Located halfway up the Italy’s Apennine Mountains, about 100 miles northeast of Rome, the Hotel Rigopiano has never been easy to reach. But its isolation(隔离) only adds to its appeal, attracting a great number of tourists.

Snow began to fall across the Apennines in January and lasted for days. From his home in the Rome suburbs, Matrone watched the weather with concern. He and his wife, Cicioni, had planned an overnight getaway to the hotel. But now he wondered whether they should go. After phoning the hotel, they decided to make the trip. By the time they neared the hotel six hours later, they were battling a snowstorm. When they finally arrived, they were both cold and exhausted. They checked into the hotel, got into their room and went to bed early.

As they awoke the next day, they discovered that their difficulty had worsened overnight. The cars in the parking lot were invisible. The phone and power lines were down. They were having breakfast when the hotel began to shake. An earthquake with a magnitude(震级) of 5.7 had struck the mountain. “Get out of here!” Matrone shouted to his wife. They headed quickly to the parking lot, where others were digging their cars. Fifteen minutes after the first earthquake, another quake hit, this one measuring 5.6.

With a dozen vehicles freed by noon, the guests set off down the driveway. But when they reached the main road, the path was blocked by a six⁃foot⁃high wall of snow. Matrone climbed out of his car and investigated it. There was no road in sight, “We’re trapped!” he told his wife. So they had no choice but to make their way back to the hotel.

As it was getting dark, they managed to get back. That was when the snow on the mountain began to slide. They heard the avalanche(雪崩) before they saw it. The avalanche gathered speed and size, grabbing rocks and trees and anything else in its way down the mountain, tearing the hotel from its foundation. When the avalanche came to a stop, those who were caught inside the hotel were left buried in the icy rocks and ruins.

When Matrone came to himself,he was stuck in the darkness.

It was not until the next morning that the rescuers finally arrived.

The overuse of fossil fuels and ecological environment

With time going by, Mother’s Day was around the corner. Maybe it is the happiest day for every mother. Bruce, a boy of nine years old, with his little sister Alina, six years old, wanted their mother to be one of them. But they were too young to get a job, even if a part-time one. What could they do? There was only one week left. They felt sad whenever they thought their mother would spend her Mother’s Day without carnations (康乃馨).

Money is hard to make. Buying a bunch of carnations would cost a large sum of money for them. One day when they were wandering at the street, they heard Mr. Green was complaining that he had no time to wash those soda pop bottles. It is a kind of soda pop sold in bottles and the bottles can be washed and filled again. Mr. Green ran that grocery shop by himself, so he had no time to wash them. “Would you like to try, Alina?” Bruce asked his sister suddenly. Alina nodded her head without hesitation. After all, both of them knew that maybe it was an opportunity for them to make money for the flowers.

They walked a few steps and came near Mr. Green. They looked up at Mr. Green and asked whether they could help him to wash those bottles. Mr. Green looked at them curiously until he was told the reason. He agreed and promised that he would pay 0.1 dollar for every bottle. Bruce and Alina were very happy even though they knew they would have a busy week.

They came to Mr. Green’s shop in the next seven days when they came back from school. On the morning of Mother’s Day, they got the pay — 6.1 dollars. The boy also had 0.3 dollar saved.

So with a total of 6.4 dollars, they walked about a mile to where a flower shop was located. When they came inside, someone asked what they wanted. They told him they wanted to buy some carnations for their mother. The boy reached into his pocket and pulled out their cash, asking if that would be enough.