When I was in medical college, I went camping with some of my friends on the seaside. After ____16____(arrive) there, we rented a room and left our luggage there. The sea and the weather were beautiful, ____17____ we finished lunch and then decided to rent a boat.
We started to row, but about one mile out, the weather suddenly changed. ___18____ the weather was not good, we didn’t want to give up, but finally my friends and I agreed that we should go back. We tried to change the boat’s direction, but ___19____oarlock(桨) broke. Therefore, we were unable to turn back. What we could do was wait ___20___ help.
The sea changed a lot, the waves got very high, and the boat began to shake like a cradle(摇篮). One of my friends started to cry ; ____21___ started to feel sick. There hours passed, and nobody came to help us. We were just praying. _____22_____(fortunate), after five long hours of waiting, two big boats came to rescue ____23___ and we escaped. If they ____24____(not come) to get us, we would have crossed the border between Turkey and Greece because the border was very close.
This story is ____25____(excite) story of my life because we could have died, but luck was with us and we escaped.

When most people travel, they spend some time booking hotel rooms. However, my friend Ashley and I were not like most people many years ago. We decided that backpacking through Ireland would be more fun if we “winged it”.

  Winging it, of course, meant that we’d each buy a one-way ticket to Dublin, and give ourselves ten days to get back to Bath, England, where we were enrolled in a study-abroad program. The plan was to visit Dublin, Galway, Cong, and finally end things in Belfast, where we figured we could catch a flight back to England.

  Unfortunately, Ireland had other plans for us, as nothing worked out the way in which we thought it would. After getting stuck in Galway and Cong for about seven days, we finally managed to take a bus trip from Cong to Belfast. The twelve-hour bus ride started at ten in the morning, which meant that we’d arrive in the heart of Belfast at around ten at night. Of course, like all transport, the bus ran late, and we ended up in Belfast at around eleven-thirty at night. As there were a ton of hotels around the area where it dropped us off, we weren’t too worried about finding a hotel room. But hotel after hotel turned us down.

  After the third hotel turned us down and the fourth one was locked up for the night, Ashley and I started to realize that we had to spend a long night sleeping on a city bench. Like militant soldiers, we slept in turn as we were worried we would get robbed. The system worked, as we were able to stay safe while catching as much sleep as we could on the bench.

  From this experience, I really learnt a good lesson.

1.Why did the author and his friend decide to wing it when they went to travel in Ireland? (No more than 8 words)

2.What did the author and his friend do in Bath, England? (No more than 8 words)

3.How long did it take the author and his friend to get to Belfast from Cong by bus? (No more than 5 words)

4.Why did the author and his friend have to take turns to sleep? (No more than 8 words)

Last year, my boyfriend suggested that I should run the London marathon, and I laughed. He laughed too, but he laughed too long and too loud. That made me think. I realized that he didn’t believe that I could do it. That made me angry, and determined. Now he knows that I can!                     

Training wasn’t easy, but I kept going. I didn’t need special training but I did need to buy very good shoes. Each day, I went a little further. By the end of three months, I was running five days a week. Sometimes in the evenings I ran 10 km; on Sunday mornings, I sometimes ran about 30 km. I used to come home, have a shower and eat my breakfast. I felt wonderful!

On the day of the race in London, I lined up with about 30,000 other runners. The faster runners were at the front, while slower runners like me were placed further back. In that way, the professional runners and club runners were not slowed down by the amateurs.

    At first, there were so many runners close together that we were almost falling over each other. We could only run very slowly but that was a good thing because it meant that we didn’t rush off too quickly. Gradually the runners spread out and there was more space. There were thousands of people watching us along the route and they cheered and clapped everyone, even the slowest runner. It was wonderful!

    For the first 10 km I felt very happy and my legs felt very comfortable. However, at 15 km I got a pain in my side and running became difficult, but I kept going and the pain disappeared. At the 30 km mark, I felt extremely tired, and wanted to stop, but I kept on going. I covered another 3 km and then I began to feel better again.

     By the time I reached the 35 km mark, I knew I was going to get to the end of the course. Somehow that confidence made me feel lighter and faster and it seemed as if my legs flew over the last few kilometers. I passed hundreds of slower runners, some of whom had passed me earlier, and I felt wonderful! As I came round the last bend and saw the finishing line, I could see three runners ahead of me. I raced past all of them to finish the race in just under four hours. The winner had completed the race in 2 hours and 10 minutes, but I didn’t care! I had run 42 km and completed my first marathon!

The writer’s boyfriend laughed at her because        .                      

A. he thought she could run the marathon

      B. he didn’t think she could run the marathon

      C. he wanted her to run the marathon

      D. she wanted to run the marathon

When the race began      .                                                       

   A. all the faster runners were asked to stand before those slower ones

   B. many runners fell over each other

   C. all the runners were asked to run slowly

   D. the professional runners and club runners ran very fast

The hardest time for the writer was when she     .                                 

A. had run for 15 kilometers

   B. got a pain in her side

   C. reached the 30 kilometer mark

   D. was about to reach the finish line

The passage suggests that it is better to start a long race slowly        .                         

   A. than to run at the same speed all the time

   B. than to run too fast at the beginning

   C. than to run slowly at the end

   D. than to run very fast all the time