1 . As 17-year-old Torri’ell Norwood drove through Florida, last February, the laughter and chatter from the four teenage girls inside her car quickly gave way to screams. As they approached an intersection, another car T-boned them, sending their car sailing into the yard of a nearby home, coming to a stop only when it crashed into a tree.
As smoke rose from the car, a bystander shouted, “It’s about to blow up! Get out!” Shaken, but otherwise OK, Norwood crawled out through the window as the driver’s side door couldn’t be opened. Along with two of her friends, who’d also managed to free themselves, she ran for her life. But halfway down the street, she realized that her best friend, Simmons, wasn’t with them. Norwood ran back and found Simmons unconscious in the back seat. She threw open the back door and pulled her friend out. She dragged Simmons a few feet to safety and laid her on the ground. After checking her pulse and found there was no sign of life, she started CPR.
Had the accident happened a few weeks earlier, she might not have known what to do. But just the day before, Norwood, who wanted to pursue a career in medicine, had earned her CPR certificate by learning on her own. Kneeling on the lawn and looking down at her dying friend, Norwood knew she had precious little time to practice what she’d learned.
She started pumping Simmons’s chest with her interlocked fingers and breathing into her friend's mouth in hopes of filling her lungs with the kiss of life. After quite a while, Simmons began coughing and taking quick deep breaths for air. The CPR had worked! Soon, the ambulance arrived and rushed Simmons to the hospital. And then she heard how her best friend had saved her life. “I wasn't shocked,” Simmons told others. “She will always help any way she can.”
1. What caused the car crash?A.Another car hit Norwood’s car near the intersection. |
B.Norwood drove the car too quickly that day. |
C.Norwood’s car crashed into a tree in a yard. |
D.The girls were too excited to notice another car. |
A.She crawled out through the window and ran without stopping. |
B.She dragged her friends out and performed CPR at once. |
C.She ran for her life but turned back to save her friend. |
D.She opened the driver’s side door and pulled her friend out. |
A.She had learned CPR in school classes. | B.She pursued a career in medicine. |
C.The bystander told her how to do it. | D.She just earned her CPR certificate. |
A.Breath of Life. | B.A Frightening Night. |
C.Power of Knowledge. | D.An Admirable Girl. |
2 . It was an amazing feeling to be acknowledged for the Pride Of Britain award at No 10 Downing Street.
The last thing you expect when doing something as ordinary as picking your son up from a sleepover is to end up saving three people’s lives in a plane crash—but that’s exactly what happened to me in May this year.
I think I was acting unconsciously. I jumped out, leaving Giacomo in the car.
The plane was upside down and flames were coming out of the driver’s seat and I could hear screaming. I think there must have been roughly half a minute between getting the first and last person out. Then another guy—who turned out to be Joel Snarr—arrived on the scene to help at just the right time. I don’t think I’d have been able to get the pilot out—he was a big guy. There is no way he would have survived if Joel hadn’t been there. I could tell straight away Joel had a military background by how he conducted himself. We’d just got all three of them to a safe distance when the aircraft was completely swallowed by the flames.
Giacomo and I stared at each other, almost laughing in relief.
The emergency services arrived pretty quickly, and we were at the scene for a couple of hours while they dealt with the fire and cleared the roads. Afterwards I spoke to the family,and that was the first time the emotion of the whole thing hit me.I kept randomly bursting into tears.
Thankfully, Stuart Moore, the pilot, and his nephew and niece Jack Moore, 19, and Billie Manley, 16, have all since made a full recovery. Jack and Billie were suffering a lot more than I was. Although they were safe, the memory of being inside that burning plane would have been more of an emotional scar.
1. What do we know about the author?A.He prided himself on being helpful. |
B.He regretted having saved the family. |
C.He was overcome by fear and despair then. |
D.He was well equipped with first-aid knowledge. |
A.Joel Snarr’s character. | B.The importance of teamwork. |
C.The rescue process. | D.An investigation of the air crash. |
A.It was a narrow escape. |
B.They both appreciated Joel’s help. |
C.They both survived the crashing plane. |
D.The emergency services arrived in time. |
A.An Unforgettable Award. | B.A Crashing Plane. |
C.A Thrilling Rescue. | D.An Exciting Experience. |
The decision facing one Brooklyn jury(陪审团)was how much a landlord should pay in damages to the boy — named “G.M.M.” in court documents — after an investigation showed he had been living in an apartment illegally coated with lead paint.
Attorneys(律师) representing G.M.M. said $3.4 million was the right number, arguing that the boy would have had a bright career ahead of him; both of his parents had graduated from college and his mother received a master’s degree. But the landlord’s defense put the figure at less than half that — $1.5 million. Attorney Roger Archibald noted that because the boy was Hispanic, G.M.M. was unlikely to attain the advanced education that would provide to such a large income.
The 4-year-old’s case is a rare public look at one corner of the American legal system that explicitly uses race and gender to determine how much victims or their families should receive in compensation(赔偿) when they are seriously injured or killed.
As a result, white and male victims often receive larger awards than people of color and women in similar cases. These differences largely derive from projections of how much more money individuals would have earned over their lifetimes had they not been injured — projections that take into account average earnings and employment levels by race and gender.
1. What is the passage mainly about?
A.Description of the boy’s damage. |
B.Situation of the boy’s family. |
C.Compensation for the boy’s damage. |
D.Advantages of American legal system. |
A.The boy’s illness resulted from the lead paint of the apartment. |
B.The compensation mainly depends on the costs for treatment. |
C.The boy would earn a lot of money without the injury. |
D.The jury is in favor of the G.M.M attorneys in the boy’s case. |
A.Gender and education. |
B.Race and gender. |
C.Race and education. |
D.Social status and education. |
A.Angry. | B.Satisfied. | C.Unjust. | D.Optimistic. |