雅思阅读第079套P1-Survivor from the sky

Reading Passage 1

You should spend about 20minutes on Questions 1-14 which are based on this passage.

Survivor from the sky

In a remarkable documentary,Wings of Hope, German director Werner Herzog re-counts the true story of aneighteen-year-old girl, the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Amazon junglein 1971. Twenty-nine years later, Herzog returns to the jungle with JulianeKoepke, now a 46-year-old biologist, and she tells her amazing story on film.

Juliane had just graduated fromhigh school in Lima, Peru and, with her mother, was flying out to spendChristmas at her father’s research station in the jungle. A half hour into theflight they encountered a horrific storm. In the midst of wild turbulence, theplane was struck by lightning and fell into a nosedive. Passengers screamed asbaggage flew around the compartment. Then the plane broke into pieces andsuddenly Juliane found herself outside free-falling 30,000 feet. 'I wassuspended in mid-air, still in my scat. It wasn’t so much that I had left theplane but that the plane had left me. It simply wasn’t there any more. I wasall alone with my row of seats,’ says Juliane. 'I sailed on through the air,then I tumbled into a fall. The seatbelt squeezed my stomach and I couldn’tbreathe any more.’ Before she lost consciousness, Juliane saw the dense junglebelow, 'a deep green, like broccoli’, with no clearings for hundreds of miles.

Somehow, miraculously, Julianesurvived that fall from the sky. In the film, she speculates on a number offactors which may have combined to save her. First, the storm had produced astrong updraft from the thunder clouds. Secondly, being strapped into a row ofseats, she was aware of falling in a spiralling movement, like a maple seedpod. Then, hitting the canopy of trees, she tumbled through a maze of vineswhich slowed her landing in deep mud.

But surviving the fall, thoughmiraculous in itself, was just the beginning. When Juliane awoke hours later,wet and covered with mud, she was still strapped to her seat. Staggering to herfeet, she assessed her injuries: a fractured bone in the neck, concussion anddeep cuts in her leg and back. She was also in shock, lost and totally alone inthe Amazon jungle.

No doubt it was her familiaritywith the wilderness that enabled her to cope. Her parents were biologists andJuliane had grown up in the jungle. She realised her only hope was to follow alittle stream of water nearby, trusting that it would eventually lead to alarger river and rescue. With no provisions, dressed in the miniskirt she hadworn on the plane and wearing just one shoe, she set off through the jungle.She passed broken fragments from the plane - a wheel, an engine. 'Initially, Isaw planes circling above me, but after a few days I realised the search hadbeen called off,’ she said.

Surprisingly she felt no hungerbut as the days passed her health was deteriorating rapidly. The gash in hershoulder, where flies had laid their eggs was now crawling with maggots. 'Iknew I’d perish in the jungle so I stayed in the water.’ Walking in the stream,however, presented one risk more serious than any others. Before each step shehad to poke ahead in the sand with a stick, to avoid treading on poisonoussting rays, lying hidden on the bottom.

As the stream grew into ariver, swimming was the only option. However, here in deeper water, there werenew threats. Crocodiles basking on the shores slipped silently into the wateras she passed. Juliane trusted that they feared humans and were entering thewater to hide. She swam on. On the tenth day, starving and barely conscious,she spotted a hut and a canoe. They belonged to three woodcutters workingnearby. Rescue was at hand.

For this 46-year-old woman,re-living such a traumatic experience on film must have been a great challenge.But she shows little emotion. Flying back into the jungle, she sits in the sameseat (19F) as on that fateful day. She is dispassionate, unemotional indescribing the flight. On the ground, when they finally locate the crash site,in dense jungle, Juliane is scientific in her detachment, looking through thedebris, now buried under dense vegetation. She examines a girl’s purse, theskeleton of a suitcase. Walking along the stream, she spots the engine whichshe remembers passing on the third day. Her arms and legs are covered withmosquitoes, but she seems to ignore all discomfort. Then, back in the town,standing in front of a monument erected in memory of the victims of the crash,entitled Alas de Esperanza (Wings of Hope), Juliane comments simply, T emerged,as the sole embodiment of hope from this disaster.

SECTION 1: QUESTIONS 1-14

Questions 1-3

Answer the following questionsusing NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage.

How old was Juliane at the timeof the crash?

1 _________________

What is her occupation now?

2 _________________

What was the cause of the planecrash?

3 _________________

Questions 4-10

Choose the correct letter A-D.

4What happened to the plane?

AIt broke apart in the air

BIt hit trees and exploded.

CIt crashed into a mountainside.

DIt hit the ground and burst into flames.

5Which of the following did NOT helpto slow her fall?

Aan updraft caused by storm clouds

Bhitting vines

Cthe section of seats to which she wasattached

Da parachute

6Which of the following injuries did shesustain?

Aa broken foot

Ba broken arm

Cconcussion

Dcuts on her head

7What, helped her to survive?

AKnowledge of the jungle

Ba map showing the location of the river

Cappropriate clothing and shoes

Dfood supplies from the plane

8What was the biggest threat to hersurvival?

Ainfected wounds

Bsting rays

Cstarvation

Dcrocodiles

9How long was she lost in the jungle?

A3 days

B5 days

C10 days

D15 days

10How was she finally rescued?

AA search party found her in the jungle.

BNative hunters found her.

CShe signaled to a plane from the river.

DShe reached a campsite along the river.

Questions 11-14

Do the following statementsagree with the views of the writer in this passage?

Write:

YES

if the statement agrees with the views of the writer

NO

if the statement contradicts the views of the writer

NOT GIVEN

if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

11 _________________ Other survivors of the crash were found in the jungle.

12 _________________ Juliane was upset when she re-visited the crash site.

13 _________________ Wings of Hope is the name given to a memorial statue.

14 _________________ Juliane suffered nightmares for many years as a result of herexperience.