1 . The sound that woke Damian Languell at 8:15 in the morning was so loud he assumed it came from inside his house in Wade, Maine. As he got up to investigate, he heard another sound, this one coming most definitely from outside. Looking out of his bedroom window, he noticed a tree enveloped in smoke about 500 yards away. A car wrapped around the tree's base, its engine on fire.
Grabbing buckets of water, he and his wife ran to the crash site. Up close, the accident looked worse. The car was split nearly in two, and the tree was where the driver's seat ought to have been, as if planted there. No one should have survived this crash, and yet there was 20- year-old Quintin Thompson, his terrified face pressed against the driver's side window, in visible pain.
Languell tried putting out the fire with his buckets of water but failed. When the flames got into the front seats, he knew he had to get the young man out. So Languell opened the car's back door and climbed in. Using a pocket knife he'd brought with him, he cut through Thompson's seat belt. Now that Thompson was free, Languell pulled him out, and dragged him to safety before the entire car was in flames.
It is empathy that drove Languell to help, just as he said, "My heart goes out to Thompson. When you are that close to that level of hurt, you feel it so directly." For his heroic action, Languell was added to the list of real-life heroes changing the world.
1. Where was the first sound actually from?| A．A house on fire. | B．A car crash. |
| C．The bedroom window. | D．The basement. |
| A．He saved his car from fire. | B．He was successfully rescued. |
| C．He remained calm all the time. | D．He was capable of helping himself out. |
| A．Honesty. | B．Wisdom. | C．Sympathy. | D．Responsibility. |
| A．Daring and generous. | B．Caring and grateful. |
| C．Courageous and noble. | D．Ambitious and reliable. |
2 . It was rush hour on the morning of June 1 in the West Texas city of San Angelo. Heather Santellano, 36, was driving her white 2012 Mazda on Houston、 Harte Frontage Road with her nine-year-old daughter and ten-year- old son in the back. Suddenly, a red pickup truck cut them off. Santellano turned the wheel hard to the right, sending the Mazda skidding off the road and down an embankment(堤)that ended in a drop-off after about 50 feet. If the car didn't stop, it would go airborne and plunge onto the road some 20 feet below.
Then a bit of luck: As the car raced toward the edge, its undercarriage got stuck on the cement lip of the embankment ledge, stopping it cold. The occupants, however, were far from safe. The car had come to rest on top of a retaining wall, literally teetering(摇摇欲坠)on the edge of disaster. One sudden move by anyone inside could send it over.
Jacob Rodriguez watched the scene unfold from the 'T'ruck Repair Plant where he works. Then he and four other men ran to the car. They leaped onto the trunk to balance the weight as the terrified kids in the back seat watched.
Meanwhile, Julio Vasquez and his nephew, Marco Vasquez, were driving to their jabs at nearby Premier Automotive. Julio jumped out of the car to help while Marco went to the shop, grabbed a heavy-duty strap(皮带)，and returned to the swinging car. He fastened the Mazda to an P-350 truck that had been driven over by one of the other rescuers. With the car secured, the group carefully opened the back doors and helped the children out.
But their departure shifted the car's weight, causing it to lean forward. The men, still on-the trunk, asked Santellano to jump into the back seat to rebalance the weight. She did and then inched out the back door. Finally, the men carefully got off the trunk. Everyone was safe.
1. What do we know about Heather Santellano?| A．She was a careless driver. | B．She drove her twins to school. |
| C．She ran into a pickup truck. | D．She made a sharp turn to avoid the truck. |
| A．Stress the coming of good fortune. | B．Describe the car's dangerous situation. |
| C．Add some background information. | D．Explain why people came to the rescue. |
| A．Balance. | B．Cooperation. |
| C．Calmness. | D．Gravity. |
| A．Persistence will pay off. . | B．One in trouble, all to help.、 |
| C．Many hands make light work. | D．Love makes the world go round. |
