Her frozen fingers touched the flame trying to feel alive. She could feel the warmth but it was a cold heat, as if the candle was rejecting her.
Her arms turned red because of the cold, her short sleeved shirt not giving her enough warmth. The winter air grabbed(抓住) at her arms, causing her pain, but she didn’t mind. She knew she should put her jacket on, it was winter in Connecticut, but that would be giving up. Up here, in this tree she felt safe.
She looked at the candle, surrounded by hardening wax(蜡). She placed her fingers gently on the warm green wax. This candle was a reminder of her life inside that house, a life she would have to return to eventually.
As a child, she had gotten this candle. She spent all she had on it. The beautiful crystal box （水晶盒）had caught her eye. Five whole nickels（五分币） had brought her that candle.
She gave it to her mother for Mother’s Day. Her mother had managed a smile and put it on a shelf. “It’s very pretty, honey! I will put it right here.” Since then that candle had never been moved, never been lighted, sitting dusty on a cluttered shelf that no one could see. Later on, her parents got divorced.
By now the candle was colder than the air and the darkness was complete. The snow on the ground made the night lighter and less satisfying than it had been before the first snowfall. She liked the darkness because she felt safe in it. From the glances of her friends who liked the girl she used to be. From the boys who could never figure out who she was. From her guidance counselor(顾问) whose endless worried looks never made her feel any better.
No one was outside at this time of night. She was alone in the world, just how she liked it. Just as she was about to lean back against the branch, she heard a sound.
She heard footsteps breaking the ice in the snow, heading toward her. He was making his way toward the white fence at the edge of the building, right against the road. Normally she would have ignored this person and stayed on her branch faraway from human contact, but this figure had something with him. He trudged(吃力地走) toward the white fence carrying a case. The figure reached the fence, opened the case and took out a shiny object.
She took her eyes off this figure only long enough to climb down the tree to get a better view of him. She reached the bottom and saw that the person had turned to face the street, sitting on the white fence that she and her friends once sat on. She stepped carefully on the ice, making her way toward him.
And then a beautiful sound of music came from the shiny object. She stopped and listened to it. She started walking towards the guy again. Just as she was about to step onto the snow banks, she slipped on the ice crashing to the ground. The figure turned around in surprise and a sudden recognition fell upon them both.
【小题1】The girl was hiding in the tree at deep night to ______.

A 16-year-old South Dakota boy who became lost while hunting and spent 16 hours alone in the Black Hills National Forest says he was scared but still managed to make a survival plan.

Austin DuVall, of Rapid City, became lost on Nov.3 while hunting with his father. He ran after a deer, and soon found himself alone. “I ran after a deer, but I didn’t get it,” he said. “Then I was really lost.”

He had only his hunting rifle(步枪) and the clothes he was wearing. He had no food or water and had nothing that could help him find his way to safety. “I knew that no one could hear me. I decided to just sleep and get up in the morning and find safety,” he said.

Austin climbed up on a rock and slept through the night. Then he awoke and relied on skills he learned in a hunter safety course. He followed a stream to an occupied cabin. The couple there called his parents and cooked him a breakfast. “ It’s probably one meal I’ll never forget for the rest of my life,” he said.

After DuVall’s disappearance, a lot of emergency officials and more than 100 volunteers went searching for him. “He wasn’t sitting there waiting for someone to come and find him,” said his father, Steve DuVall. “We didn’t find him; he found himself.”

Mike Kintigh, regional supervisor for the Game, Fish & Parks Department, said one or two hunters will go missing each year, but rarely for more than 24 hours. “We’re a little bit unique in the Black Hills as it’s hard to get lost for a very long time. That’s because we’ve got so many roads here compared to the Rocky Mountains,” Kintigh said. “You can certainly spend a very uncomfortable night in the woods like Austin did.”

1.After Austin realized he lost his way, he ___.

A．was very nervous but excited

B．cried aloud for help

C．tried to find a safe place

D．decided to sleep in the wild

2. Who saved Austin according to his father?

A．The couple in the cabin.

B．Emergency officials.

C．Volunteers.

D．Himself.

3.From what Mike Kintigh said, we learn that _______.

A．if someone gets lost in the Rocky Mountains, it is hard to find a way out

B．too many people go missing in the Black Hills every year

C．the rescue team is skillful enough to find the lost people in less than 24 hours

D．people who are lost in the Black Hills have to spend a night in the woods

For their nick-of-time acts, Toby, a 2-year-old dog, and Winnie, a cute cat, were named Dog and Cat of the Year by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.   

As Amy Paul choked(哽住) on a piece of apple at her home, her dog jumped up, landing hard on her chest and forcing the piece in her throat out. When the Keesling family of Indiana was about to be killed by carbon monoxide, their cat clawed at the wife Cathy’s hair until she woke up and called for help.

No one could explain their timely heroics.

Both pets were rescued by their owners in infancy-----Toby as a 4-week-old thrown into a garbage bin to die, and Winnie as a week-old orphan hiding under a barn, so helpless that Cathy’s husband, Eric, had to feed her milk with an eyedropper.

As the Keeslings recalled it, a gas-driven pump being used broke down, spreading carbon monoxide through the house. By the time Winnie went to rescue, the couple’s 14-year-old son was already unconscious. “Winnie jumped on the bed and was clawing at me, with a kind of angry sound,” Cathy Keesling said. The state police responding to her 911 call said the family was only minutes from death, judging by the amount of poisonous gas in the house.

Amy Paul’s husband was at his job when she took a midday break from making jewelry and bit into an apple. “Normally I peel them, but I read in Good Housekeeping Magazine that the skin has all the nutrients, so I ate the skin, and that’s what caused me to choke,” she recalled. “I couldn’t breathe and I was in panic when Toby jumped on me. He never does that, but he did, and saved my life.”

Both Toby and Winnie accompanied their owners to the awards luncheon.

1.What would be the suitable title for the passage?

A. Great Honors for Cat and Dog

B. Dog and Cat Honored for Saving Their Masters

C. Unforgettable Experiences

D. So Smart Animals Are

2.Winnie saved the lives of its owner’s whole family in an accident by __________.

A. jumping onto its owner                    B. calling for help

C. making some strange noises                D. clawing at Cathy’s hair

3.Which of the following has the similar meaning to the underlined word “infancy” in Paragraph 4?

A. babyhood         B. Youth       C. Middle age        D. agedness

4.What caused the carbon monoxide spreading through the house?

A. A pump breaking down.                  B. A driver breaking into the house.

C. The burning gas.                        D. The poisonous gas.

5.Why did Amy Paul choke on a piece of apple?

A. She was too young to care for herself.

B. She had a big bite.

C. She didn’t peel the skin as usual.

D. The apple was too hard.

Wind , water, fire and ice-these powerful natural forces have shaped the land of America in the past. They are still changing it today.
The Colorado River slowly cut down through stone to make the Grand Canyon(大峡谷).
Long ago, ice sheets cut Yosemite Valley and the Great Lakes, and glaciers(冰川) are still on the move in Alaska.
Wind and rain storm hit the land from time to time. Fires sometimes burn down forests and destroy the homes of wild animals. This happened in Yellowstone Park in 1988.
Dead volcanic mountains such as Haleakala on Maui and Carter Lakein Oregon are beautiful to look at. But there are several active volcanoes in the US, especially along the Pacific Coast. There are also many earthquakes in this area. Scientists can do nothing to control earthquakes or volcanoes. This was shown clearly on May 18, 1980. At 8:32 that morning, Mount St Helens in Washington state broke out. The top of the mountain was blown off.
Over 60 people –campers, scientists, journalists, forest workers—were killed. Hundreds of square miles of forests were knocked down. In towns over 100 miles away, day suddenly became night. An ash cloud hid the sun for many hours. Towns and fields in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho were covered with dirty gray ash.
Scientists knew that Mt St Helens might erupt(爆发) soon. But no one could say when. And no one expected the terrible strength of the eruption. Many people were surprised and unready. Harry R. Truman, 84, owned a small hotel in Mt St Helens. Scientists had asked people to move away because the volcano was becoming dangerous.
But Harry Truman would not leave his home. Now it is covered with many feet of dirty ash. A small cross stands above the place where Harry probably died. Perhaps it is better that he did not see the destruction of Mt St Helens, the once beautiful lake, and the forests.
But slowly, life is returning to the dead area around the mountain. Grass and small plants are beginning to grow again. Deer and birds have been seen. The land will never be the same as it once was. Perhaps Mt St Helens will erupt again. But this is all part of nature’s pattern of change, and man has little power to control it.
【小题1】Choose the best title for this passage.