Upon waking up, Jim found himself lying on a stretch of sandy shore with his face half-buried in the sand. He found, that his clothes had been almost torn apart. His arms ached and his body was heavy like stone. Before he could stand up, he was brought to his knees due to exhaustion. As he lay on the sand, he began to study the environment for signs of human activities. But there was nothing except for a few trees and some stones within eyesight.
He remembered how, a few hours before, he had still been struggling for survival in the vast South China Sea. The boat that had carried his friends and him out to sea for a fun fishing trip had run into a terrible storm. James, who was the captain of the boat, and had been at the wheel, lost control of the boat. The boat moved from side to side in the storm. Suddenly, it hit a sharp object, most probably a rock from the sea and was wrecked.
Jim could not remember how he had managed to drift onto land. His friends were not in sight. He was saddened by the fact that they might have all drowned. Then he suddenly saw a thin column of smoke on the far side of a hill. “Could it be a house?” Jim asked himself. Even if it wasn’t, it gave him some fresh hope of surviving the ordeal that he was going through. He struggled on towards the place from where the smoke was rising.
Finally, he found himself at the top of the hill. He saw a little green valley dotted with a few huts and trees in the sun. His eyes were not playing tricks on him. There was a village located at the bottom of the valley. The sight gave him renewed hope. He began to run toward the village with his last ounce of energy.
68. According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. Jim found himself in a desert when he woke up.
B. Jim and his friends were fishing at South China Sea.
C. Jim lost control of the boat he and his friends were in.
D. The boat hit a rock but kept steady.
69. Jim struggled toward the place of the smoke probably because ______.
A. he was afraid of being too near the sea
B. he thought his friends might be in the place of the smoke
C. the smoke implied human activities
D. All of the above.
70. What does the underlined word “ordeal” in the third paragraph probably mean?
A. bad weather B. order C. suffering D. ideal state
71. According to the passage, what is NOT TRUE about Jim?
A. He survived a terrible sea storm.
B. He had the feeling that his friends survived the wreckage.
C. At first he didn’t find signs of humans but then he saw a smoke rising.
D. He finally found a village at the bottom of a valley.