龙卷风来袭

四川 蒋建平

面对龙卷风的强势来袭，她和丈夫能否幸存呢？

主题语境：人与自然 篇幅：383词 建议用时：7分钟

1On the day the tornado hit, there was no sign that severe weather was on its way—the sky was blue and the sun had been out.My husband,Jimmy,got the news from TV. He ran upstairs to find me,and told me to change the channel to our local TV station.

2No sooner had we found coverage of the tornado than it was on top of us. The bones of the house shook, and the power went out. The wind began to roar through the house.We had three flights of steps to navigate to get to the relative safety of the first floor.

3However, 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 tried to move forward, but this intense pressure held me in place.As we reached the last flight of steps,our front door blew out. Pieces of glass that looked like crushed ice flew everywhere. Suddenly, a threefoot long tree branch crashed into the door frame. It flew over our heads, missing us by inches.Had we been one step up,it would have hit us.

4By the time I reached the cupboard,the tornado had been over us for about a minute.Jimmy pushed me down to the cupboard floor,but he couldn't get inside himself because of the wind. I held Jimmy's arm and tried to bring Jimmy with it. My knees were full of glass,but at 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.

5All 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.

6Our neighbor said the storm lasted four minutes.At that time,four of the twelve town houses in our unit were completely destroyed.Of the houses left standing,ours suffered the most damage.Amazingly,none of us were severely injured.

Reading Check

1.How did Jimmy get the warning information about the tornado?

A.By listening to the local radio broadcast.

B.By checking the weather forecast.

C.By seeing a movie.

D.By watching TV.

2.What does the underlined word“coverage”in paragraph 2 mean?

A.Power. B.Description. C.Report. D.Delay.

3.It was hard for Jimmy to get inside the cupboard because of .

A.the wind B.his injury C.his shape D.the ice

4.What's the author's purpose of writing the text?

A.To share her experience of surviving a tornado.

B.To warn us of the danger caused by tornadoes.

C.To show us how to fight against a tornado.

D.To tell us how to protect us from dangerous tornadoes.

Language Study

熟词生义

We had threeflightsof steps to navigate to get to the relative safety of the first floor.

我们要经过三段楼梯才能到达相对安全的一楼。

flightn.一段楼梯

e.g.She fell down a flight of stairs/steps and hurt her back.她从一段楼梯上跌了下来，摔伤了背。