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[1] Until the moment he saw the flames shooting up in the darkness, the 17 years of Steven Hines'life had not promised much. The police in the Arkansas City of Pine Bluff knew him as a high school dropout and trouble-maker who had served two terms in delinquency schools for petty offences that included fighting and theft. Given that record and a background of hardship and loss - father gone, mother lost to cancer when he was 12, and adored older brother killed in a domestic dispute - he might have remained just another troubled, desperate youngster headed for membership in America's underclass. [2] The night it happened, Hines was cycling through his neighbourhood on Pine Bluff's poor side to buy a soft drink and some potato chips. The instant he saw flames coming through the roof of a trailer home, he dropped his bike and ran, yelling to the door. "I knocked and shouted but no one answered", he recalls. "Through the open window, I could see kids sleeping on the couch and floor". Almost without thinking, he was through the door and carrying the children, singly and in bunches, from the blazing trailer. "When I got all the way inside, I could see these flames go across the ceiling. They were moving very fast. The heat was intense. I said to myself "If I don't get them out of here, the ceiling is going to collapse". [3] Hines rescued 12 children between the age of four and 13 before reaching the bedroom of the elderly couple with whom they were all staying. "The woman was in her wheelchair, and I was guiding that with my hands", says Hines. "Her husband was having to hold on the back of my shirt to follow us out because it was harder to see". [4] Three weeks after the fire, Steven is a hero in Pine Bluff. The $ 500 from well-wishers is in a savings account. He is getting back into school and hopes to go to college. Most important, he has a new sense of himself as well as of others. I see I have a heart and I see you can do more in life by doing good", he says. "I want to help other people because people are helping me now. I don't want to let them down. I don't want to let myself down." Time , March 27, 1995
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| I. READING COMPREHENSION | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1. Give a suitable title to this text. .................................................................................................................................................................................. 2. Fill in the following table about Hines.
3. Read the following
statements, then reorder them with reference to the 2nd and 3rd
4. Paraphrase the underlined words in the following sentences. a.
He had served 2 terms in delinquency schools (par. 1) b.
I see I have a heart. (par. 4) 5. Complete this paragraph with reference to the text. The incident could have had an ............................ end for the children and Hines but it didn't. The children were lucky because they were ............................ from the fire. As for Hines, he was lucky for two reasons. First, he didn't get killed or ............................ . More important still, the incident ............................ his whole life for the better. 6. What do the underlined words refer to ? a. That record (par.1) refers to ..................................................................................... b. That (par.3) refers to ................................................................................................. 7. Circle the right alternative. a. His life had not
promised much (par.1) means : b. To let them down
(par.4) means.
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| II. LANGUAGE | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1. Choose the right alternative from the list on the right to complete the following letter.
2. Use the words in the box to complete the following paragraph.
Success is certainly what
most people .............................. of achieving. It ..............................
being rich and famous. But .............................. can cause a person lots of
problems as it happens to singers and comedians. They suffer from a lack of
......................... . They need bodyguards to protect them. The constant
.............................. on them can lead to the .............................. of
their marriages. 3. Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the bracketed words.
Relatively few (colony) .............................. could finance the (cost)
.............................. of passage for themselves and their families and of making
a start in the new land. For those who could not, the expenses of transportation and (
maintain ) .............................. were paid by colonizing agencies. In return, the
settlers agreed to work for the agencies as contract (labour)
........................ . Although most of them fulfilled their obligations
(faithful).............., some ran away from their (employ)
........................ . 4. Fill in the blanks with the right words from the box to get a coherent paragraph.
Childless couples often try ........................ adopt a child. Yet, legal adoption is a difficult process, ......................... it involves going ........................ several steps. One .............................. the first is .............................. look .............................. a child. Some couples prefer a baby that looks .............................. them but others don't worry .............................. that.
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| III. WRITING | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1. Punctuate and capitalize where necessary. american francis louis has a wonderful lifestyle and lives in a luxurious house near boston I like exotic holidays but I wouldn't like to live outside the states he says divorced five years ago he now hopes to find a wife with the rose dating agency in new york. 2. Reorder the following scrambled sentence parts to obtain a coherent
paragraph. a. American lifestyles are frequently resented by Americans. b. and on doing things their own way. c. This is perhaps why general statements about d. on having a great number of choices, e. One generalization often made about Americans is that they value their individualism quite highly. f. They place great emphasis on their individual differences,
3. Use the following notes to write a short biography of Abraham Lincoln ( 8 lines ). - Birth : Kentucky
1809 / Poor family. .......................................................................................................................................................................... |