1 . Rescuers in Jersey said Sunday after an all-night search that there was no hope of survivors from an explosion that flattened a three-story apartment block. At least three people were confirmed killed in the accident early Saturday in the Channel island’s port capital St Helier, following a suspected gas leak. “We have three confirmed deaths and it’s fair to say we expect to find more,” police chief Robin Smith told a news conference, saying that around 12 residents remained unaccounted for. “It is with sadness that I am confirming that the search-and-rescue operation has been moved to a recovery operation,” he said.

The phase involved a “painstaking search of the debris” which could take weeks, Smith said, adding that a gas leak was the ‘likely” cause. Aided by sniffer dogs and experts from southern England, Jersey emergency workers had searched the rubble (瓦砾)overnight.

Fire chief Paul Brown confirmed that firefighters were called out to investigate the smell of gas on Friday evening, more than seven hours before the explosion. But in vain. He admitted that something had gone “horribly wrong”, considering the subsequent disaster, but insisted that Jersey islanders could still have confidence in his service. Jersey’s gas supplier, Island Energy, said it was working with the fire service to understand what happened.

Like many others in St Helier, Jersey’s Chief Minister Kristina Moore said she was awoken by the explosion. “Across the island you could hear this extraordinary sound,” she told the BBC. “It’s unthinkable news, so we’re all absolutely shocked and really worried about the people who are involved and about those whose lives have been lost.”

The incident caps a tragic week for Jersey, a British Crown dependency not part of the United Kingdom, whose economy relies on banking, tourism and fishing. “We must call on the collective strength of the island community,” Moore said.

1. What’s the possible cause of the accident?

A．The gas leak.	B．The gas supplier.
C．The recovery operation.	D．The unexpected explosion.

2. What was the main task of the recovery operation?

A．Rescuing the dead.	B．Searching the rubble.
C．Searching for the debris.	D．Working with fire service.

3. What may Paul Brown’s words imply?

A．He had predicted the explosion hours before it.

B．The fire service was investigating the explosion.

C．People lost confidence in the island’s fire service.

D．The fire service was partly responsible for the accident.

4. How did Moore feel after the accident?

A．Panicked and frightened.	B．Relieved and hopeful.
C．Astonished and concerned.	D．Fearful and sorrowful.

2 . First aid is a crucial aspect of healthcare that can significantly save someone’s life or prevent further injury or illness. Knowing when to use first aid is essential so that proper measures are taken promptly.    1    

Injuries and Accidents

One of the most common instances where first aid is required is in injuries and accidents.    2     In such situations, it is essential to provide immediate care to prevent further damage and ensure that the affected individual receives timely medical attention. Some of the initial steps in first aid for injuries include applying pressure to stop bleeding, immobilizing the affected area, and administering pain relief medication.

Cardiac Arrest (心脏停跳)

Another critical situation where first aid can make a difference is during a cardiac arrest. A cardiac arrest occurs when the heart stops functioning; immediate intervention is necessary.     3     The first step in such a situation is to call emergency services and start cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) until professional help arrives. Knowing how to perform CPR can be life-saving in such situations.

Choking and Suffocation (窒息)

Choking and suffocation are emergencies that can occur at any time, and immediate intervention is necessary to prevent further complications. If someone is choking, it is essential to act quickly.     4     Similarly, if someone is suffocating due to a blocked airway, it is vital to clear the obstruction and ensure that the person’s airway is open.

When to use first aid can significantly save someone’s life or prevent further injury or illness.    5     Call for emergency services, and provide immediate care until professional help arrives. Being prepared and trained in first aid can ensure the safety and well-being of those around us.

A．In any emergency, it is essential to remain calm.

B．This can include cuts, burns, falls, sprains, and other unpleasant injuries.

C．If someone has taken a poisonous substance, calling emergency services.

D．Perform the Heimlich manoeuvre to force out the object causing the obstruction.

E．Bleeding and overdose are medical emergencies that require immediate attention.

F．This blog post will discuss when to use first aid and the importance of early intervention.

G．Blood circulation (血液循环) and oxygen supply to vital organs should be restored immediately.

3 . Leah Brown aged 36 fell several hundred feet from Oregon’s highest mountain right before the eyes of a group of volunteer rescue workers who rushed to her aid and helped save her life.

The woman was coming down a popular path (小路) on Mt. Hood, about 70 miles east of Portland, on Saturday morning, according to the local police. Mt. Hood is the highest in Oregon, standing at around11.240 feet.

The fall was seen by members of Portland Mountain Rescue (PMR), a volunteer organization focused on helping people in mountainous areas. The group called 911 and rushed to the woman, providing medical care. They helped keep the woman warm for seven hours as the police worked to get her off the mountain safely. Finally, the woman was evacuated (转移) to a parking lot at 9:30 pm and taken to a hospital.

The climber, Leah Brown, said she didn’t know what caused her fall. “I can only guess it was either an ice tool or a crampon (冰爪) that didn’t land and stick like it should have, so I became detached from the mountain,” Brown said. “The thing I’d like to most stress is my appreciation for the members of PMR who evacuated me and took good care of me the whole time,” Brown added. “They saved my life. ”

In a statement after the rescue, PMR warned of the dangerous winter conditions at the mountain. “The short days and lower temperatures mean that the snow tends to be very hard and icy, and the conditions tend to be much steeper. Climbing the mountain in icy conditions is much more difficult,” the group said.

1. What happened to Brown on Saturday morning?

A．She lost her way in a forest.	B．She hurt her eye unexpectedly.
C．She failed to call her family.	D．She fell down on a downhill path.

2. What does the underlined word “detached” in paragraph 4 mean?

A．Different.

B．Hidden.

C．Separated.

D．Tired.

3. How did Brown feel about the members of PMR?

A．Thankful.

B．Regretful.

C．Surprised.

D．Concerned.

4. What did PMR intend to tell us?

A．Climbing requires teamwork.	B．Climbing in winter is too risky.
C．We must remain positive in hard times.	D．We can admire the view on sunny days.

4 . In the fall of 1915, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance (耐力号) sank off the coast of Antarctica. While all of the expedition’s 28 crew eventually were rescued, the ship’s final resting place has remained a much-discussed maritime mystery. That is, until today. A team of researchers has announced they’ve located the wreck at the bottom of the Weddell Sea, almost the northernmost part of Antarctica.

Endurance was backed by the British government and private donors and supported by Winston Churchill to deliver a group of explorers to the coast of Antarctica and then travel overland across the continent via the South Pole.

It set out from South Georgia on December 5, 1914, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. But the enemy that Shackleton and his men faced was of a different sort. The Weddell Sea, covering an area of more than a million square miles, is one of the most remote and unforgiving environments in the world, littered with icebergs and roiled by strong surface winds. Shackleton called it “the worst sea in the world.”

The expedition made good progress at first, but as the Antarctic winter of 1915 closed in, the men found themselves trapped in the sea ice on Tuesday, October 26. The next day, the men removed tools, instruments, and provisions and set up camp on the ice floe. Endurance finally sank on November 27. Shackleton famously said, “What the ice gets, the ice keeps.” . But Endurance’s story did not end with the ship’s sinking.

In 2019, the Falklands Heritage Maritime Trust began its first expedition to find the ship but had been unable to locate the wreck. This winter, they tried again, organizing and funding Endurance22.

One of the toughest problems, besides the sea ice, was establishing the ship’s location. After Endurance was initially trapped in the ice, it continued to drift as the floes moved with the current. Due to poor visibility on the day the men abandoned the ship, however, the captain had been unable to take proper measurements that would help calculate the direction and speed of the floes.

1. Which can show the positions of Weddell Sea and Antarctica?

A．	B．
C．	D．

2. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A．Endurance hasn’t been found since the fall of 1915.

B．Endurance was only supported by Winston Churchill.

C．Ernest Shackleton died and sank off the coast of Antarctica in the fall of 1915.

D．Ernest Shackleton’s goal was to travel across the Antarctica via the South Pole.

3. What is the fundamental cause of the disaster according to the passage?

A．The sea ice.

B．The Antarctic winter.

C．The things they carried.

D．The captain’s unreasonable command.

4. What does the last paragraph mainly talk about?

A．The way how to establish the ship’s location.

B．The reason why locating the ship is difficult.

C．The measurements that the captain took to locate the ship.

D．The time when Endurance22 was organized and funded.

5 . A self-driving Uber vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian in a late-night accident in Tempe, Arizona, police said on Monday. The accident is believed to be the first pedestrian death involving the technology of autonomous vehicles.

The gray SUV had an operator in the driver’s seat and was traveling at about 40 miles per hour in autonomous mode when it struck a woman who was walking across the street late Sunday night, Tempe police said. The pedestrian was rushed to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead from her injuries.

“The City of Tempe has been supportive of autonomous vehicle testing because of the innovation and promise that the technology may offer in many areas, including transportation options for disabled residents and seniors,” Tempe Mayor, Mitchell said in the statement. “Testing must occur safely. All indications we have had in the past show that traffic laws are being obeyed by the companies testing here. Our city leadership and Tempe police will pursue any and all answers to what happened in order to ensure safety moving forward.”

Self-driving cars have been praised by technology companies as the wave of the future. Autonomous cars are already being in more than 30 cities around the world, with companies investing more than $80 billion into research and development.

“Everyone recognized that someone was going to die in a crash involving an autonomous vehicle eventually,” Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina who studies risks in automated driving systems, told NBC News. “As good as that technology tries to be, mistakes can happen, or it may be one of the small fraction of crashes. I just think everybody kind of hoped that one wouldn’t come this soon.”

Smith added that because federal and state agencies don’t have the resources to monitor individual vehicles, the responsibility for safety falls on the individual companies running the technology.

The National Transportation Safety Board announced that a four-person team has been sent to Tempe to investigate the crash.

1. Which of the following is true about the accident?

A．The woman was dead on the spot.

B．The accident is under investigation.

C．The driver was arrested for speeding.

D．It is the first accident caused by autonomous vehicles.

2. Why does the City of Tempe support autonomous vehicle testing?

A．The autonomous vehicle can make transportation safer.

B．A large profit will be brought by the autonomous vehicles.

C．The autonomous vehicles will help disabled residents and seniors.

D．Companies invest more than $80 billion into research and development.

3. According to Bryant Walker Smith, who should take the responsibility of the safety of individual self-driving vehicles?

A．The driver.	B．The pedestrian.
C．The individual companies.	D．The federal and state agency.

4. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．Tempe is in favor of autonomous vehicle testing.

B．Autonomous vehicles have a lot of disadvantages.

C．Companies should take action to improve self-driving cars.

D．A self-driving Uber car caused a pedestrian’s death in Arizona.

6 . Schools across the US East Coast canceled outdoor activities, commercial airline traffic was slowed and millions of Americans were urged to stay indoors on Wednesday as smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted south, blanketing cities in thick and yellow smoke.

“It’s critical that Americans experiencing dangerous air pollution, especially those with health conditions, listen to local authorities to protect themselves and their families,” US President Joe Biden said.

New York’s world-famous skyline, usually visible for miles, disappeared because of the smoke, which some residents said made them feel unwell.

“It makes breathing difficult,” Mohammed Abass said as he walked down Broadway in Manhattan. “I’ve been scheduled for a road test for driving, for my driving license today, and it was canceled.”

“It looks like Mars out there,” said Fox Forecast Center meteorologist Brian Mastro just before 2 p.m.

New York Goveror Kathy Hochul called the situation an “emergency crisis,” noting that the air pollution index for parts of her state were eight times above normal.

In Bethesda, Maryland, a high school moved its graduation ceremony indoors, while a Brooklyn, New York, elementary school deferred its “Spring Fling” dance party. A school in Montelair, New Jersey, called off a fifth-grade trip to an amusement park.

The smoke was wafting (飘荡) over the US northern border from Canada, where hundreds of forest fires have burnt 9. 4 million acres and forced 120,000 people from their homes in an unusually early and intense start to Canada’s wildfire season.

Tyrone Sylvester, 66, playing chess outside in Manhattan’s Union Square us he has on most days for 30 years, but wearing a mask, said he had never seen the city’s air quality so bad. “When the sun looks like that,” he said, pointing at the smoky sky, “we know something’s wrong. This is what global warming looks like.”

Poor air quality is likely to continue into the weekend, with a developing storm system expected to shift the smoke westward across the Great Lakes and deeper south through the Ohio Valley and into the mid-Atlantic region, AccuWeather said.

1. What do we know about Mohammed Abass?

A．He took a test for driving.	B．He had no driving license.
C．He had some health conditions.	D．He stayed indoors as expected.

2. Which is closest in meaning to “deferred” in paragraph 7?

A．Put off.

B．Took over.

C．Came up with.

D．Did away with.

3. What does the eighth paragraph mainly talk about?

A．Canada’s poor management.	B．The areas affected by wildfires.
C．The cause of America’s smoke.	D．The consequences of air pollution.

4. What can be learned from the last two paragraphs?

A．New York City smoke situation is not uncomfortable.

B．A strong wind will probably relieve the poor air quality.

C．Citizens have found new ways to fight climate changes.

D．The city’s air pollution doesn’t relate to global warming.

7 . Which is safer-staying at home, traveling to work on public transport, or working in the office? Surprisingly, each of these carries the same risk, which is very low. However, what about flying compared to working in the chemical industry? Unfortunately, the former is 65 times riskier than the latter! In fact, the accident rate of workers in the chemical industry is less than that of almost any of human activity, and almost as safe as staying at home.

The trouble with the chemical industry is that when things go wrong they often cause death to those living nearby. It is this that makes chemical accidents so newsworthy. Fortunately they are extremely rare. The most famous ones happened at Texas City (1947), Flixborough( 1974), Seveso (1976), Pemex (1984) and Bhopal (1984).

Some of these are always in the minds of the people even though the loss of life was small. No one died at Seveso, and only 28 workers at Flixborough. The worst accident of all was Bhopal, where up to 3,000 were killed. The Texas City explosion of fertilizer killed 552. The Pemex fire at a storage plant for natural gas in the suburbs of Mexico City took 542 lives, just a month before the unfortunate event at Bhopal.

Some experts have discussed these accidents and used each accident to illustrate a particular danger. Thus the Texas City explosion was caused by tons of ammonium nitrate (硝酸氨), which is safe unless stored in great quantity. The Flixborough fireball was the fault of management, which took risks to keep production going during essential repairs. The Seveso accident shows what happens if the local authorities lack knowledge of the danger on their doorstep. When the poisonous gas drifted over the town, local leaders were incapable of taking effective action. The Pemex fire was made worse by an overloaded site in an overcrowded suburb. The fire set off a chain reaction of exploding storage tanks. Yet, by a miracle, the two Largest tanks did not explode. Had these caught fire, then 3,000 strong rescue team and fire fighters would all have died.

1. Which of the following statements is true?

A．Working at the office is safer than staying at home.

B．Travelling to work on public transport is safer than working at the office.

C．Staying at home is safer than working in the chemical industry.

D．Working in the chemical industry is safer than traveling by air.

2. Chemical accidents are usually important enough to be reported as news because________.

A．they are very rare

B．they often cause loss of life

C．they always occur in big cities

D．they arouse the interest of all the readers

3. From the passage we know that ammonium nitrate is a kind of________.

A．natural gas, which can easily catch fire

B．fertilizer, which can’t be stored in a great quantity

C．poisonous substance, which can’t be used in overcrowded areas

D．fuel, which is stored in large tanks

4. From the discussion among some experts we may conclude that ________.

A．natural gas stored in very large tanks is always safe

B．to avoid any accidents we should not repair the facilities in chemical industry

C．all these accidents could have been avoided or controlled if effective measures had been taken

D．the local authorities should not be concerned with the production of the chemical industry

8 . Norwood, a junior High School student, was driving three friends home in St. Petersburg, when another driver crashed into her from her left and made her car hit the tree. The impact jammed shut the driver’s side door, so Norwood climbed out the front window. Two of her friends managed to get out of the car unharmed, but her 16-year-old friend Zarria didn’t. She run back to the car only to find Zarria was just sitting there reactionless.

A lot of people started to gather around to see what was happening. Norwood started yelling, “Back up, back up, she needs space.” Norwood pulled Zarria out of the back seat, avoiding broken glass from the window. “That’s when I checked her pulse on her neck. I put my head against her chest, and I didn’t really hear nothing. So that’s when I just started doing CPR on her.” Norwood told the reporter. After the 30 compressions and two rescue breaths, Zarria regained consciousness. Ambulance quickly arrived and rushed her to the hospital to receive medical help.

When Miller, Norwood’s high school teacher, learned that Norwood saved a friend just   one day after completing CPR training, she was at a loss of words and so proud. Norwood participates in the school’s Athletic Lifestyle Management Academy (ALMA). The program prepares students for various careers in health science. “We do vital signs and they learn how to take blood pressure and check pulse.” Miller introduced. And another one of the skills learned is CPR. “There are two components, a hands-on skills component where they have to demonstrate that they’re able to do CPR well, and then there’s a written test component, showing that they remember that knowledge.”

Thanks to Norwood’s quick thinking, Zarria is recovering well. She also isn’t surprised by her friend’s actions. “She will always help any way she can, so I wasn’t really shocked about that.”

1. What happened to Norwood and her friends on their way home?

A．They lost their way.	B．They suffered a car accident.
C．They crashed into another car.	D．They were stuck in a traffic jam.

2. What did Norwood do first when finding Zarria reactionless?

A．To give her first aid.	B．To ask people for help.
C．To call ambulance at once.	D．To send her to hospital immediately.

3. What can we infer about the ALMA?

A．It normally lasts for one day.

B．It is for medical students only.

C．It focuses on both theory and practice.

D．It trains students to live a healthy lifestyle.

4. Which of the following can best describe Norwood?

A．Considerate and flexible.	B．Kind and ambitious.
C．Hardworking and clever.	D．Brave and calm.

9 . In a Home Fire,     1    

Is your own household prepared for a home fire? Just 2 simple steps can help prepare your family to escape from a home fire.

    2    

Use our worksheet to draw your home’s floor plan and plot your escape routes.

● Practice your 2-minute drill (from home to a safe meeting place) at least twice a year.

● Everyone in your household should know two ways to escape from each room in your home.

● In a real fire, remember to get out, stay out and call 911.     3    

Test Your Smoke Alarms Monthly

    4    

● You should hear three beeps, letting you know the alarm is working.

●     5     Then it’s time to change the batteries, if your model requires them.

● If your smoke alarm is 10 years old, it’s time to get a new alarm because the sensor becomes less sensitive over time.

A．Don’t hear the beeps?

B．Never go back inside for people, pets or things.

C．Practice a 2-Minute Fire Drill

D．Can Your Family Safely Escape in Just 2 Minutes?

E．Test your smoke alarms monthly by pressing the test button.

F．2-minute is very essential.

G．A monthly smoke alarm test is unavoidable.

10 . Most people are hoping the recent stranding (搁浅) of the 1,300-foot, 220,000-ton Ever Given container ship (集装箱货运船) in the Suez Canal was a one-off---just a case of a very big ship getting stuck in a narrow waterway. However, more than 100 ships of similar size are passing through the world’s waterways, and even bigger ones are being built.

Capt.Andrew Kinsey, a senior marine-risk consultant (海洋风险顾问) for a global financial services firm, says with heavy weather in the North Pacific Ocean over the past year, a lot of containers are going overboard (落水). Part of the problem is the way the ultra-large ships handle at sea with towering stacks (堆叠) of containers, especially in strong winds.

Alan Murphy, chief executive of a container-shipping research and advisory firm in Copenhagen, Denmark, says it’s difficult to know whether there has been an increase in the number of containers going overboard or if trans-Pacific container losses over the past year have just received more attention.In a November report, the World Shipping Council found the number of such incidents to be falling in recent years, although the report does not cover 2020. There is no central database for reporting container losses, so it’s not known exactly how many containers fall overboard, Murphy says.

Murphy says container ships are often fully loaded nowadays, as demand for consumer products has jumped during the corona virus pandemic. “In the past, these huge ships have never really sailed as fully loaded as they are now,” he says.“Obviously, the more the ship carries, the greater the risk of an incident happening.”

“The stranding of Ever Given in the Suez Canal is a warning,” Kinsey says.“We’ve been bring up the issue of size in our yearly safety and shipping review and in papers for over five years.”

Carrying more containers needs bigger and wider ships, which means it is harder for them to sail through narrow waterways like the Suez Canal and move when they get stuck.

1. What can we imply from paragraph 1?

A．It might be a tough task to build bigger ships.

B．Costs of overseas shipments might rise sharply.

C．There might be changes in the world’s waterways.

D．More accidents like the recent stranding might happen.

2. What did the World Shipping Council find in the November report?

A．No database for reporting container losses had been created.

B．Trans-Pacific container losses had received more attention.

C．The number of container losses had dropped in recent years before 2020.

D．More container losses happened in 2020 than in the past few years.

3. What leads to fully loaded container ships nowadays according to Murphy?

A．The extreme weather.	B．The increasing size of ships
C．The slow transportation.	D．The growing demand for consumer goods.

4. What do Kinsey’s words in the 5^th paragraph show?

A．Warnings about the risks of stranding are given yearly.

B．Concern about larger ships has been voiced for some time.

C．Some container ships can carry as many goods as Ever Given.

D．Ships bigger than Ever Given won’t be allowed through the Suez Canal.