On May 29, 1973, Thomas Bradley, a black man, was elected mayor of Los Angeles. Los Angeles is the third largest city in the United States, with a population of three million. About sixteen percent of the city’s population are black.
News of this election appeared on the front pages of newspapers everywhere in the United States. Here is how one major newspaper reported the event:
LOS ANGELES ELECTS BRADLEY MAYOR UNSEATING YORTYBLACK WINS 56% OF VOTES
Bradley called his victory over Yorty “the fulfillment (实现) of a dream”. During his childhood and youth, people had kept telling him, “You can’t do this, you can’t go there, because you are a Negro.” Nevertheless he had won a decisive victory over a man who had been won 43.7 percent.
Los Angeles voters have had many opportunities to judge. Thomas Bradley had to form an opinion of him. The son of a poor farmer Texas, he joined the Los Angeles police force in 1940. During his twenty-one years on the police force he earned a law degree by attending school at night. He was elected to the city council (市政厅) ten years ago.
At the time of the Los Angeles election, three other American cities already had black mayors, but none of those cities had as large a population as Los Angeles. Besides, the percentage of blacks in those other cities was much larger. Cleveland, Ohio, had thirty-six percent black when Carl Stokes was elected mayor of Cleveland in 1967. In the same year Richard Hatcher was elected mayor of Cary. In Newark, New Jersey, sixty percent of the population were black when Kenneth Gibson was elected in 1970. Thus election of a black mayor in those cities was not very surprising.
In Los Angeles thousands of white citizens voted for Thomas Bradley because they believed he would be a better mayor than the white candidate(候选人). Bradley had spent forty-eight of his fifty-five years in Los Angeles. Four years ago Bradley lost mayoral election to Yorty. This time Bradley won.
【小题1】In the author’s opinion, it was surprising that .A．the whites would vote for a black mayorB．a black mayor would be elected in such a large cityC．a black from a poor farmer’s family could be elected mayor of Los AngelesD．there would be so many black mayors【小题2】From the passage we can infer that people .A．voted for Bradley because of his black colorB．didn’t care much about his color when they votedC．voted for him to give a chance to fulfill his dreamD．voted for Bradley because they trust him【小题3】 Bradley hit the front page headline for .A．he was the first black mayor in historyB．he was the first black mayor in the south of USAC．he was the first black mayor of one of the largest cities in USAD．a poor farmer’s son could also win an important election【小题4】 From Bradley’s victory in the election we can see that .A．blacks had equal rights as whites in the USAB．black people’s situation began to be improving much more than beforeC．one can be successful through hard work in the USA no matter what color he isD．it is certain that someday the USA will have a black presidentA
网友回答
(答案→)A
解析：
本文报道了黑人在洛杉矶这样白人占绝大多数的大城市里被当选为市长这一新闻。
【小题1】推断题。根据文章第1段最后一句：洛杉矶黑人的比例为16%以及倒数第2段所描述其他几个城市的黑人的比例(分别是36 %、55 %、60 %)可推此题答案为A。
【小题2】细节题。根据文章最后一段第1句…because they believed he would be a better mayor than the white candidate可推知此题的答案为D。
【小题3】细节题。根据倒数第2段第1句…three other American cities already had black mayors, but none of those cities had as large a population as Los Angeles可推知此题的答案为C。
【小题4】推断题。运用排除法：选项A显然与原文内容不符；选项C和D文章没提及，况且此两项过于忽略美国的种族矛盾，不宜选；只有选项B原文内容较相符。