Rather than be burned to death in his blazing shell-torn Lancaster on a bombing raid o

ver Germany in 1944, Royal Air Force Gunnery Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade jumped from 18, 000 feet without a parachute (降落伞), calculating that this would be a quicker and less painful death.Unbelievably, he suffered only slight injuries. The last part of his 122-mile-per-hour fall was broken by the branches of young pine trees, thick springy undergrowth, and finally deep snow. "It was rather like bouncing on a trampoline, " he recalled.Sergeant Alkemade's experience is a dramatic rebuttal of the idea that people falling from great heights are dead before they hit the ground. Asphyxia, brought about by the speed of the fall, and heart failure through shock were thought to occur long before the final impact.The fallacy of this belief has been amply (充分地) demonstrated by free-fall parachutists who regularly drop several miles before opening their parachutes. In 1960 Capt. Joseph Kittinger jumped from a balloon in the United States and fell 16 miles before opening his parachute. He landed conscious and unhurt.

1.According to the passage, Nicholas Alkemade ____.

A、was a German officer during the Second World War

B、had often jumped from a height of about 18, 000 feet

C、was a British officer

D、calculated the height with a special instrument

2.Nicholas jumped out of his plane because ____.

A、he was a good parachutist

B、he would otherwise be burned to death

C、he wanted to become a hero

D、the Royal Air Force instructed him to do so

3.Nicholas's experience was ____.

A、only an experiment

B、just as he had expected it to be

C、something painful and quick

D、quite unimaginable

4.Which of the following in the passage was the name of Nicholas's plane？ ____

A、Lancaster

B、Gunnery

C、Trampoline

D、Asphyxia

5.The passage tells us that Capt. Joseph Kittinger ____.

A、served as a pilot during the Second World War

B、did not believe that people would die if they jumped from a plane without parachutes

C、made a successful free-fall land from a balloon

D、often forgot to open his parachute when jumping from a plane