1 . The sound that woke Damian Languell at 8:15 am was so loud that he assumed it came from inside his house. As he got up to investigate, he heard another sound, this one coming most definitely from outside. Looking out of his bedroom window, he spied a tree engulfed (淹没) in smoke about 500 yards away. A car was wrapped around the tree’s base, its engine on fire.
Grabbing buckets of water, Languell and his girlfriend ran to the crash site. The wreck looked worse up close. The car, a 1998 Buick, 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 16-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 with no success. When the flames got into the front seats, he realized he had to get the boy out of there.
In an act that a police report described as showing “complete disregard for his own safety”, Languell opened the Buick’s back door and crawled in. Thompson was struggling to get free, Languell says. “That’s when I noticed how bad his legs were.” Using a pocketknife he’d had the foresight to bring with him, he sawed through Thompson’s seat belt.
Now that Thompson was free, Languell pulled him out a back window of the vehicle, then dragged the teen to safety before the entire car was engulfed in flames.
Although Thompson suffered multiple fractures (骨折) to his legs, spine, and face, a social media post described him as “looking great, smiling, and joking.” Languell thinks about that day often. “My heart goes out to Thompson. When you are that close to that level of hurt, you feel it so directly.”
1. When Damian heard the big sound, ______.| A．he called 911 immediately |
| B．he stayed inside his house |
| C．he woke up his girlfriend |
| D．he got up to see what happened |
| A．the police had arrived |
| B．the whole car was completely in flames |
| C．Thompson was terrified and painful |
| D．Thompson was smiling and joking |
| A．brave | B．lucky |
| C．simple-minded | D．warm-hearted |
| A．His own bravery and persistence. |
| B．The several buckets of water. |
| C．The timely arrival of the police. |
| D．The pocketknife Damian carried with him. |
2 . Mr. Peter Johnson, aged twenty-three, battled for half an hour to escape from his trapped car yesterday when it landed upside down in three feet of water. Mr. Johnson took the only escape route—through the boot(行李箱).
Mr. Johnson’s car had finished up in a ditch(沟渠) at Romney Marsin, Kent after skidding on ice and hitting a bank. “Fortunately, the water began to come in only slowly,” Mr. Johnson said. “I couldn’t force the doors because they were jammed against the walls of the ditch and dared not open the windows because I knew water would come flooding in.”
Mr. Johnson, a sweet salesman of Sitting Home, Kent, first tried to attract the attention of other motorists by sounding the horn and hammering on the roof and boot. Then he began his struggle to escape.
Later he said, “It was really a half penny that saved my life. It was the only coin I had in my pocket and I used it to unscrew the back seat to get into the boot. I hammered desperately with a hammer trying to make someone hear, but no help came.”
It took ten minutes to unscrew the seat, and a further five minutes to clear the sweet samples from the boot. Then Mr. Johnson found a wrench and began to work on the boot lock. Fifteen minutes passed by. “It was the only chance I had. Finally it gave, but as soon as I moved the boot lid, the water and mud poured in. I forced the lid down into the mud and scrambled clear as the car filled up.”
His hands and arms cut and bruised(擦伤), Mr. Johnson got to Beckett Farm nearby, where he was looked after by the farmer’s wife, Mrs. Lucy Bates. Huddled in a blanket, he said, “That thirty minutes seemed like hours.” Only the tips of the car wheels were visible, police said last night. The vehicle had sunk into two feet of mud at the bottom of the ditch.
1. What is the best title for this newspaper article?| A．The Story of Mr. Johnson, A Sweet Salesman |
| B．Car Boot Can Serve As The Best Escape Route |
| C．Driver Escapes Through Car Boot |
| D．The Driver Survived A Terrible Car Accident |
| A．The hammer. | B．The coin. | C．The screw. | D．The horn. |
| A．Mr. Johnson’s car stood on its boot as it fell down. |
| B．Mr. Johnson could not escape from the door because it was full of sweet jam. |
| C．Mr. Johnson’s car accident was partly due to the slippery road. |
| D．Mr. Johnson struggled in the pouring mud as he unscrewed the back seat. |
| A．Luckily the door was torn away in the end | B．At last the wrench went broken |
| C．The lock came open after all his efforts | D．The chance was lost at the last minute |
| A．the ditch was along a quiet country road | B．the accident happened on a clear warm day |
| C．the police helped Mr. Johnson get out of the ditch | D．Mr. Johnson had a tender wife and was well attended |
3 . Notre-Dame, the cathedral (大教堂) that serves as one of Paris’s most beloved monuments, is on fire. According to The New York Times, the fire began around 6: 30 p.m. local time, when tourists urgently rushed out of the building. While Andre Finot, a spokesman for the cathedral, told The Times, that the cause of the fire is still unknown and that no one has been hurt while damage to the building appears catastrophic(灾难性的).
CNN reports that over 400 firefighters have been sent to fight the fire, but that they may be unable to save the cathedral. Built in the 12th century, Notre-Dame houses several relics important to Catholics (天主教徒). NBC News reports that relics from Saint Genevieve and Saint Denis may been lost, together with a relic believed to be from Jesus Christ’s crown of thorns, but it states that authorities now believe that the cathedral has been saved from “total destruction”.
Notre-Dame is visited by a reported 30, 000 people a day and 13 million people per year. Its destruction represents a global cultural loss. “This is just horrible”, Mohamed Megdoul, 33, a film producer and witness to the fire told The Times, speaking through tears. “A thousand years of history is being wiped away. This belonged to the whole world, and now it’s disappearing.”
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his sadness on Twitter. “Notre-Dame of Paris in flames,” reads an English translation of his statement. “Emotion for a whole nation. Thoughts for all Catholics and for all the French. Like all our countrymen, I’m sad together to see this part of us burn.” Other politicians, including Melanis Trump, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, U. K. Prime Minister Theresa May also shared their sadness on Twitter.
1. What do we know about Notre-Dame according to the passage?| A．It has been completely destroyed by the fire. |
| B．It’s a huge political loss to the world. |
| C．It’s only meaningful to Catholics. |
| D．The reason of the fire remained to be found out. |
| A．The history of France is destroyed because of the fire. |
| B．The loss the fire caused is huge. |
| C．The damage of Notre-Dame is being wiped off. |
| D．The cathedral has been saved from “total destruction”. |
| A．To report a disaster of Notre-Dame. |
| B．To express people’s sadness of the destruction. |
| C．To emphasize the value of Notre-Dame. |
| D．To show the concerns from the worldwide. |
4 . It’s not often sunny in Paris, but people still love to walk along the bank of the Seine. They love the view of the city’s old buildings, especially Notre Dame Cathedral, with its iconic spire (标志性塔尖).
Unfortunately, that view has been forever changed. On April 16 a fire destroyed the spire of the 850-year-old wooden Notre Dame Cathedral built in 1163, and two-thirds of the roof.
The fire shocked and saddened Parisians. Citizens gathered around the giant church, singing hymns (赞美诗) and praying for the hundreds of firefighters who fought the flames.
“The importance of Notre Dame, not only to Catholics (天主教) but to all Parisians, cannot be underestimated (低估),” wrote French author Bernard-Henri Levy. “For many in France, it’s more than a house of worship. It’s a symbol of French culture, architecture and history.”
The church is also home to many religious artworks, paintings and sculptures. Luckily, its world-famous colored glass windows survived the fire. These windows are made of many small pieces of glass and feature various Christian images.
Despite its long history and many treasures, the Cathedral needed the help of a writer to become truly famous. Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, presented the building to a wide audience of readers. The book’s ugly lead character, Quasimodo, serves as a symbol for Paris’ forgotten Gothic (哥特式的) architecture. Hugo wrote the book to remind people of it, with the hope that they would work to protect the beautiful old buildings of Paris
French President Emmanuel Macron has promised to reconstruct the historic building. “Note Dame is our history, our literature and it’s our imagery,” he said in a public speech following the fire.
1. Which of the following is true about Notre Dame Cathedral?| A．It is a representative architecture of France. |
| B．It is made of wood and metal. |
| C．It is a place for entertainment. |
| D．It will be rebuilt in a different style. |
| A．Its famous spire. |
| B．Its colored glass windows. |
| C．Victor Hugo’s novel. |
| D．Religious treasures inside. |
| A．Uncaring. | B．Regretful. |
| C．Negative. | D．Optimistic. |
