-
Passage Four (It Is Bush)
On
the 36th day after they had voted, Americans
finally learned Wednesday who
would be
their next president: Governor George W. Bush of
Texas.
Vice
1
President Al
Gore
2
, his last
realistic avenue for legal challenge closed by a
U.
S.
Supreme
3
Court decision late Tuesday, planned to
end the contest formally in a televised
evening speech of perhaps 10 minutes,
advisers
4
said.
They said that Senator Joseph
Lieberman, his vice presidential running mate,
would
first make brief comments. The
men would speak from a ceremonial
chamber
5
of the
Old
Executive office Building, to the
west of the White House.
The dozens of
political workers and lawyers who had helped lead
Mr.
Gore’s
unprecedented
6
fight to claw a come-from-
behind electoral victory in the pivotal
state of Florida were thanked Wednesday
and asked to stand down.
―The vice
president has directed the recount committee to
suspend activities,‖
William Daley, the
Gore campaign chairman, said in a written
statement.
Mr. Gore
authorized
7
that
statement after meeting with his wife, Tipper, and
with top
advisers including Mr. Daley.
He was expected to telephone Mr. Bush
during the day. The Bush campaign kept a
low profile and moved gingerly, as if
to leave space for Mr. Gore to
contemplate
8
his
next
steps.
Yet, at the end
of a trying and tumultuous process that had
focused world attention
on
sl
eepless
9
vote counters
across Florida, and on courtrooms form Miami to
Tallahassee
to Atlanta to Washington
the Texas governor was set to become the 43d U. S.
president.
The news of Mr. Gore’s plans
followed the longest and most rancorous dispute
over
a U. S. presidential election in
more than a century, one certain to leave scars in
a badly
divided country.
It
was a bitter ending for Mr. Gore, who had
outpolled Mr. Bush nationwide by some
300000 votes, but, without Florida,
fell short in the Electoral College by 271votes to
267
—
the narrowest
Electoral College victory since the turbulent
election of 1876.
Mr. Gore was said to
be
distressed
10
by what he and many Democratic
activists
11
felt
was a
partisan
12
decision from the nation’s
high
est court.
The 5-to
–
4 decision of the Supreme
Court held, in essence, that while a vote
recount in Florida could be conducted
in legal and constitutional fashion, as Mr. Gore
had
sought, this could not be done by
the Dec. 12 deadline for states to select their
presidential electors.
James
Baker
13
3rd, the
former secretary of state who represented Mr. Bush
in the
Florida dispute, issued a short
statement after the U. S. high court ruling,
saying that the
governor was ―very
pleased and gratified.‖
Mr.
Bush was planning a nationwide speech aimed at
trying to begin to heal the
country’s
deep, aching and
varied
14
divisions. He then was expected to meet with
congressional leaders, including
Democrats
15
. Dick
Cheney, Mr. Bush’s
ruing
16
mate, was
meeting with congressmen Wednesday in
Washington.
When Mr. Bush, who is 54,
is sworn into office on Jan.20, he will be only
the second
son of a president to
follow his father to the White House, after John
Adams and John
Quincy Adams in the
early 19th century.
Mr. Gore, in his
speech, was expected to thank his supporters,
defend his hive-week
battle as an
effort to ensure, as a matter of principle, that
every vote be counted, and
call for the
nation to join behind the new president. He was
described by an aide as
―resolved and
resigned.‖
While some
constitutional experts had said they believed
states could present
electors as late
as Dec. 18, the U. S. high court made clear that
it saw no such leeway.
The U.S. high
court s
ent back ―for revision‖ to the
Florida court its order allowing
recounts but made clear that for all
practical purposes the election was over.
In its unsigned main opinion, the court
declared, ―The recount process, in its
features here described, is
inconsistent with the minimum procedures necessary
to
protect the fundamental right of
each voter.‖
That decision,
by a court fractured along
philosophical
17
lines, left one liberal justice
charging that the high
court’s
proceedings
18
bore a political
taint
19
.
Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in an
angry dissent:‖ Although we may never
kno
w
with complete certainty
the identity of the winner of this year’s
presidential election, the
identity of
the loser is
perfectly
20
clear. It is the nation’s confidence in
the judge as
an
impartial
21
guardian
22
< br>
of the law.‖
But at the end of five seemingly
endless weeks, during which the physical, legal
and
constitutional machines of the U.
S. election were pressed and sorely tested in ways
unseen in more than a century, the
system finally produced a result, and one most
Americans appeared to be willing at
lease provisionally to support.
The
Bush team welcomed the news with an outward show
of restraint and
aplomb
23
.
The governor’s hopes had risen and
fallen so many times since Election night, and
the
legal
warriors
24
of each side suffered
through so many dramatic reversals, that there was
little energy left for celebration.
1.
The main idea of this passage is
[A]. Bush’s victory in presidential
election bore a political taint.
[B]. The process of the American
presidential election.
[C]. The Supreme
Court plays a very important part in the
presidential election.
[D]. Gore is
distressed.
2.
What does the sentence ―as if to leave
space for Mr. Gore to contemplate his next
step‖ mean
[A].
Bush hopes Gore to join his administration.
[B]. Bush hopes Gore to concede defeat
and to support him.
[C]. Bush hopes
Gore to congraduate him.
[D]. Bush
hopes Gore go on fighting with him.
3.
Why
couldn’t Mr. Gore win the presidential election
after he outpolled Mr. Bush in
the
popular vote? Because
[A]. the American
president is
decided
25
by the supreme court’s
decision.
[B]. people can’t
directly elect their president.
[C]. the American president is elected
by a
slate
26
of
presidential electors.
[D]. the people
of each state support Mr. Bush.
4.
What was
the result of the 5
—
4
decision of the supreme court?