Ever since Arick Baker was a kid, his father had warned him: “If you go down in the corn, you don’t come out.”
The tall grain bins store enough dried corn to swallow up a body completely, squeezing the breath and life from a person in seconds. Accidents happen, and they’re often deadly. 26 have been killed in the accidents ever since, and the firefighters responsible for it never had luck rescuing anyone.
However, the 23-year-old Baker wasn’t thinking about the risks. With his dad, Rick, getting older, Baker was increasingly responsible for the farm’s most unpleasant tasks of cleaning inside the tall grain bins, which usually took two days to finish due to its height and size.
That morning, Baker stood right in the grain bin, trying to clean up the bottom, while his father was out helping to transfer truckloads of corn from inside. It was a sweating day, and it was 58℃ inside the bin. Baker was wearing a mask to keep away from all the dust kicked up while working.
Around 10:30 that morning, Baker’s dad left his spot on the roof, where he had kept an eye on his son, and then he drove away the last pile of corn. But just seconds later, Baker felt a roaring storm of corn coming from above. It was another driver unloading corn into the grain bin, and he was quickly stuck firm in the corn before he could even react. “Help!” Baker yelled once, but darkness and silence set in, and he was down in the corn.
Awful to feel himself squeezed, Baker tried to move his leg a few centimeters, but the corn would rush back in to fill the blank, packing him even tighter. Every breath was exhausting, and after about two hours of helplessness, he was wondering how long he could still last.
The truth was, just moments after he drove away, Baker’s father had left his son a phone message: “Hey, Arick. Like a fool, I forgot to wait to make sure you got out OK. Give me a call when you got this.”
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。
But two hours later, when he still didn’t get a reply, Baker’s dad became worried.
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Knowing Baker was still alive from his voice below encouraged firefighters to dig further.
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It was a hot day. The sun scorched (炙烤) down and everywhere you looked, you could see the heat waves blowing above the sand. John rolled over, realizing that half of his body was well and truly burnt. He had not meant to sleep in the sun but the heat and late nights studying for his examinations made him miserable. Stretching, he got to his feet, picked up his surfboard and looked around. The beach, which had earlier been crowded in the sun, was now comparatively empty. Seagulls flew down to clean up the food of people’s picnic lunches.
The ice-cream van had gone, and so were the lifeguards who were doing first aid on the beach. John looked up to where the sun was and estimated it was about five o’clock. Time to head home. It was “Mum’s Kitchen Rule” that had him moving homewards. If he did not get home in time for dinner, he would go hungry. Wandering along the water’s edge, he happened to glance out to sea. What made him look up at that particular moment, he never knew, but it was the right time for the swimmer he spotted. His hand was up, signaling distress (险情) and he was calling out something.
Quickly John glanced around the beach — no one else was close enough to help the man, and crucially, no one had noticed. Cupping his hands to his mouth, he shouted “Help” to get the attention of other people on the beach. Someone waved back to him and John pointed to the swimmer. “Get help,” he shouted. Then without hesitation, he jumped into the sea with his surfboard. John was a strong swimmer and had a good skill for distance swimming. His coach had tried hard to persuade him to go into competitions but he was not interested.
注意：1.续写词数应为150个左右；2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Now he was swimming for more than enjoyment or medals.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Fortunately, the sea was not rough and there was no wave.
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