八年级英语下册课文
UNIT 1 What's the matter?
Bus Driver and Pasngers Save an Old Man
At 9: yesterday, bus No. 26 was going along Zhon ghua Road when the driver saw an old man lying on the si de of the road. A woman was next to him, shouting for hel p.
The bus driver, 24-year-old Wang Ping, stopped the bus w ithout thinking twice. He got off and asked the woman wha t happened. She said that the man had a heart problem an d should go to the hospital. Mr. Wang knew he had to act
quickly. He told the pasngers that he must take the man
to the hospital. He expected most or all of the pasngers
to get off and wait for the next bus.
But to his surpri, they all agreed to go with him. Some p asngers helped Mr. Wang to move the man ona the bus
.
Thanks to Mr. Wang and the pasngers, the doctors sav
ed the man in time. "It's sad that many people don't want t
o help others becau they don?t want any trouble," says one pasnger. "But the driver didn't think about himlf.
He only thought about saving a life."
He Lost His Arm But Is Still Climbing
Aron Ralston is an American man who is interested in mo untain climbing. As a mountain climber, Aron is ud to ta
king risks. This is one of the exciting things about doing da ngerous sports. There were many times when Aron almost
lost his life becau of accidents. On April 26, 2003, he fo
und himlf 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 himlf in the
mounta ins. Becau he could not free his arm, he stayed there for five days an
d hoped that someon
e would find him. But when his water
ran out, he knew that he would have to do something to sa
ve his own life. He was not ready to die that day. So he us
ed his knife to cut off half his right arm. Then, with his left
arm, he bandaged himlf so that he would not lo too m
uch blood. After that, he climbed down the mountain to fin
d help.
After losing his arm, he wrote a book called Between a Ro
ck and a Hard Place. This means being in a difficult situati
on that you cannot em to get out of. In this book, Aron t
ells of the importance of making good decisions, and of be
ing in control of one's life. His lo for mountain climbing is
so great that he kept on climbing mountains even after thi
s experience.
Do we have the same spirit as Aron? Let's think about it b
efore we find ourlves “between a rock and a hard place”, and before we have to make a decision that could mean l
ife or death.
Unit 2 I'll help to clean up the city parks
