【正文】
ke the garage door and Mason disappeared. Dozens of people died that day. Mason?s family were grateful just to be alive. But they were heartbroken at the thought that their sweet, playful panion had died. They bed the neighborhood, but Mason didn?t turn up. Three weeks after the disaster, Mason?s family were surprised to find Mason on the front door, so ecstatic to see his family. Where had Mason landed during the windstorm? What did he eat for those long weeks? How did he find his way back home? There were no answers to those questions and no time to work them out. Mason was terribly thin and couldn?t stand properly. The family quickly sought help and learned their beloved dog had crawled(爬 ) home on broken front legs. “He was simply on his elbows(肘 ),” says Dr. Doster. Doster had spent days reuniting pets with their owners and took an instant liking to the brave dog. He contacted Lamb of Vulcan Park Animal Care in Birmingham, who volunteered to perform the needed surgery for free. Lamb inserted two metal plates and 17 screws(螺絲釘 ) in an operation that lasted more than five hours. Mason?s injuries were so significant that he required weeks of recovery to heal. By the time he returned home to his family in September, he was jumping around again. “There were no ill effects at all, which is a miracle in itself,” Doster says. 1. The best title for the passage is probably__________ . new miracle came up B. Mason—the miracle dog C. What creates a miracle D. How can miracles happen 2. What does the underlined word “ecstatic” in Paragraph 4 mean? A. Surprised. B. Excited. C. Fantastic. D. Lifeless. 3. What can we know about Mason? A. Mason had the longest legs in the world. B. Mason was a female dog with great courage. C. Mason was seriously hurt in the storm. D. Mason was deserted in the garage by design. 4. It can be inferred from the passage that____ . A. Mason sheltered himself from the storm B. some kind people had offered Mason food C. it took three weeks for Mason to recover D. Mason?s operation was a tough one for B Well, it?s time for Words and Their Stories. We present more expressions about food from Elnir Scardueli, a listener in Brazil. My mother believes you are what you eat. Then she?d always give us nutritious food. She likes serving us meat and potatoes, which can also mean the most important part of something. Here?s another expression about meat: one man?s meat is another man?s poison—one might like something very much while another person might hate it. My father?s a good and honest person. People say he?s the salt of the earth. He?d never pour salt on a wound, or make someone feel worse about something. However, sometimes he tells us a story that seems bigger than life. So we have to take it with a grain of salt. My husband makes enough money to support our family. So we say he brings home the bacon. He can cut the mustard(芥末 ), or do what is expected of him at work. Besides, he stands almost two meters tall, so it?s easy to find my husband in a crowd. He is a tall drink of water. I take the train to work. It is not a pleasant ride because the train is so crowded that we are packed like sardines(沙丁魚 ). When we fail to see problems at work, my boss tells us to wake up and smell the coffee. We need to pay more attention and fix the problem. I once made a big mistake at the office and felt foolish. I had egg on my face. Over the weekend, my friend invited me to watch a football game on television. But I do not like football. It is not my cup of tea. We