Santiago carried napkins and silverware to the table while his mother, Mrs. Hernandez, stirred the scrambled eggs and flipped the frying pieces of bacon. Santiago’s older brother, Benjamin, entered the kitchen rubbing his eyes and stretching his arms above his head.
“That smells fantastic, Mom,” Benjamin said. “I haven’t had a home cooked meal in forever. I end up eating most of my meals at a little diner a couple of blocks from my apartment.”
“Absolutely my pleasure,” Mrs. Hernandez replied. “Santiago and I are glad you got to come home for a few days, considering it’s till ski season. I figured we wouldn’t have you back here until sometime in May.”
“I wasn’t the only new employee hired for the patrol this season, so we have more flexibility compared to the patrollers last year.”
The three filled their plates and sat at the table to eat breakfast. Santiago couldn’t wait to hear about his brother’s new job.
“Have you seen any avalanches yet?” Santiago asked.
“Lots, because our job is to actually make avalanches occur. We ski around the mountain looking for potential problem spots, and when we find one, we make sure the mountainside is evacuated and make it fall downhill.”
“That sounds pretty dangerous,” Mrs. Hernandez said worriedly.
“It is, but we all work together to make it as safe a possible. We work in teams and watch out for each other, and everyone wears a little device that sends out radio signals. If someone does end up buried in the snow, we can locate them and dig them out by following the radio signals.”
Santiago was trying to figure our what causes avalanches, “So, when the snow piles up too high, does it get too heavy and fall downhill? Is than an avalanche?”
“Not exactly,” Benjamin explained, “it has to do more with the layers of snow. Each time it snows, a new layer is created, and the layers can have different consistencies. One layer might be wetter and slushier (adj. 更加泥泞/雪泥；slushy- adj. 泥泞的）, while another layer is frozen solid, and another is light and fluffy. If something disturbs the top layer, like a person walking or skiing on it, then the top layer can suddenly let loose and start sliding downhill across the layer below it. That’s an avalanche. When that top layer of snow breaks free and starts racing downhill, gravity can quickly get it moving up to about 80 miles per hour. All that heavy snow tumbling downhill can cause a lot of damage, and anything in its path gets buried. You can see why the avalanche ski patrol is an important job.”
“No kidding,” Santiago agreed. “So what happens when someone who isn’t wearing a radio transmitter gets buried?”
“Then, we bring out our secret weapon: the dogs. We have German shepherds that we send out onto the mountainside. They have an amazing sense of smell, and they use it to find where people might be buried. Then, they race back to us and guide the patrol to where they think someone might be located under that snow. We use long poles to carefully poke down into the snow until we hit something solid, and then we start digging. I’ve done quite a few training exercises with the dogs, where volunteers are buried safely in the snow, and then we use the gods to find them.”
Santiago went to the stove and came back with the pan of scrambled eggs. He tipped it over his plate, and as the eggs tumbled form the pan onto his plate, he yelled, “Egg-valanche!”
Benjamin and Mrs. Hernandez rolled their eyes at each other, and then they started to laugh.
问题：
1. Why is Benjamin home visiting his mother and brother?（选择题）
a. It is Santiago’s birthday.
b. Benjamin lost his job with the ski patrol.
c. Ski season is over.
d. The story does not explain.
2. What are the two purposes of this story?
3. Do you think Benjamin is or is not a good cook?
4. How does the ski patrol reduce the risk of avalanches?
5. Why do the ski patrol members wear radio transmitting devices?
6. What is the role dogs play during an avalanche rescue operation?