out, their boat was hit by heavy winds and rain, which made unclear the coastline they were following
“When the bad weather came, it was bad, but it was
When the rain had finally passed, Nanjikana and Qoloni had already drifted far out to sea. They spent the next 29 days
A fisherman found and rescued the two men on Oct. 2 off the coast of New Britain, Papua New Guinea, about 400 km from
Nanjikana and Qoloni
We ate a big breakfast at a local restaurant, like we did every Father’s Day. The present my daughter gave me was a T-shirt with the words “World’s Coolest Dad”. I put it on, feeling that was what made Father’s Day so great.
Just then my volunteer fire-department pager (呼机) went off: “Attention, Pocahontas-Old Ripley firefighters! House fire on Simpson Street. Repeat. House fire on Simpson Street.”
“Gotta go,” I said. I ran to my car and took off. I got to the firehouse in minutes. Another firefighter, Tom Smith, and the chief were waiting. “Don, Tommy, take truck 253. Roll!” he ordered. “The rest of the guys will be right behind you.” As the first on the scene, our job was to make sure everyone was out of the house, locate the nearest hydrant (消防栓), and then wait for backup.
A small crowd had gathered in front of number 907 when we got there. They watched the fire in panic. Thick black smoke could be seen pouring from the one-story house’s open front door. A large man burst through the door, red eyes streaming with tears. “Please hurry!” he called. “My boy’s still in there. I couldn’t get to him!”
There was no time to wait for backup. I left Tommy outside and rushed into the house.
“Anyone here?” I shouted. No answer. I searched every inch of the first two rooms. No child. The fire had grown so fierce by then. It seemed that the roof would collapse at any time. All at once a vision was put into my head—that father begging us to save his child. I mustn’t give up. Not today, I thought. There still might be a chance.
注意：1．续写词数应为150左右；
2．请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Suddenly I heard a weak cry from the next room.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________It was a special Father’s Day, not only for me, but also for the boy, his father and my daughter.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________6 . It was the day before Thanksgiving and Kaleb Benham was wandering around outside his home in Noring California. His 90-pound pit bull, Buddy, was playing around nearby, doing what dogs do: getting into trouble. And this time, Buddy was getting into a whole lot of trouble.
The unmistakable sound that no one wants to hear alone in the woods caught Benham’s attention. It was the deep, strange roar of a black bear. Benham wheeled around to see the beast, which Benham figured weighed around 350 pounds, some 100 feet away. In an instant, the bear fastened on to Buddy’s head and started dragging him away.
Benham, a thin, fit 24-year-old, took off after them. “Honestly,” he told CBS13, “the only thing I could think of was ‘save my baby’.” Sprinting, he lowered his shoulder and plowed into the bear. But it only tightened its grip on Buddy. Benham grabbed the bear by the throat. Nothing. He tried getting its mouth open, but the jaw was locked tight. Benham resorted to street fighting—punching the bear over and over around its snout and eye. It worked. The bear dropped the dog and ran off into the woods.
Buddy was in bad shape. His face was bloodied and ripped up. His ears were dangling. He had a bite mark clear through his lip and one that barely missed an eye.
“My first thought was that I was going to lose him,” Benham said. He scooped up Buddy, put him into his car, and sped off to a nearby veterinarian. Buddy’s surgery took nearly four hours. Benham watched the procedure through a window. “I just stood there,” he said, watching as Buddy’s ears were stapled back on and skin flaps were stitched, and tubes were inserted into his head to drain fluid.
This was the second time Benham had rescued Buddy, says CBS13. The first was from a shelter a few years ago. “If it was your kid, what would you do?” he asked. Nodding toward Buddy, he added, “That’s my kid.”
1. What is the text mainly about?| A．A demanding surgery. | B．A regular routine. |
| C．A fearless pet dog. | D．A daring rescue. |
| A．To show the difficulty of the rescue. |
| B．To indicate the obesity of the bear. |
| C．To prove the excitement of Benham. |
| D．To describe the fear in Buddy’s heart. |
| A．Benham bumped into the beast with dropped shoulder. |
| B．Benham forced open the beast’s mouth with locked jaw. |
| C．Benham crushed the beast’s mouth and nose repeatedly. |
| D．Benham finally conquered the beast by grabbing its throat. |
| A．Complicated. | B．Close. |
| C．Romantic. | D．Healthy. |
7 . A China plane struck a bird after taking off in Chengdu, Sichuan, and had to immediately return to the airport last October, and it wasn’t the first accident between an aircraft and a bird last year.
In fact, more than 20,000 wildlife strikes with aircraft were reported worldwide in 2023 — the vast majority of those animals being birds. The strikes can also include run-ins with bats or creatures on the ground, such as deer or turtles. Expanding wildlife populations, increases in number of aircraft movements, and a trend toward faster and quieter aircraft all have contributed to the increase in wildlife strikes.
Bird strikes are a hazard not just to commercial airplanes, but to all sorts of aircraft. However, historical data shows that damage is reported in a small percentage of incidents. Last year, 95% of the global strikes involved some kind of damage — and only 5% of those caused “substantial” damage.
Some of the most disturbing types of strikes can happen when one or more birds go into a plane’s engine, which might cause a lot of damage to the aircraft. The pilot would need to return to the airport or find a safe place to land.
In last October’s China plane incident, the Beijing-bound flight was able to land normally in Chengdu after taking into account what the airline described as security concerns. Senior captain Chen Jianguo said pilots are trained on how to respond if they have a bird strike in flight. The pilot in this case did exactly what he was trained to do.
“There are lots of things that are being used by airports to try to manage the habitat and birds around the airport,” said Chen Jianguo. Airports need to manage bird habitats to reduce or get rid of trees and plants that shelter birds, or address wetlands that can attract birds. Collecting data on what kinds of birds are involved in strikes is equally important so the risks can better be managed. Many airports also use audible signals to scare birds away, such as the sounds of fireworks.
1. What is a cause of the increase in wildlife strikes?| A．The poorly designed aircraft. |
| B．The growing number of birds. |
| C．The destruction of wildlife habitats. |
| D．The absence of environmental awareness. |
| A．Danger. | B．Delay. | C．Accident. | D．Reminder. |
| A．They are a rare occurrence. |
| B．They usually damage engines. |
| C．Most of them cause slight damage. |
| D．Most of them involve one single bird. |
| A．Ways to study bird behavior. |
| B．Measures to drive birds away. |
| C．Efforts to restore bird habitat. |
| D．Attempts to take care of birds. |
8 . White dressed up as Captain America for the annual Anti-Bullying (反霸凌) Superhero Day. But when spotting
It was rush hour. White was
DeAngelis, the man behind the
White
| A．barrier | B．unfairness | C．violence | D．trouble |
| A．give way to | B．fall back on | C．get around | D．forget about |
| A．cycling | B．running | C．driving | D．walking |
| A．locate | B．miss | C．search | D．contact |
| A．outcome | B．tendency | C．process | D．problem |
| A．stop | B．move | C．report | D．disable |
| A．Mistakenly | B．Sincerely | C．Decidedly | D．Hesitantly |
| A．following | B．separating | C．threatening | D．approaching |
| A．waved | B．escaped | C．wandered | D．raced |
| A．struck | B．measured | C．grabbed | D．broke |
| A．bug | B．lift | C．blow | D．kick |
| A．scene | B．pickup | C．wheel | D．seat |
| A．shocked | B．ashamed | C．discouraged | D．amused |
| A．protected | B．encountered | C．created | D．played |
| A．rescue | B．visit | C．guidance | D．comment |
It was a very cold morning as it had been raining very heavily the previous night. As my mother was feeling a little uncomfortable, my sister volunteered to drive me to school. I overslept and as a result, was a bit late for school. We got into the car hurriedly. The roads were already jammed with traffic. It appeared that everyone was late as well.
My sister was a careful driver and despite the fact that I was late, she refused to drive fast on the slippery road. I was lucky she was such a determined and careful person because a few hundred meters away from the school, we witnessed an accident.
It all happened in an instant, as most accidents do. A car took a left turning without signaling and a school bus crashed into it heavily. A few cars behind the school bus hit the bus as they could not stop in time and soon it became a pile-up. The car was damaged badly while the school bus also had some damage. And the already crowded road became more jammed with vehicles, which came to a mess. We wanted to help the victims. My sister drove to a stop at the roadside not too far from the accident spot.
The scene that greeted us was terrible. I first rushed to the car. The driver, a lady, lay trapped behind the wheel, unable to move. Three schoolchildren were in the back seat, their faces white with fear. Two of them were seriously hurt and bleeding from the head and hands. They were conscious although too weak and frightened to realize what had happened. We called an ambulance and while waiting, we tried as much as possible to help the victims. As a result of our joint efforts, the driver and the children were moved to safety and taken care of.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Then, I rushed to the bus filled with children’s cries.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
After the ambulance had left, two policemen asked me about the accident.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ken Scott kicked off the covers and leapt out of bed at his home in the Rocky Mountain town of Mullan, Idaho. He’d just heard on the radio that the nearby Silver Mountain Resort had been blessed with nearly a foot and a half of new snow. As an experienced ski addict, he didn’t want to miss this big golden opportunity. These conditions are what skiers live for.
When Scott reached Silver Mountain’s locker room, he came across his friend Paul, a former ski instructor who had also been a regular on these slopes for more than two decades. Both of them were exhilarated. Before setting off, it was Paul’s routine to check his phone tightly fixed inside his parka (风 雪外套). For the next hour the pair skied on various runs under a lightly dull sky, making fresh tracks. They were both in a playful mood, laughing as they tackled the steep runs.
Almost immediately, the snow beneath their feet gave way. In a millisecond, Paul realized what was happening. “Avalanche! (雪崩)” he yelled to Scott, who was not far behind. Scott responded. The sudden snow slide caused fear in his voice. “This is happening!” Instantly, both were hit by a mass of snow that would hit and carry them some 500 feet down the mountain. Scott felt it surrounding and enclosing him, moving quickly up his back and over his shoulders, then heavy against his neck. Snow filled the space in front of him and piled up around the whole of him. Paul, too, was swept downhill.
They remembered the avalanche survival lessons they had learned. Keep your head up. Try to swim. Stay on top of the snow. But the snow was too powerful and they felt themselves rolling like a load of clothes in a washing machine. When Scott finally came to rest, he was lying on his left side and completely buried, skis and poles still attached.
注意：1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1:
Paul was luckier, ending up partially buried and probably surviving.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:
Recalling the terrible experience, Scott thanked his friend and the rescue team.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
