Milo is a rescue dog, adopted by 20-year-old Makayla Swift. But Milo the beagle is also a rescuer. One morning in November 2021, Swift opened her front door in Silver Spring, Maryland, and Milo took off running. Milo ran to the house across the street. He seemed unsatisfied with this house, so he ran to the one next door, Swift on his tail. He started scratching on the front door and Swift was thinking, “Why is he literally trying to break into her house?” She was embarrassed. Not everyone wants a strange dog on their property. But as she tried to drag Milo away, she could hear a sound coming through an open upstairs window. It was a voice yelling “Help!”
Hours earlier, around 4 a.m., 85-year-old Sherry Starr had risen from her bed. All of a sudden, standing there between the toilet and the tub, she slipped. She went down-hard-on the tile floor, and got stuck. Starr was scared of dying there. Her best bet, she decided, was to listen for the letter carrier in the afternoon and scream like the devils.
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。
For the next few hours, Starr practiced yelling, “Help! Help! Help!”
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Not long after the call, rescue workers arrived.
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1. What does the man do?
| A．A policeman. | B．A firefighter. | C．A journalist. |
| A．2. | B．5. | C．28. |
| A．On the carpet. | B．On the sofa. | C．On the table. |
| A．His father asked him to throw it. |
| B．His father was drunk and sleeping. |
| C．His father left him alone at home. |
I worked at a local station of the Berlin fire department. We got an alert (警报) around 8:25pm that Friday and rushed to the fire engine, where the printout from the dispatcher (调度员) said there was a nine-year-old boy locked in a safe.
I asked myself: if it were a safe, would it be airtight? I was aware that it might already be too late by the time we arrived. I had to plan for a bad outcome. On the other hand, if we were in time, how long would it take us to open the safe? I knew it would be an incredibly difficult task. It’s what safes are designed for—not to be opened.
It took less than five minutes to reach the property. When I saw a woman crying on the street,
I knew the situation was serious. She was the boy’s mother and she led us into the basement. She told us the boy was alive and we started talking to him; he was very calm. We asked how it had happened: during a game of hide and seek with his five-year-old brother, he had thought the safe would be a good place to hide.
The boy’s parents had got the house from his mother’s father. The unlocked safe had been there when they moved in and was in an area they didn’t use much. The boy’s little brother had shut the safe, then, when he couldn’t open it again. The only person who knew the combination was the boy’s late grandfather.
From the outset, the biggest priority was getting oxygen to the boy. We got oxygen from the hospital. The boy said that he could feel a thin stream of air. I asked his parents if anyone had opened the safe before and they said no. So we had to guess a six-digit code (密码). We started typing them in—but we had to wait 10 minutes between each attempt before we could try again. So quickly we tried them all. No luck.
注意：
1.续写词数应为150左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卷的相应位置作答。
We were fully prepared at this point to open the safe by force, starting with a drill.
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Then, just as we started to make the first cut, my workmate typed in the correct code.
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It was just past midnight. The stars were shining across the sky. Nicholas Bostic, a 38-year-old driver, was still out on his evening pizza delivery shift. With his favorite music on, he enjoyed the soft wind kissing his face. A she drove pasta two-story house around a street corner, he was shocked at the frightening sight: It was on fire! He stopped his car and rushed over to assess the situation and to determine if anyone might be trapped inside. He reached for his phone to dial 911, but realized he left it at home. He didn’t hear sirens(警报) in the distance. Nor did he see any bystanders dialing the fire department. Nicholas feared the home’s sleeping occupants might not wakeup in time to move to safety.
With no time to waste, he made the courageous decision to enter the home on his own without protective gear(护具). He gained entry through the back door. He rushed upstairs, yelling “fire!” throughout the home. The oldest child, Seionna, heard his screams and woke up. She woke up her younger sister and a friend who had stayed the night. She then ran to grab her 1-year-old baby sister.
Nicholas called out to the terrified girls and instructed them to follow him. The sister—Seionna, 18; Shaylee, 13; and Kalia, 1―and their family friend, Livian, 13, followed his directions to escape to the safety of the street.
“For a minute I didn’t understand it,” Shaylee recalled. “But my sister ran upstairs with the baby in her hands, yelling at us to get up because there’s a fire. That’s when we went downstairs, and Nicolas was downstairs helping us.”
Once outside in the fresh air, the girls shook in far and coughed from the smoke. However, they soon realized that their 6-year-old sister, Kaylani, had not escaped with them.
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。
Without hesitation, Nicholas rushed back into the now flame-filled home.
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As flames shot at his feet, he broke the window’s glass with his bare hand.
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The waves crashed heavily against the rocks, the stormy sea swallowing the once-powerful ship. The only survivor of the shipwreck was brought by the currents to the shore of a small, uninhabited island. His desperate cries for help mixed with the roar of the storm, only to be swallowed by the ocean.
Exhausted and disoriented, he lay on the sandy beach, thanking whatever forces had saved his life. After he surveyed the surroundings, he realized the harsh reality of his isolation. He prayed to God and scanned the horizon for any sign of rescue, but no help appeared. In the midst of despair, he gradually awakened to the fact that he had to survive on this uninhabited island on his own. Driven by great determination, the survivor managed to build a shelter with the driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions.
Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months. The survivor, once stuck in his isolation, started exploring the island’s hidden treasures. His routine became a dull cycle of hunting for food, collecting rainwater, and scanning the horizon for any sign of rescue. But the vast expanse of the ocean offered no comfort, no ship on the horizon to save him.
Despite his loneliness, the survivor clung to hope. The sunrises brought a glimmer of optimism, and he kept scanning the horizon, searching for any trace of rescue.
Then, one fateful day, as he returned from a fruitless search for food, he was greeted by a devastating sight — his shelter was on fire, and the smoke was rolling up to the sky! The worst had happened — the fire had consumed all his possessions, leaving him nothing but the clothes on his back. Desperation and disbelief seized him as he watched the smoke rise to the sky, a cruel demonstration of his misfortune.
注意： 1.续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
“God, how could you do this to me!” he cried.
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The rescuers explained that they had seen the smoke signal from the burning shelter.
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In the summer of 2002, Linda was about to enter sixth grade after having recently moved. Being new to town, her mother decided to sign her up for Girl Scouts(女童子军). The benefits of the Girl Scouts were well-known:developing leadership skills, creating a strong sense of self, encouraging healthy relationships among others. One of the most important parts of the program involved developing healthy relationships, often leading to unbreakable bonds, sometimes through the Buddy(伙伴) Program.
Soon Linda joined Pisgah Girl Scout Camp in Brevard, North Carolina, where she was paired with a buddy named Rose in a four-person tent. At camp, Linda and Rose's lives were closely connected together. As a Girl Scout, Linda was taught to have someone to rely on, to know where she is going, to talk over things, and to make friends. Little did she know how important that single skill would be in her life.
One afternoon, a storm blew in and sent the girls all to their tents. Lightning(闪电) struck a tree outside the girls' tent. As bad luck would have it, Linda had been standing on her metal bed at the time. Lightning traveled from the metal clothesline between that tree and another one-burning all the bathing suits-went down into the tree roots, which were tied up into the floorboards of the tents, and hit her bed. Very soon, two-thirds of Linda's body was burned. Linda was lying on the floor badly burned and unable to move.
The other three girls in the tent were frightened to death. They screamed and ran from the tent, not noticing what was happening to Linda, but Rose quickly realized her buddy was not among them.
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。
Without a second thought, Rose went back to look for Linda, only to find her on the floor of the tent.
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They finally got back in touch, and together, they toured the camp where they had got to know each other.
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1. What was the speaker driving to do?
| A．Go to his office. | B．Pick up his son. | C．Go to the post office. |
| A．Drinks. | B．Swimsuits. | C．Fruits and bread. |
| A．A traffic jam. | B．A flat tire. | C．An engine failure. |
| A．Worried. | B．Depressed. | C．Relieved. |
As far as Justin knew, there was only one way out of his neighborhood: basketball. So he ran with the ball like the hounds (猎犬) were running after him. He could drop any of the older guys at the court and the younger guys didn’t stand a chance. Justin saw his way out and he ran for it.
One day when Justin was shooting around at the local court, some guys from another block ran up and asked to play. The big one in the middle said that he had heard that Justin was the best and he wanted to see if it was true. Justin refused him at once. But the big guy insisted, and Justin’s cousin was encouraging, “Come on, Justin, drop this guy.” So Justin figured that he’d just do what everyone wanted and play.
Justin was running all over the big guy and making his shots while he did it. But suddenly Justin was pushed hard by the big guy and went flying in just such a way that he unluckily tore up his right knee. The doctor said Justin might never play again. Justin almost broke down.
The first six weeks in hospital, Justin just lay in bed with his leg in a long cast (石膏). He watched three reruns (再播放) of The Simpsons every day and ate potato chips until the bag was empty, and then he’d dig the salt and grease out of the corner with his finger. It seemed as if he blew up like a balloon. Right when he reached the bottom of the pit of despair (绝望), Justin’s sister, Kiki, came home from the university.
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。
She came in the house like a whirl of sunshine.
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After spending those weeks with his sister, Justin realized he didn’t want to feel bad for himself any more.
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A Narrow Escape
There was a huge three-acre pond just a few kilometers from where we stayed. Since moving into our new home in the countryside, my brother, Jim and I used to often slip out to the pond where we would meet another friend. Dad had warned us not to risk staying anywhere near the pond area, particularly after a friend informed him that a crocodile（鳄鱼）had been spotted there. We paid no attention to his advice, though. This was our favorite playground and we were certainly not going to give it up.
On this particular afternoon, the three of us had just finished swimming, Jim and Syed were unwillingly making their way towards the spot where they had left their clothes. I stayed back and was bathing in the waist-deep water when I suddenly became aware of small waves forming on the surface of the water. I raised my head and looked at the waves. My eyes caught a motion in the water. A log, I thought. Then I saw it—its nose and mouth and its two wild eyes. "Jim..." I wept. Then I screamed with all my strength.
Jim turned his head in my direction and immediately recognized the danger. "Get out of the water, Jeff. Hurry! It's just behind you."
I struggled clumsily in the water. After a few falls and rises, I reached the edge of the pond. I looked over my shoulder. Moving swiftly towards me was a giant crocodile. I froze. Then suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my leg. Meanwhile, Jim and Syed screamed and started throwing stones at the crocodile and managed to draw its attention away from me. The crocodile went for them now. As it opened its jaws, I could see its pointed teeth. I tried to move but a stabbing pain（刺痛）short through me. I fell down heavily onto the ground, lying in a pool of blood.
注意：
1.续写词数应为150左在；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Meanwhile, our screams were heard by two hunters who were not far away from us.
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When I regained consciousness, I found myself in a totally unfamiliar environment.
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1. What happened to the woman?
| A．She left her handbag on the bus. |
| B．She missed the No. 22 bus yesterday. |
| C．She didn’t find City Bus Company. |
| A．They didn’t find anything like that. |
| B．Someone found it and gave it to them. |
| C．It was certain that someone took it away. |
