阅读下列短文，完成下列小题。

    “Save the whales!” That's what the picture on Jake Smith's bedroom wall said. Jake liked having a picture that said something important: that showed he cared. He just never expected to get a chance to save a real whale, one right in his own neighbourhood.

It was a Saturday morning when the newspaper first reported the whales' coming. A group of the animals were swimming close to the beach in Jake's hometown. All the local people rushed out to the beach to see them. They were expecting a beautiful show, better than a movie, but nothing they'd have to do anything about.

    Then one whale swam in the direction, directly towards land. It came in with the waves, and when the waves receded. Its huge body on the sand. Suddenly, Jake and his family and all the others were no longer sightseers. They had to become rescuers. A few people ran towards the animal. They pushed and tried to force the whale back into the water, but it was no use.

    An animal rescue service team soon arrived in a truck with heavy lifting machinery, to help move the animal. Jack and his family couldn't do much on the beach, so they went back to their house and made sandwiches and hot tea for the rescuers. At least, Jake thought, they could help in some way.

    Back at the beach, they offered the food to the rescuers and were happy to see that it was needed. It was getting dark. Some people lined up their cars along the beach and shined the headlights on the sand. The rescuers would not give up. After trying many times they were finally able to lift the whale into the water. Everyone cheered when it headed out to sea. It swam out about a mile and then disappeared for a moment under the sea. Then, in what looked like a jump of joy, it rose high above the water—a thank-you to those who had worked so hard to save his life.

    Many expressions(表达方式) we use in American English come from movies and books. Today we will learn some expressions from Lewis Carol's famous book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. This book is better known as Alice in Wonderland.

    The story is about a young girl falling for a long time down a rabbit hole. When she finally lands, she finds herself in a strange world. In this strange world are some of the most popular characters in children's books. Many of the expressions from the book have found their way into American English.

    The first character Alice meets is the White Rabbit. The White Rabbit is not a usual rabbit. Alice chases (追赶) after him, and that is where her adventures begin.

    In English, "chasing a white rabbit" means to chase an impossible dream. "Following the white rabbit" means you are in the middle of an unusual situation. This situation often challenges your thinking and changes your life. Like "chasing a white rabbit", "falling down the rabbit hole" means we get interested in something else and lose ideas about time.

    Later in the story, Alice is the guest at a tea party— a crazy tea party! There she meets the March Hare. The hare seems to be truly crazy. To be "mad as a March hare" means that someone is completely mad or crazy.

Using expressions from popular books can add special flavor(味道). And when used properly, they also show you have a deeper understanding of the English language.

    When we talk about stars, especially women stars ,it seems that they are always young, pretty and own charming (迷人的)body shapes. But recently a Britain's Got Talent（英国达人）star Susan Boyle has changed our views absolutely (完全地).

    Simon Cowell, one of the judges of the talent show spoke of his shock over Ms Boyle's voice. “This lady camp up ,and I'm thinking, ‘This will take five seconds and I can go to have a cup of tea. That changed when she began to sing I Dreamed to Dream from Les Miserables. She knew we were going to have that reaction and just to see that look of satisfaction on her face widway through –it was one of my favorite moments,” Cowell said.

    The performance was posted on line and before long,the 47-year-old Scottish woman has been famous all over the world.

    Speaking from her home in Scotland, Ms Boyle said that she hasn't thought of changing her appearance. She said that her friend helped her with make-up. “I mean, that's hardly a makeover,” she added.

    Ms Boyle also spoke of the reason she first began  to explore her vocal talents, “I was kind of slow at school, so getting like singing was a good way of hiding behind that and thus it built my confidence.”

Long ago, a young man often said that he was very poor and had nothing. One day, an old man walked past. He heard the young man's words and said, "Hello, young man! What are you talking about? You have nothing? That's not true! You have the most expensive things in the world, so you are a rich person." The young man was very surprised and asked, "Why do you say that? You can see I have nothing. What are these expensive things?" Then the old man said, "If you sell your eyes to a rich blind(盲的) man, you'll make a lot of money and can get everything you want. Would you like to sell them?" The young man didn't want to be blind, so he said, "No." The old man asked again, "Then what about selling your hands for some gold(金子)?" The your and shook his head for the second time. At last, the old man said, "Now you understand. You have the most expensive things in the world." So the old man taught both the young man and us a lesson—-health is the most important for us.

Aron Ralston is an American man who is interested in mountain climbing. As a mountain climber, Aron is used to taking risks. This is one of the exciting things about doing dangerous sports. There were many times when Aron almost lost his life because of accidents. On April 26, 2003, he found himself in a very dangerous situation when climbing in Utah.

On that day, Aron's arm was caught under a 360-kilo rock that fell on him when he was climbing by himself in the mountains. Because he could not free his arm, he stayed there for five days and hoped that someone would find him. 59.但当他的水喝光之后，他知道他必须做点什么来挽救自己的生命。 He was not ready to die that day. So he used his knife to cut off half his right arm. Then, with his left arm, he bandaged himself so that he would not lose too much blood. After that, he climbed down the mountain to find help.

After losing his arm, he wrote a book called Between a Rock and a Hard Place.This means being in a difficult situation that you cannot seem to get out of. 60.In this book, Aron tells of the importance of making good decisions, and of being in control of one's life. His love for mountain climbing is so great that he kept on climbing mountains even after this experience.

Do we have the same spirit as Aron? Let's think about it before we find ourselves "between a rock and a hard place", and before we have to make a decision that could mean life or death.