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Hero boy swims for four hours to save his family (9th February 2026)

A 13-year-old Australian boy has been hailed a hero after an epic swim that saved his family. The boy, Austin Appelbee, and his family were on a beach holiday in Western Australia. They were kayaking and paddleboarding in shallow water when strong winds pushed them farther offshore. They ended up over four kilometres away from land, and the daylight was fading. Austin decided to kayak to shore to get help. However, the waves had damaged his kayak, which had taken in water and flipped over. He said he then lost an oar and knew he was in trouble. He decided he had no alternative but to swim back to land. He swam through shark-frequented waters to raise the alarm.

Austin made it to the beach and phoned for help. This sparked a huge rescue operation, which resulted in coastguards finding the teenager's mother and two younger sisters. The boy said: "I hit the bottom of the beach and I just collapsed, and then, after that, I had to “ sprint two kilometres to get to the phone." Rescuers called his efforts "superhuman". One rescuer said Austin's actions could not "be praised highly enough." He added that the teenager's "determination and courage ultimately saved the lives of his mother and siblings." Austin's mother Joanne,47, told reporters: "The wind picked up. We lost oars, and we drifted out further. It was an absolute nightmare."

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Trent and Hammie are best friends since kindergarten. At the moment, they are in the school cafeteria for lunch.

Because she was correcting homework and planning lessons, Britany went to bed late – and then she overslept!

She had a quick shower but she didn’t have ________ 1 time to put on her makeup. Luckily, she doesn’t wear much anyway, but she had wanted to put on some lipstick at least. Too bad! She made herself a coffee and checked the mail. But ________ 2, it seemed, had remembered her birthday – except for John and Clare whom she had invited for dinner later in the day.

At school, ________ 3 of her colleagues seemed to have remembered that it was her birthday either and that made her miserable, but at least the children in her second grade class were in a happy mood. It cheered her up, and so every time one of them did ________ 4 good or gave her a correct answer, she gave them a gold star. They loved that. Luckily, she had enough stars so ________ 5 went home with at least one!

When she got home, Britany was still tired, so she lay down to have a bit of rest but she didn’t get much sleep because her parents rang from the UK to wish her a happy birthday. At least _________ 6 had remembered! When she finished the call there was ________ 7 time left for sleeping. She had to get dinner ready.

A few minutes later the doorbell rang. She opened the door. There were a lot of people outside. All of them were wearing party hats! A few of them were carrying plates of food. Most of them were colleagues from her school, but there were many others, too. And then they started to sing ‘Happy Birthday …’.

In: HARMER, Jeremy. Teacher Knowledge: core concepts in English language teaching. Pearson Education limited. Essex, UK: 2012