On the day the tornado hit, there was no indication severe weather was on its way—the sky was blue and the sun had been out. The first warning my husband, Jimmy and I got came around 9 p.m., from some scrolling text on the TV Jimmy was watching.
No sooner had we found coverage of the tornado than it was on top of us. I didn’t know how or if we would make it down the steps. It felt as if there were no floor underneath me as the wind lifted me off my feet. I gripped the banister(楼梯扶手) and tried to move forward, but this intense pressure held me in place. In those seconds of practical stillness, I could hear everything around me rattling.
We got close to the staircase landing only to hear the loud ripping(撕裂) sound of our garage door coming off. The back wall of the house followed suit and tore off into the darkness outside.
By the time I reached the closet, the tornado had been over us for about a minute. Jimmy pushed me down to the closet floor, but he couldn’t get inside himself because of the wind. I held Jimmy’s arm tightly as the tornado sucked the door open—we never did get it fully shut—and tried to bring Jimmy with it. My knees and head were full of glass, but in that moment, I felt no pain. If I had let go, Jimmy would have flown right out the back of the house and into the bay.
“Hold on! Hold on!” he yelled. But there was nothing in this closet to hold on to. All of a sudden, Jimmy lifted off his feet like people in tornadoes do in the movies. I thought he was gone. And then everything stopped. He landed on his feet. In those first quiet moments, I couldn’t believe it was over. Jimmy said he’d go outside to check. “No,” I said. “Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me.”
1.What does the underlined word coverage mean?A.damage | B.reports |
C.arrival | D.delay |
A.Because she was too eager to help her husband to feel it. |
B.Because she was frozen in amazement. |
C.Because she was held entirely by the power of tornado. |
D.Because she was frightened by the damage caused by the disaster. |
A.scared, surprised but calm | B.surprised, terrified but determined |
C.astonished, confused and moved | D.amazed, determined and grateful |
My great-grandmother Eileen is fierce, loyal and strong and a bit of a legend in her lifetime, which now stretches to 92 years. We’re not allowed to call her Gran, because it makes her feel old.
That summer, I lost my job and felt hopeless. One day, I visited her. She picked up a box. “There you go,” she said. “You are good at these things, aren’t you?” It was a new phone. Her current mobile was ancient. I was surprised it still worked.
“Yes, ”I said. “That’s why I ask you. Young people know more about such things than us oldies. You can take it home and get it all set up,” she went on. “Then, when you bring it back, you can show me how to use it, such as surfing the Internet, sending e-mails and so on.” She smiled so sweetly that I felt a surge of love for her.
I grabbed the box. Setting up the phone would be easy. It was teaching her how to use it that may prove challenging. The following day I headed back to my great-grandmother’s with the phone.
“Here’s your phone. All ready to use.” For the next hour, I was busy setting up her passcode and fingerprint recognition, which she said was like something out of James Bond.
She chose a picture for her screen and it was all going so well until I tried to show her how to swipe(滑动屏幕). “Swipe?” she asked. She was 92, I reminded myself. This had been tiring for her.
She pressed at the up arrow and got angry when nothing happened. When I finally got her to swipe, she didn’t put the right amount of pressure on and the menu slipped away. After what seemed like hours, she threw the phone on the sofa. “Take it away!” she howled. “I want my old phone back!”
I picked up the phone and was about to leave to give her time to cool down when I realized I didn’t want to go home when she was angry and upset.
“Come on, Eileen. One more try.” I said.
Seeing this, I was not feeling hopeless any more.
A.![]() | B.![]() | C.6 | D.7 |