It was a very hot afternoon. My friend Leah and I were waiting for the rush hour train. We were tired and couldn’t wait to get back to the place where we were living.

When the train arrived, we got into the second carriage from the front. The air-conditioning wasn’t working at the rear (后部), so the front was particularly crowded that day. I sat by the window admiring the changing landscape.

Suddenly we felt enormous pressure pushing us backwards into our seats. The windows broke into tiny pieces and dust flew around violently. I could barely open my eyes.

The train was suffering from a crash, and it didn’t feel as if it were going to stop. I thought I would be dead. I thought about my husband Guy, who was supposed to receive the news first. I thought of my dear father and other family members, wondering how each would deal with my death.

Voices began to break through my thoughts. People were anxious. Strangely, I was totally calm. I wasn’t panicking; my heart wasn’t even beating fast. When the train finally stopped, we slowly stood up, pushing off the table that had fallen onto us; others stayed in their seats and many were injured and covered in blood. I could hear screaming. A soldier pushed the damaged door open for us to escape.

Our carriage had run out of rails and we were halfway home. We had a lot of blood on us and I searched my body for wounds, but I didn’t find any. My knees felt painful and my hips were black and blue, and Leah had her hand cut when jumping off the train, but that wasn’t serious.

Helicopters landed and we saw soldiers running in and out. All around us were ambulances (救护车) and people lying on the ground. Everyone was shouting for help. I rang Guy, who was very calm and said he would come and get us. Seeing all these brought me great emotional hurt.

Snow began to fall across the Apennines Mountain in January and lasted for days. From his home in the suburbs, Matrone watched the weather with concern. He and his wife, Cicioni, had planned an overnight getaway to the hotel halfway up the mountain. But now he wondered whether they should go. After phoning the hotel, they decided to make the trip. When they finally arrived six hours later, they were both cold and exhausted. They checked into their room and went to bed early.

As they awoke the next day, they discovered that their difficulty had worsened overnight. The cars in the parking lot were invisible. The phone and power lines were down. Many people were digging their cars.

With a dozen vehicles freed by noon, the guests set off down the driveway. But when they reached the main road, the path was blocked by a six-foot-high wall of snow. Matrone climbed out of his car and there was no road in sight. “We're trapped! he told his wife. So they had no choice but to make their way back to the hotel.

As it was getting dark, they managed to be back. That was when the snow on the mountain began to slide. They heard the avalanche（雪崩）before they saw it. The avalanche gathered speed and size, grabbing anything in its way down the mountain and tearing the hotel from its foundation. When the avalanche came to a stop, those caught inside the hotel were left buried in the icy rocks and ruins.

When Matrone came to himself, he was stuck in the darkness. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was not until the next morning that the rescuers finally arrived.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Excited screams of joy，the sounds of two happy little girls playing in the sand，rang across the beach. But I walked along，barely aware of it. I'd come to this remote beach on my sailboat，a place to escape. My wife and I had recently separated，our marriage in trouble. I worried about my two boys，just six and eight. It seemed like forever since I'd heard them laugh. But I didn't know what to do to make things better.

“Help！Help！”The girls shouted. I'd meant to tell them to stay away from the dangerous water. Now one of them was in the ocean，beyond the surf line. I could just hear her screams over the waves. Any second now she'd be swept away. I ran across the sand as fast as I could. The other girl was at the edge of the surf line，yelling.

“Wait！Stop！Don't go any farther！”I charged into the waves and was reaching for her when a wall of water dashed over us. For half a second I saw her disappear under another big wave. I'm a strong swimmer, but I could feel the wave pulling me hard. I swam to her and seized her, her little body shaking, trembling. But where is the other girl? I saw a waving arm. A head broke the surface, not far away. The arms of the girl I'd rescued were wrapped desperately around my neck. She was breathing with sobs. “Let go of my neck. I need you on my back. Hold my shoulders so I can swim to your friend. ”

She loosed her hands and I shifted her to my back. “She's my sister, Sarah, and I am Lillian,” she said. For a moment I thought of my boys. How much they loved each other. How much I loved them.

I looked across the water and saw a small head after a big wave. I quickened my swimming，fighting for each breath. Tiny arms pressed against my shoulder. I reached out and held the second little girl. She was in total tiredness，taking deep breaths，crying quietly.

I swam hard with the two girls and looked toward shore，but I couldn’t see anyone.

“Mommy!” The loud cry wakened my consciousness,

Alexis, 17, sat quietly in the passenger seat of her dad’s car. She let her eyes lazily scan the landscape for wildlife. Then a deer came into view about 200 yards in front of them. “ Dad, there’s a deer there!”   Alexis said, rolling down the window for a better look. It was a male deer with sharp antlers （鹿角） on each side of its head.

As the car moved closer, Alexis saw that the deer’s head was bent toward the ground. Then she heard a scream and saw an arm fly up near the deer’s head. Alexis realized the deer was attacking a woman. Sue, a 44-year-olcI mother, had been out for her morning run. The deer followed her and edged （缓慢移动） closer. “ I knew I was in trouble,”   says Sue. She went to pick up a stick for self-defense, and the deer attacked her. It lifted her with its antlers and threw her into the air. Sue felt blood flow down her leg. Within seconds, the deer had pushed her off the road.

When Alexis and her father pulled up, the deer was throwing Sue like a doll. Alexis looked into the woman’s terrified eyes, and before her father had even stopped the car, the teenager jumped quickly out of the car and ran toward the deer. She was kicking and hitting it to get its attention. Then Michael, her father, who had followed his daughter, pushed the deer away from the woman.

Alexis immediately helped Sue into the car. ______

Then she heard her father shout loudly. ______