1 . Those with closed minds refused to consider any contradictory facts, and they proceed with their planned course of action, full speed ahead, with their “minds made up” and tightly shut. As an illustration, consider the situation in 1986, prior to the space shuttle Challenger’s disatrous launch that killed all seven astronauts aboard, there was a heated telephone debate between two engineers from the company that produced the shuttle booster rockets and the top officials of NASA (the federal government’s space agency). The engineers insisted that the flight was too risky because of freezing temperature at the Florida launch site. They explained that some of the seals on the fuel tanks were not designed to withstand such low temperatures and might leak under pressure, thus endangering the craft and crew.

Despite the pleas to stop the flight, officials at NASA overruled the engineers, who were best qualified to make judgments about the complex technical problems of space flight. What caused the officials to ignore the engineers? Several flights had already been postponed, and it would not look good to postpone another. It would be bad public relations to disappoint the crowds of people and news reporters waiting for the launch. Top government officials were ready to appear on the national television and take the credit for another safe flight. As a result, with their minds absolutely closed to the facts presented by the engineers, NASA officials ordered the Challenger to take off. Seventy-three seconds later, the spacecraft was enveloped in flame.

Incredibly, seventeen years later, the lesson of the Challenger disaster was repeated. In 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart while re-entering the earth’s atmosphere, killing another crew of seven. During the shuttle’s liftoff, a piece of foam insulation(泡沫隔热材料) had broken off, hitting the shuttle's wing at five hundred miles per hour. Lower-level engineers at NASA begged for photographs of the Columbia in orbit, which might have shown the extent of the damage, but their closed-minded superiors ignored their requests. It was the damage caused by the 1.7 pound chunk of insulation that doomed the Columbia.

There is no virtue in ignoring contradictory facts and “sticking to your guns” when the course taken shows all the signs of being the wrong one. Closed minds are especially noticeable in political campaigns and debates. Many people line up to support one candidate or another and won’t listen to any facts presented by the opposing candidate.

All those with an open mind say is this: “I don’t know everything, so I’d better keep my mind, eyes, and ears open to any new facts that may come along.” The world would be a much better and safer place if everyone had this attitude.

2 . I know what courage looks like. I saw it on a flight I took six years ago, and only now can I speak of it without tears filling eyes at the memory.

Our flight left the Orlando Airport one Friday morning. But immediately upon take-off, it was clear that something was wrong. The aircraft was bumping(颠簸) up and down. All the experienced travellers, including me, looked around with knowing smiles. If you fly much, you see these things and learn to act calmly about them. However, we did not remain calm for long.

Minutes after we were in the air, our plane began falling quickly. The pilot soon made a serious announcement. “We are having some difficulties,” he said. “Our indicators show that the control system has failed. We will be returning to the Orlando Airport. The flight attendants will prepare you for a bumpy landing. Also, if you look out of the windows, you will see that we are dumping fuel from the airplane. We want to have as little on board as possible in the event of a rough touchdown.” In other words, we were about to crash. Many travellers looked visibly frightened now. No one faces death without fear, I thought.

Then a couple of rows to my left, I heard a still calm voice, a woman’s voice, speaking in an absolutely normal conversational tone. I had to find the source of this voice. All around, people cried. Many screamed. Finally, I saw her. In this chaos, a mother was talking to her child. The woman, in her mid-30s, was staring full into the face of her daughter, who looked to be four years old. The child listened closely, sensing the importance of her mother’s words. The mother’s gaze held the child so fixed that she seemed untouched by the sounds of grief and fear around her.

Finally, I leaned over and by some miracle could hear this soft sure voice with the tone of comfort. Over and over again, the mother said, “I love you so much. Remember, no matter what happens, I love you always.” Fortunately, our landing gear held at last and our touchdown was not a tragedy.

However, the voice I heard that day never faded. That mom showed me what a real hero looks like.

Miners have dangerous jobs because occasionally the earth sinks or falls apart. When this happens, miners are     1    (trap) underground. They are buried     2     they don't have air to breathe, food to eat, and water to drink, they will die. They     3     not go without any of these things for long, but the first is the most important.     4    is difficult to figure out where miners are and reach them in time. Trapped miners dream of     5       (be) free and don't give up.

In August 2010, 33 miners     6     (go) to work in a mine in Chile, All of a sudden, a wall broke apart and rocks and dirt filled     7     mine's exit. At first,people thought all the miners died.     8     , after working for 17 days, people at the surface learned the miners were still alive.     9    , people on the surface figured out where the miners were and dug a     10    to send them food and water.

7 . One day I was driving to the marsh (湿地)for bird-watching. The weather forecast called for the possibility of fog. As I _________ the destination, the fog began to _________ . At a turning point, I lost _________ of the car and ran into the wet land.

I tried to open the door, but it was locked as the water had _________ the electrical system. I remembered I had a fire extinguisher (灭火器). I _________ it and gave the window a _________ hit. It merely bounced off. I hit it again, with the _________ result.

The water level had risen, and soon I was swinging the extinguisher underwater. I had to_________for air and down to take as many _________ as my breath would allow. I was nearly __________. A part of me just wanted to give up. But then another thought came to mind, “You have__________ more time. What will you do with it?” “I'm going to try __________” I responded.

I   __________swinging the fire extinguisher as hard as I could and suddenly the impact felt different. I __________ my left hand and felt a hole in the __________. I knew I was going to live.

8 . I was walking along the main street of a small seaside town in the north of England looking for somewhere to make a phone call. My car had _______ outside the town and I wanted to contact the AA Company. Low grey clouds were gathering across the sky and there was a cold damp wind _______ the sea which nearly threw me off my _______ every time I crossed one of the side streets. It had rained in the night and water was dripping from the _______ trees that lined the street. I was glad that I was wearing a thick coat.

There was no sign of a call _______ nor was there anyone at that early hour whom I could ask.I had thought I might find a shop open _______ the Saturday papers or a milkman doing his _______, but the town was _______ dead. The only living thing I saw was a thin _______ cat outside a small restaurant.

Then ________ I found what I was looking for. There was a small post office, and almost ________ from sight in a dark narrow street. Next to it was the town’s only public call box, which badly needed a coat of ________. I ________ forward, but stopped in ________ when I saw through the dirty glass that there was a   ________ inside. He was fat, and was wearing a cheap blue plastic raincoat. I could not see his face and he didn’t even ________ his head at the sound of my ________.

Carefully, I remained standing a few feet away and ________ a cigarette to wait for my turn. It was when I ________ the dead match on the ground that I noticed something ________ red trickling (滴流) from under the door.

SOS message on the sand saves missing sailors

Micronesia is an area of the western Pacific Ocean with more than 600 islands,     1     covers a huge area of ocean north of the large island of New Guinea.

Recently, three Micronesian sailors set out to sail 42 km from one Micronesian island to another. Unfortunately, they got     2     (lose), and then they ran out of fuel. After a long time drifting without power in the ocean, they landed on the tiny island of Pikelot, more than 100 km from their destination.

Pikelot is just 450 meters long and 280 meters wide. The highest point on Pikelot is only four meters above the sea. No people live there, and there is no water. The little island     3     (cover) in trees and has sandy beaches.

Three days after the three sailors set out on their voyage, they did not arrive at their destination, so ships and aircraft in the area began looking for the     4     (miss) men. But it was almost impossible to decide where     5     (look) because there are so many small islands and the ocean is so large. One of the ships was the Australian navy ship HMAS Canberra, which     6     (sail)   from Australia to Hawaii and had a helicopter on board.

During this time, the three sailors decided to write     7     message on the beach on their tiny island. They wrote a huge SOS in the sand. SOS is an international signal that people use     8       they need help. Luckily, people on an American aircraft saw the SOS message in the sand and contacted the Canberra. A helicopter       9     the ship landed on the beach and gave the men food and water. Soon after, a Micronesian boat arrived and rescued the three sailors. They are very lucky to be alive, and it was the SOS message in the sand     10     saved them.