Questions:

1) Who are the heroes in the story?

Two police rescuers and, a young passerby and the man in the water. To be continued on the next page.

2) Who is the greatest hero? Why?

The man in the water. Ordinary as he was, he could rise to challenge when the test came. He displayed courage and noble character in human nature at its best.

3) In the author’s view, do people feel proud or sad about the disaster? Why?

They feel proud because man defeated the indifferent natural forces.

4) What is referred to as one of man’s natural powers according to the passage?

Sacrificing his life for the life of others’.

5) The fight between the man in the water and the natural forces ended up with the death of the man. Why does the author say he is not a loser?

He was the best we can do to fight against the indifferent natural forces. What’s more, he never dies in people’s heart.

1) Washington, the city of form and rules, turned chaotic by a blast of real winter and a single slap of metal on metal. (Para. 1)

With a sharp and loud noise, Washington, the neatly well-designed city of order was thrown into a terrible confusion.

2) Last Wednesday the elements, indifferent as ever, brought down Flight 90. And on that same afternoon human nature—groping and struggling—rose to the occasion. (Para. 2)

Last Wednesday, the bad weather, unconcerned about the consequences it might bring about as always, made Flight 90 fall down. On that same afternoon, human nature, groping for the flotation rings and struggling in the icy water, came to prove its greatness displayed in an unexpected tragedy.

3) Of the four acknowledged heroes of the event, three are able to account for their behavior. (Para. 3)

Only three out of these four heroes lived to tell people what they actually had done and how they had rescued the five survivors.

4) In reality, we believe the opposite, and it takes the act of the man in the water to remind us of our true feelings in this matter. (Para. 8)

Actually, the death of the man did not mean that human beings had lost the battle. In a moral sense, man had won because man’s courage to defy death was also a tremendous power. Therefore, what happened to this man in the water should fill us with pride rather than sadness.