英语新题型8

Practice test 8

Section B

Directions:

In this section

,

you are going to read a passage with ten statements attached to it.

Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the

information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a

letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on

Answer Sheet 2.

Isn’t It Time to Right the Wrong?

by Tom Seligson

A)

In the summer of 1944, Port Chicago

—

a Navy base 30 miles northeast of San Francisco

—

was the scene of a

devastating explosion. Hundreds of lives were lost in what’s considered the deadliest home

-front disaster of the war.

Most of the dead and injured were African-

Americans, put in harm’s way by a seg

regated military little concerned

for their safety. Worse, racism lay at the heart of the disaster and later of an event that has been called one of the

biggest miscarriages of justice in our history.

B)

At the time, Port Chicago was the busiest ammunition depot on the West Coast. The sailors worked around the clock,

loading bombs, depth charges and torpedoes onto ships headed for the Pacific theater. In the segregated U.S. Navy,

the

job

of

loading

the

deadly

ammunition

was

performed

only

by

black

sailors.

“To

find

yourself

loading

ammunition was a disappointment, ” recalls Robert Routh, an African

-American sailor from Memphis who was 19

at the time. “We all wanted to be actually fighting. But we knew that what we did was essential to the war. ”

C)

Essential but r

isky. “Loading ammunition was extremely dangerous,” explains Robert L. Allen, author of

The Port

Chicago Mutiny

and the foremost authority on the events. “The sailors were given no training for it. On top of that, it

was common practice for the officers to pit the men against each other, betting to see who could load their boat the

fastest. ” A Coast Guard working at the port warned the Navy that these unsafe conditions could lead to a disaster.

The Navy refused to change its procedures, and the Coast Guard withdrew its men.

D)

On the evening of July 17, 1944, two cargo ships were tied up at the pier. The

E. A. Bryan

was almost fully loaded

with 4,600 tons of cluster bombs, depth charges and 40 millimeter shells. The

Quinalt Victory

had just docked.

Robert Routh and fellow sailor Percy Robinson, 18, from Chicago, were in their barracks. At 10: 19, the night calm

was shattered. “I was in my bunk when the explosion occurred,” recalls Robinson. “I was

looking out the window,

and

all

of

a

sudden

everything

turned

to

sunlight.

1

jumped

up

to

see

what

was

happening,

and

then

I

felt

the

concussion. I instinctively covered my face with my arms. Then a second explosion lifted me up and knocked me to

the floor. ” Robert Routh also turned toward the window at the first explosion. “It was the greatest fireworks you

ever

wanted

to

see,”

he

recalls.

It

also

was

the

last

thing

he

ever

saw.

“With

the

second

explosion,

glass

went

everywhere. It was a combination of the glass and the concussion that destroyed my eyes. ”

E) The second explosion was so powerful that seismographs (

地震仪

)at Berkeley recorded it as an earthquake. The

E. A

.

Bryan

was

blown

into

tiny

pieces.

The

Quinalt

Victory

was

ripped

apart,

and

Port

Chicago’s

wooden

pier

was

completely destroyed. The human cost was even worse. Everyone on the pier and aboard the two ships was killed. Of

the 320 fatalities, 202 were black. And of the 390 injured, 233 were black. As bad as it was, though, the disaster

might not have made history if it weren’t for what followed.

F) A Navy court of inquiry ruled out sabotage. It heard testimony about the unsafe conditions at the port, but its final

report

absolved

the

white

officers

of

any

responsibility

and

blamed

the

tragedy

on

“rough

handling”

of

the

explosives by the black sailors. Then the white officers were granted 30-

day leaves. “None of the black sailors were

granted leaves,” says Robinso

n, who suffered lacerations (

裂伤

) to his face, head and arms. “I requested 30 days of

leave, which you’re entitled to if you’re wounded. I was turned down. ” Instead, they were given the grim task of

collecting the remains of their fellow sailors. “You can imagine the psychological impact this had,” says Routh. “My

loss of sight was traumatic, but everyone had traumatic needs, physical or mental. A

nd no help was given. ”

G) Instead, three weeks after the explosion, the black sailors were ordered back to work. But the men had had enough.

Of the 328 ordered to resume loading ammunition, 258 refused. Routh’s blindness had ended his military service,

but Robinson

—

just released from the hospital

—

was among those who balked.

“We

all had our reasons for not

going back to work,” he explains. “Some were afraid of another explosion. I was angry that they wouldn’t let me go

home. ” All 258 black sailors were locked up on a barge. “A few days later, we were led out and addressed by the