1 . High-Wire Act
Mickey Wilson had been on the mountain only a few seconds when he heard the scream. Wilson, 28 years old, had just gotten off the cable car (索道缆车) at the Arapahoe Basin Ski Area in Keystone, Colorado, along with his friends Billy Simmons and Hans Mueller. Their friend Richard had been on the cable car ahead of them, but when the men reached the top of the lift, he had disappeared. The men walked toward the source of the scream and found skiers stopped on the slope, pointing to the cable car. And then the friends screamed too.
“Oh, Richard!” yelled Mueller.
When Richard had tried to jump off the cable car, his backpack had been caught in the chair, which then dragged him back down the hill. In the process, the backpack belt twisted around his neck, making him breathless. Now Richard’s body was swinging four feet above the snow. The cable car operator had quickly stopped it, and the friends kicked off their skis and ran toward the scene. They made a human pyramid to try to reach Richard, but the unconscious man was too far off the ground. With the clock ticking, Wilson ran to the ladder of a nearby lift tower. Scared skiers watched as he struggled the 25 feet. After he reached the top, Wilson’s first challenge was to climb onto the two-inch steel cable that held the chairs. He handled the balance and height bravely, but he knew he could not walk on the cable. Therefore, he calmed down and sat over it and then used his hands to pull himself to Richard quickly. Wilson’s greatest fear wasn’t that he’d fall, but that he wouldn’t reach Richard. “This was life or death,” he said.
When he reached Richard’s chair, Wilson swung a leg over the cable and attempted to drop down onto it. But as he did that, his jacket caught on the movable footrest, which was in the up position. The footrest began to slide down, with Wilson attached. But before that could happen, he managed to free himself and reached Richard.
Fortunately, the ski patrol (巡查) had gathered below and performed emergency treatment on Richard, who had been hanging for about five minutes, then skied him down to an ambulance.
That night, Richard called from the hospital to express his thanks to Wilson, his other friends and the workers at the Arapahoe Basin Ski Area.
1. What happened to Richard when he tried to jump off the cable car?| A．He was sick and became unconscious. |
| B．He left his skis which stopped the cable car. |
| C．He was too afraid to move forward in the cable car. |
| D．He was caught by the neck, hanging down the cable. |
| A．People worked together and saved him. |
| B．Wilson climbed on the cable and saved him. |
| C．The ski patrol got him down and treated him. |
| D．Skiers treated him and carried him to the hospital. |
| A．the rescue process was dangerous |
| B．something was wrong with the cable car |
| C．Wilson could manage the process very well |
| D．the operator of the cable car ignored his duty |
| A．it is very dangerous to go skiing |
| B．he that climbs high often falls heavily |
| C．bravery and calm can help you make a difference |
| D．a person with a great talent always has great will-power |
2 . A cell phone is one of the few things that we hold close to our faces all the time, and yet it could possibly explode – this is what made the recent Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 smart phone accidents so shocking.
According to technology news website, The Verge, flawed (有瑕疵的) phone batteries might be to blame.
Even if you are not a science student, you probably know that it is common sense that the negative end and the positive end of the battery should never touch. If they do, the battery will short-circuit (短路), causing a powerful electrical reaction that can destroy the battery and cause a fire.
This is why all lithium-ion (锂离子) batteries – the kind that can be found in many of our devices (电子设备) like tablets and cameras – have a separator layer inside to stop the two ends from touching one another.
But somehow, the separators in some of the Samsung phones broke, causing explosions.
Overcharging is another problem that can make batteries heat up quickly. Fortunately, most batteries are designed to be able to automatically stop charging once they are fully charged. But again, this somehow failed to happen in some of the Samsung phones.
According to Lynden Archer, a materials scientist at Cornell University, US, we have already achieved 90 percent of the battery life possible from a lithium-ion battery. Customers’ demands that their devices get thinner and their battery have a longer life have given producers little choice but to try to put more power into thinner batteries. However, the more energy you put into a box, the more dangerous it’s going to be.
1. A separator layer is put in lithium-ion batteries in order to ______.| A．ensure a longer battery life |
| B．reduce a certain electrical reaction |
| C．connect the anode and the cathode |
| D．prevent a battery from short circuiting |
| A．Pushing the limits of batteries. |
| B．Short circuiting and overheating. |
| C．Overcharging and thinner batteries. |
| D．Automatic charging and broken separators. |
| A．To describe problems facing cell phone producers. |
| B．To warn us about the dangers of lithium-ion batteries. |
| C．To teach us common sense when it comes to batteries. |
| D．To explain the reasons for the Samsung phone explosions. |
3 . “WHAT IS CIVILIZATION?” asked Kenneth Clark 50 years ago in the seminal BBC series on the subject. “I don’t know, and I can’t define it in abstract terms, yet. But I think I can recognize it when I see it, and I’m looking at it now.” And he turned to gesture behind him, at the soaring Gothic towers and flying buttresses of Notre Dame.
It seems inhuman to care more about a building than about people. That the sight of Notre Dame going up in flames has attracted so much more attention than floods in southern Africa which killed over 1,000 arouses understandable feelings of guilt. Yet the widespread, intense grief at the sight of the cathedral’s collapsing steeple is in fact profoundly human—and in a particularly 21st-century way.
It is not just the economy that is global today, it is culture too. People wander the world in search not just of jobs and security but also of beauty and history. Familiarity breeds affection. A building on whose sunny steps you have rested, in front of which you have taken a selfie with your loved one, becomes a warm part of your memories and thus of yourself. That helps explain why China is in mourning—WeChat, young China’s principal means of talking to itself, has been throbbing with the story, and Xi Jinping, the country’s president, sent a message of condolence to Emmanuel Macron, his French counterpart—while India was largely indifferent. Tourism from India to the West is a trickle compared with the flood from China.
This visual age has endowed beauty with new power, and social media have turned great works of art into superstars. Only a few, though, have achieved this status. Just as there is only ever a handful of world-famous actors, so the pantheon of globally recognizable cultural symbols is tiny: the Mona Lisa, Michelangelo’s David, the Taj Mahal, the Great Pyramid—and Notre Dame. Disaster, too, is visual. In the 24 hours after the fire started videos on social media of the burning cathedral were viewed nearly a quarter of a billion times.
Yet the emotions the sight aroused were less about the building itself than about what losing it might mean. Notre Dame is an expression of humanity at its collective best. Nobody could look up into that vaulted ceiling without wondering at the cumulative genius of the thousands of anonymous craftsmen who, over a century and a half, realized a vision so grand in its structural ambition and so delicate in its hand-chiselled detail. Its survival through 850 years of political turbulence—through war, revolution and Nazi occupation—binds the present to the past.
The fire also binds people to each other. The outpouring of emotion it has brought forth is proof that, despite the dark forces of division now abroad, we are all in it together. When nationalism is a rising threat, shared sadness makes borders suddenly irrelevant. When politics is polarized, a love of culture has the power to unite. When extremism divides Muslim from Christian and religious people from atheists, those of all faiths and none are mourning together. An edifice built for the glory of God also represents the unity of the human spirit.
And it will be rebuilt. The morning after the fire, the many Parisians who went to the cathedral to mourn its destruction found comfort instead. Although the spire is gone, the towers are still standing and it seems likely that the whole building can be revived. The effort to rebuild it, like the fire, will bring people together. Within 24 hours, €600m ($677m) had been raised from businesses and rich people, and a rash of crowdfunding campaigns started. A high-resolution laser scan of the building, carried out recently, should help.
It will never be the same, but that is as it should be. As Victor Hugo wrote in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, a three-volume love-letter to the cathedral: “Great edifices, like great mountains, are the work of centuries. Art is often transformed as it is being made…Time is the architect, the nation is the builder.”
1. What’s the writer’s attitude towards the fact that people care more about a building than floods in Africa?| A．indifferent | B．critical |
| C．confused | D．understandable |
| A．sympathy | B．compliment |
| C．gratitude | D．agreement |
| A．Because Indians care more about jobs and security. |
| B．Because Indians have no access to social media like WeChat. |
| C．Because Indians have less familiarity with Notre Dame. |
| D．Because Indians are not fond of travelling. |
| A．People are more sad about losing the building than about what losing it might mean. |
| B．Not only does Notre Dame bind the present to the past but also binds people to each other. |
| C．Owing to the big fire, people around the world will unite forever despite their differences. |
| D．Unrest existed in history for quite a long time and it still exists now. |
| A．the high-resolution laser scan of the building helps but far from enough |
| B．it’s impossible to replicate (复制) it for lack of the cumulative genius of craftsmen |
| C．dark forces, nationalism and extremism are barriers to replicating it |
| D．time has changed and the rebuilding will change accordingly |
| A．What is civilization? | B．Why do people care about Notre Dame? |
| C．What binds people together? | D．How should we rebuild Notre Dame? |
4 . The dad of the two youngest survivors of US Airways Flight 1549’s incredible landing in the Hudson River said the near-death experience “brought out the best in humanity.” It has been a decade since US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River.
Sosa, now 58, told The Post in an email Monday. “As strange as the experience was, it brought out the best in humanity as witnessed by the selfless efforts of so many men and women who came to our aid without thinking twice about their safety. I am grateful to all of them.”
Sosa and his wife Tess were traveling to Charlotte, North Carolina, that day with 9-month-old Damian and 4-year-old Sofia. The couple were sitting several rows apart when the Airbus A320 suddenly struck a flock of Canada geese moments after taking off from LaGuardia Airport.
Sosa could smell jet fuel burning and immediately knew they were in danger. “There was an explosion in the left engine which I could see from my seat,” he recalled. “The next thing I knew the plane went dead silent when both engines broke down. I got a quick glance at Tess seated ahead of me when we both realized we were in trouble.”
The next three minutes were harrowing(折磨). The powerless plane plunged over The Bronx and pointed toward the Hudson, where it would eventually ditch(在水上迫降), thanks to a split-second decision by Capt. Sullenberger. All 155 people on board could survive. Works helped with the rescue mission after the US Airways plane crashed into the Hudson River in the afternoon on January 15 in New York City.
The dad this year 2019 who welcomed a new child, Phoebe, with Tess in the years after the incident — said “To date, it remains an unforgettable memory, a key point in our lives from which we perceive(感知) the world and process our day-to-day experiences,” said Sosa. “When you survive a near-miss experience, I think it makes one more tolerant. It makes you appreciate every day as a gift.”
1. When did the US Airways plane crashed into the Hudson River?| A．2007 | B．2009 |
| C．2011 | D．2019 |
| A．making efforts | B．expressing gratitude |
| C．displaying virtues | D．showing anger |
| A．The disaster made them cherish every day. |
| B．They were traveling to Charlotte, South Carolina that day. |
| C．They realized they were in danger when the left engine failed. |
| D．They were sitting together when the plane struck a flock of Canada geese. |
| A．Landing in the Hudson | B．Unforgettable flight |
| C．Horrifying flight | D．Miracle on the Hudson |
5 . It’s not common that a grandmother aged 89 is crowned Queen of Icebergs in north America, but when it does happen it’s quite the sight.
On a recent trip to Iceland, Judith Streng became that grandma after her son attempted to take a photograph of her sitting on an ice structure that looks like a throne (宝座) at Diamond Beach in Jokul. Shortly after Streng sat down to pose, the piece of ice broke off and floated into the water.
“I thought it was safe. One girl had been on it and then two girls at the same time, and it was very secure with them. When I got on it, it started to shake and a wave was coming in. A very large wave came in and made the throne kind of shake, and I could tell that I was slipping off,” Streng told ABC News.
Streng’s story went hot after her 24-year-old granddaughter Catherine tweeted a text message exchange she had with her father about the incident. “My grandmother almost got lost at sea in Iceland today!”
Catherine, who teaches English in Seoul, South Korea, explained via Twitter that her father described the scene vividly. He has a PhD in English, and described the event in the following words, “She climbed to the throne after a wave had pulled back and left it briefly exposed on the beach. Then a wave washed in and removed the ice throne, rocking it from side to side. When the wave left, it lifted the throne and carried her out into the sea with the tide.”
Luckily for the Streng family, Randy, a licensed boat captain from Florida with knowledge of water rescue strategies witnessed the whole thing, and was able to save the day.
1. Where was the grandma when her son was taking a picture for her?| A．On a crown. | B．In an iceboat. |
| C．At a throne beach. | D．On an iceberg. |
| A．By drawing a vivid picture. |
| B．By exchanging tweeter account. |
| C．By talking with her father in Seoul. |
| D．By posting the text message exchange with her father. |
| A．Catherine. | B．Streng. |
| C．Randy. | D．Judith. |
| A．Taking Pictures Must be Very Dangerous |
| B．A Grandma Floated out to the Sea on an Iceberg |
| C．An Optimistic Family Who Love Iceberg |
| D．The Licensed Boat Captain Went Hot Slowly |
6 . Don’t Drop the Ball
Drop prevention risk assessment is really important. Everyone knows objects get dropped on work sites – there’s nothing radical about that. In Australia, mining has the third highest fatality rate of any industry (4.4 fatalities per 100,000 workers in 2015), and in less well-documented areas like India the fatality rate is even higher. A lot of these fatalities come from dropped objects. It’s worth trying to address this and work out just how big the risk is and where it comes from. At the end of the day, safety should be a priority in any industry and it should come as no surprise that addressing safety issues early can actually save money, long-term, for companies. It doesn’t look good for a mining company if people are getting injured and equipment damaged from falling objects.
The risks from dropped objects come from all sorts of areas; it’s not just a matter of dropped tools. We’re talking about sites characterized by a lot of activities, where all sorts of things can come loose or fall, whether its light fittings or objects like rocks falling off transporting belts. The risks are largely personal but are also financial: if a piece of equipment gets damaged it will need replacing. That’s a pretty strong inspiration for companies to address these risks. In terms of frequency, here in Australia we’re looking at around 18% of compensation claims coming from workers being hit by moving objects, but those are just the claims – the frequency is likely higher. Around 28% of deaths and injuries come from such incidents, too. As I said earlier, that’s just Australia; some industries don’t keep statistics, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find other countries report comparable rates. That’s a lot of accidents that could be prevented with adequate safety measures.
It’s important to take an active approach. It’s a lot easier and cheaper to address these risks during the installation or maintenance phases by adding barriers to the inside of guard railings on walkways and transporting systems and adding nets to fixed devices. There are safety mechanisms available, but it’s up to the companies to install them. It is a lot more efficient to add barriers right from the start rather than waiting for an accident and then thinking, “Should we be safer?”, when they should have reduced these risks from the start.
1. Why is drop prevention risk assessment important?| A．People seldom knows the extent of risk. |
| B．Many bosses consider their reputation. |
| C．Many deaths are caused by falling objects. |
| D．Companies need to save a lot of money. |
| A．Light devices on the transporting belt. |
| B．Personal injury and equipment damage. |
| C．Safety issues and corporate development. |
| D．Compensation claims and statistics. |
| A．The frequency is higher though some industries do not have statistics. |
| B．Some 46 percent of deaths and injuries resulted from such incidents. |
| C．Four out of ten people died in incidents like this every year. |
| D．There have been more incidents in Australia than anywhere else. |
| A．To find a security mechanism. | B．To reduce the use of tools. |
| C．To replace the damaged equipment. | D．To install some security equipment. |
1. What is the man?
| A．A driver. | B．A policeman. | C．A witness. |
| A．Mr. William Jefferson’s. | B．Mrs. William R. Crauston’s. | C．Mr. William R Crauston’s. |
| A．At Caldo’s Garage. | B．At Norris’s Garage. | C．At Fulton’s Garage. |
1. What happened at First Republic Bank?
| A．The man robbed the bank with a gun. |
| B．A young girl was robbed and killed. |
| C．The man used a cell phone to rob the bank. |
| A．The winds and the tides helped them. |
| B．Some local fishermen showed them the way. |
| C．They followed a school of fish back to the ocean. |
| A．Riders won’t be allowed to perform dangerous tricks. |
| B．The show will be delayed until all the riders sign insurance forms. |
| C．Medical workers will be there in case of an emergency. |
| A．A rider was killed last month. |
| B．A rider was badly injured last month. |
| C．Some audience were involved in a violence. |
9 . A Russian spacecraft traveling to the International Space Station Thursday had to make an emergency landing when a rocket engine failed to fire. It was the latest in a recent series of failures for the Russian space program, which is also used by the U.S. to carry its astronauts to the station.
United States astronaut Nick Hague and Russian astronaut Alexei Ovchinin landed safely about 20 kilometers from Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan. The city is about 450 kilometers from the Russia’s Baikonur space center, which Russia operates through an agreement with the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Both the U.S. space agency NASA and Russia’s Roscosmos reported that the two were quickly recovered from the landing area by rescue crews. A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said, “Thank God the crew is alive” after they had landed safely.
About two minutes after launching, the three-stage Soyuz booster rocket suffered an unspecified failure of its second stage. Russia’s TASS news agency said the capsule carrying the two men separated from the troubled rocket safely. This caused the capsule to drop very sharply into the Earth’s atmosphere. Parachutes（降落伞）helped slow the returning capsule. Search and rescue teams were sent to recover the crew.
Russia’s RIA news agency reported that Russia has immediately put off all manned space launches after the failure. Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said he had ordered a state commission to carry out an investigation into what went wrong. He said Russia will share all relevant information with the U.S.
The TASS news agency said that the ISS crew has enough supplies and that the failed launch will not affect operations.
The U.S. and other nations have depended on Russia to carry astronauts to the ISS since the retirement of the Space Shuttle program in 2011. In coming years, American aerospace companies SpaceX, with its Dragon 2, and Boeing, with its Starliner, are expected to return to space.
1. What can be the best title of the text?| A．The Rescue of Two Astronauts |
| B．The Launch of Russian Spacecraft |
| C．Cooperation between Russia and America |
| D．Emergency Landing in Failed Space Launch |
| A．The problem of the engine. | B．The terrible weather. |
| C．The drop of the capsule. | D．The wrong operation. |
| A．SpaceX is sure to go back to space soon. |
| B．America carried astronauts to the ISS by itself before 2011. |
| C．Now only Russia can carry astronauts to space. |
| D．the ISS crew lives a very good life in the space station. |
| A．The capsule landed safely in Dzhezkazgan, Russia. |
| B．Russia had never failed in the space launch before this failure. |
| C．The failed launch will have a serious effect on the operations. |
| D．At first the capsule dropped very rapidly into the Earth’s atmosphere. |
注意：每个空格只填1个单词。请将答案写在答题卷上相应题号的横线上。
A total of 604 people injured in a chemical plant explosion on March 21 in Xiangshui, Jiangsu Province were still receiving medical care in nearby medical facilities, including 19 in critical condition and 98 seriously wounded. The fire quickly spread to 16 neighboring enterprises, with the latest death toll at 64.
At the same time, rescuers were busy inspecting chemical plants damaged in the explosion for possible poisonous substance leaks. Since the explosion, six rounds of search and rescue missions have been launched, and the search area has been expanded from 1.1 square kilometers to 2 sq km. More than 4,500 medical workers and 116 ambulances have so far participated in rescue work. The National Health Commission sent 16 leading experts to treat the injured. As of the noon of March 24, victims were being treated in 16 hospitals. Specialized treatment plans had been made for every patient. Psychologists have also been sent to help the recovery of the patients, their relatives and rescuers. Workers have been sent to comfort the families of the killed. The bodies will be treated according to ethnic and religious customs where applicable.
Sang Shulou, 36, discharged from the hospital after receiving treatment, with signs of obvious injury on his face, said that he was blessed to have survived the explosion that happened just 100 meters away from him. “I was driving a car passing the explosion site when the car was pushed away fiercely by the wave,” he said.
More than 1,600 homes near the explosion site have been repaired. Owners of homes beyond repair will receive compensation and assistance in moving to new homes.
The State Council, China’s Cabinet, has set up a special investigation group to look into the explosion. The investigation would be thorough. It also severely criticized the local government and the company involved for their not learning lessons from previous environmental violations and failing to make effective corrections, Official records show that the concerned company had been punished several times before for taking advantage of safety loopholes and violating environmental protection regulations. Chenjiagang Chemical Park also experienced several similar safety accidents over the past few years.
| Outline | Information about a chemical plant explosion |
| Introduction | On March 21, a chemical plant |
| Rescue work | ※ Potential poisonous stuff release was being inspected. ※ Search area has been expanded. ※ For the treatment of the injured, sixteen experts from The National Health Commission were ※ Patients have also received ※ Comfort is provided for the families of the killed, whose bodies will be treated, (75) ※ Damaged houses have been mended. Those, whose houses are beyond repair, will be assisted and (76) |
| A (77) | Sang Shulou, released from hospital, expressed he was in luck to weather the disaster, in which his car shook due to a fierce explosion wave. |
| Investigation | ※ The accident will be (78) ※ Local government and the involved company has received severe criticism for (79) ※ Chenjiagang Chemical Park underwent considerable safety accidents alike. |
