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Normally, humans can survive no more than 10 days without food or water, but three trapped miners who lived at the brink of death below ground have extended that record to 25 days.

The three miners, who were buried by mountains of rocks in southwest Guizhou province after a mine flooding on June 17, were miraculously found on Sunday.

They were able to remain alive with a trickle of dirty water washed down by excessive rain since early this month.

Rescue workers cracked open a collapsed tunnel at the mine Sunday and found the three miners, who had nothing with them but their mining lights.

The three were 36-year-old Wang Quanjie and Zhao Weixing, and 35-year-old Wang Kuangwei. All come from Henan province in central China.

Zhao, who claimed he felt well after the rescue, could raise his hand from waist to chest. But photos showed the miners had become exceedingly thin with prominent bones.

"Altogether, the miners were trapped for 604 hours," rescuers said.

The three miners last night made their seven-hour mountainous trip to the intensive care unit at a hospital in the provincial capital Guiyang, despite occasional vomiting due to dehydration.

Liang Xianquan, director of the emergency room at the Affiliated Hospital of Guiyang Medical College, which will treat the three miners, said yesterday he believes the three patients more than likely will recover despite their fragile states.

"The miners' heart and lung functions may have been greatly damaged, posing a constant threat to their lives, so doctors must still be careful," he told China Daily.

The collapsed mine is believed to have buried 11 other miners, who are now feared dead given the circumstances, after the flooding took place last month at the coal mine, killing two immediately.

Questions:

1. How many days humans can normally survive without food or water?

2. How did the three miners manage to remain alive for 25 days?

3. How many other miners the collapsed mine is believed to have buried?

Answers:

1. 10 days.

2. With a trickle of dirty water washed down by excessive rain since early this month.

3. 11.

（英语点津 Helen 编辑）

About the broadcaster:

Siberian-born Kristina Koveshnikova is a freelance journalist from New Zealand who has worked in print, television and film. After completing a BCS degree majoring in journalism, she won an Asia NZ Foundation/Pacific Media Centre award to work for China Daily website. Kristina previously did internships at ABC 7 News in Washington DC and TVNZ in New Zealand and has written for a number of publications, including The New Zealand Herald and East & Bays Courier.