Mr. Peter Johnson, aged twenty-three, battled for half an hour to escape from his trapped car yesterday when it landed upside down in three feet of water．Mr．Johnson took the only escape route—through the boot(行李箱)．
Mr．Johnson’s car had finished up in a ditch(沟渠) at Romney Marsin, Kent after skidding on ice and hitting a bank. “Fortunately, the water began to come in only slowly,” Mr Johnson said．“I couldn’t force the doors because they were jammed against the walls of the ditch and dared not open the windows because I knew water would come flooding in.”
Mr．Johnson, a sweet salesman of Sitting Home, Kent, first tried to attract the attention of other motorists by sounding the horn and hammering on the roof and boot. Then he began his struggle to escape．
Later he said, “It was really a half penny that saved my life. It was the only coin I had in my pocket and I used it to loosen the back seat to get into the boot. I hammered desperately with a hammer trying to make someone hear, but no help came.
It took ten minutes to loosen the seat, and a further five minutes to clear the sweet samples from the boot．Then Mr．Johnson found a wrench and began to work on the boot lock．Fifteen minutes passed by．“It was the only chance I had．Finally it gave, but as soon as I moved the boot lid, the water and mud poured in．I forced the lid down into the mud and scrambled clear as the car filled up.”
His hands and arms cut and bruised(擦伤), Mr．Johnson got to Beckett Farm nearby, where he was looked after by the farmer’s wife, Mrs Lucy Bates. Huddled in a blanket, he said, “That thirty minutes seemed like hours．” Only the tips of the car wheels were visible, police said last night．The vehicle had sunk into two feet of mud at the bottom of the ditch．
42. __________ is the most important to Mr．Johnson during his escape?
A. The hammer B. The coin C. The screw D. The horn
43. Mr. Johnson’s car accident happened _________________．
A. with his car standing on its boot B. while on his way home
C. partly due to the slippery road． D. because of the high speed
44. “Finally it gave” (Paragraph 5) means that _______．
A. luckily the door was opened in the end
B. at last I found the boot lock
C. he forced the boot lid open with all his efforts
D. The chance to escape lost
45. It may be inferred from the passage that _______．
A. the ditch was along a quiet country road
B. the accident happened on a snowy day
C. the bank lent Mr．Johnson a hand about his damage
D. Mr. Johnson was well treated for his injury