2 . Coming of age is that time in each of our lives when we begin to see the possibilities. The world opens up in ways that mature our vision and give us a sense of responsibility and gratefulness. Connor had just started college and loved being at that stage in his life where he could eat all the pizza he wanted, yet engage in adult conversations with his parents about the responsibility to make life better for others. Connor’s optimism was infectious. There was so much he could do, and so much he could become.

But it all ended one night when Connor was distracted while driving on a Colorado highway. A young man, who gave off so much light, suddenly went dark.

Connor’s father, David, took it particularly hard.A father sees more than his own traits(性格) in his son; he sees greater possibilities than he achieved. Taking that hope away left David feeling at a loss. But Connor ‘s optimism was one of those traits passed on to him by his father. So, David got to work.

First, he established the Honor Connor Scholarship Fund to reward students who served in the community, Next, he went to work creating a research-based curriculum that educates University of Colorado Boulder students and their families about the dangers of texting while driving. It includes a very simple three part promise: Do not text or use social media while driving, speak out if riding with a driver who is distracted and encourage friends and family to drive phone-free.

David now works with lecturers at various colleges’ and high schools, ensuring young minds understand how statistically at risk they are when they text while driving. He’s become a passionate advocate for preparing young people to drive safely and not reach for their phones while they’re at the wheel. “I just don’t want other parents to go through what I did when I lost Connor,” says David. “It’s just so preventable.”

4 . It was rush hour on the morning of June1. Heather Santellano, 36, was driving her car on Houston Harte Frontage Road with her nine-year-old daughter and ten-year-old son in the back. Suddenly, a red pickup truck cut them off. Santellano turned the wheel hard to the right, sending the car running off the road and down an embankment (路堤) that ended in a drop-off after about 50 feet. If the car didn’t stop, it would go up into the air and slide onto the road some 20 feet below. Then came a bit of luck. As the car raced towards the edge, its undercarriage got stuck on the embankment, stopping it cold. The occupants, however, were far from safe. The car had come to rest on top of a retaining wall, literally teetering on the edge of disaster. One sudden move by anyone inside could send it over.

Jacob Rodriguez, a veteran, watched the scene unfold from the company where he works. Then, he and four other men ran to the car. They leaped onto the trunk to balance the weight as the terrified kids in the back seat watched.

Meanwhile, Julio Vasquez and his nephew, Marco Vasquez, were driving to their jobs at nearby Premier Automotive. Julio jumped out of the car to help while Marco went to the shop, grabbed a heavy-duty strap and returned to the dangling car. He tied the car to and F-350 truck that had been driven over by one of the other rescuers. With the car secured the group carefully opened the back doors and helped the children out.

But their departure shifted the car’s weight, causing it to lean forward. The men, still on the trunk, implored Santellano to jump into the back seat to re-balance the weight. She did and then inched out from the back door. Finally, the men carefully got off the trunk Everyone was safe. “Another foot,” Rodriguez told the media, “and this would be different story.”

6 . Colleen and her husband were part of a group walking the Overland Track. It was the fifth day of a 6-day walk. The guide, who was waiting for them at the nearest camp, had _______ them about the slippery and potentially dangerous conditions. Colleen, an experienced adventurer from Sydney, was a naturally _______ walker. She walked in front of her husband and carefully checked the safety of the track when they were going down a steep slope (陡坡). Suddenly she heard a cracking sound from _______.

"When I realized what was happening, I was heading to a deep ditch (沟壑), my pack on my back." Colleen's fall was only _______by the presence of a branch that stretched across the ditch and kept her from a fall that could otherwise have been deadly.

Colleen hit her head badly and went into _______. She soon woke up and turned around to see her husband sitting stunned on the side of the track. He had accidently fallen from the top. He had first slipped above Colleen, and his full weight, with his pack, _______down on top of her. He was uninjured, and Colleen was suspended on the branch. He reached out to grab Colleen's arm. Colleen felt so painful, the worst physical suffering she had ever felt in her life. She knew _______that her arm was broken.

Her husband took her pack along with his own and together they struggled for the final three kilometers to the camp. Once they reached the camp, the guide gave her first aid and called for the rescue helicopter immediately.

Colleen was _______to the nearest hospital by helicopter. She was examined in the hospital and was told that her head and neck were okay, but her arm had been broken in four places.

Later, Colleen recalled with emotion, "After this personal experience of near-death and being saved, I realized that in some situations there's absolutely no _______to get to hospital, and the rescue helicopter was the only way. At that moment, the most ________ noise was hearing the helicopter come. The helicopter rescue workers were so generous, so highly skilled as well. When they arrived with the policemen, I was never more grateful to see anyone in my whole life."

8 . After lunch I was napping near the window when there came a big bang. I ______ sat up and looked out. Across the street, a car had just backed into a chain-link fence, which was bent in exactly the ______ of the car’s back end.

The driver got off. After ______ the damage, the man tried to put the fence back into place. His first attempt ______ and he tried a little harder. He grabbed the vertical support pole and pulled with his full ______. All of a sudden, the pole ______ and the man fell hard onto the ground, the entire fence ______ him. I laughed till I cried. ______, as you could imagine, he climbed out of the ______ fence and went away.

That, I thought, would be the   ______ of it. However, the man ______ minutes later with some tools. For the next hour, I ______ out of my window as he doggedly fixed the fence and even ______   it. Now the fence would be stronger than ever.

This man was actually a hero and I was embarrassed by my ______ judgments. Years later, I still look out of my window at that fence almost every day. It makes me ______ what else that man has improved, and how I can make myself more, like him.

9 . “Mayday! We got Mayday!” Frank Pisano screamed over the micro-phone to the air control tower at John Wayne Airport last June. One of the two engines on his 1975 Cessna had failed, and he was now on a collision course with one of the busiest highways in America—Interstate 405, just south of Los Angeles—and there was no stopping it.

Driving south on the 405, near the airport’s runway, was John Meffert. A fire department captain, Meffert, 47, was heading home from his shift. Then a low-flying plane caught his eye. After he took a second glance, a thought crossed his mind: “This plane’s going to hit me,” Meffert told Fox 8.

He was right. The plane knocked into the center highway, popped up a few feet, and then hit the front of Meffert’s SUV. It finally stopped after hitting the divider on the southbound side. Meffert pulled over. He was unhurt, so he turned his attention to the plane. He ran toward the smoke billowing from it—and then he saw Frank’s wife, Janan Pisano, pop her head up on the passenger side.

By the time Meffert reached the aircraft, part of the fuselage (机身) was on fire and Janan, who was covered in blood, was on the wing trying to pull her husband from the wreck. Meffert, afraid the plane would explode, guided her to safety behind it. At this point, traffic had come to a stop, and two nurses jumped out of their cars to help lead Janan farther away as Meffert ran back for the pilot.

“I’m going to get you out,” Meffert said as he positioned himself under the pilot’s arms and carefully lifted him from the seat. He dragged the pilot off the wing and carried him to the side of the freeway to safety, where they watched flames swallow the plane.

Remarkably, Meffert’s car was the only one hit by the plane. Had Meffert been a second or two faster, Frank told the Orange County Register, the left propeller (螺旋桨) would have torn the top off his SUV and killed him.

“I play all the what-ifs—going slower, going faster. It could have been in a very different situation,” Meffert told Fox 8. “We just had a lot of angels.”