2.
Read the passages and finish the exercises.
On a cold winter day, many years ago, a French art teacher named Pierre Chevalier got on a train in Lyon to go to Paris. When he started his trip, he didn't know that it was the beginning of almost 40 years of accidents and near-death experiences
During the trip, the train came off the rails and fell into the icy river, killing12 passengers. Chevalier managed to swim back to the riverside. He had a broken leg and he needed treatment for shock, but was very happy to be alive.
Two years later, Chevalier was on a plane from Paris to Moscow when adoor suddenly opened and he fell out. A few minutes later, the plane crashed; 27people were killed. Chevalier woke up in a hospital. The doctors told him he had been lucky—he'd landed in a haystack(干草堆). He only had minor injuries.
A few years later, he was hit by a bus, but again had no major injuries. Then a year after that, he was driving on a mountain when he saw a truck coming straight at him. He drove the car off the road, jumped out, landed in a tree —and watched his car explode 100 meters below. If he hadn't jumped out, and if that tree hadn't been there, he would have died.
"There are two ways you can look at it, "Chevalier said. "I'm either the world's unluckiest man, or the world's luckiest. "When a reporter asked Chevalier what he thought, he chose the"luckiest".
How does his story end?Two years ago, aged 71, Chevalier bought his first lottery ticket in 50 years . …and won more than 2 million. Chevalier said he was going to enjoy his life from then on, and told reporters that he wanted to buy a house, a car and a speedboat, and get married.
After this, a TV station in America said they wanted him to make an advertisement. At first he accepted, but then he changed his mind. Chevalier said he wouldn't fly to Los Angeles for the filming, because he didn't want to push his luck. Who knows?If he had accepted the invitation, maybe he would have had another accident. But Mr. Chevalier is a lucky man. If he'd had another accident, he probably would have survived that too!