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 (實(shí)現(xiàn)) 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 (市政廳) 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(候選人). 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.
1. In the author’s opinion, it was surprising that _______.
A. the whites would vote for a black mayor
B. a black mayor would be elected in such a large city
C. a black from a poor farmer’s family could be elected mayor of Los Angeles
D. there would be so many black mayors
2. From the passage we can infer that people ________.
A. voted for Bradley because of his black color
B. didn’t care much about his color when they voted
C. voted for him to give a chance to fulfill his dream
D. voted for Bradley because they trust him
3. Bradley hit the front page headline for _______.
A. he was the first black mayor in history
B. he was the first black mayor in the south of USA
C. he was the first black mayor of one of the largest cities in USA
D. a poor farmer’s son could also win an important election
4. From Bradley’s victory in the election we can see that ________.
A. blacks had equal rights as whites in the USA
B. black people’s situation began to be improving much more than before
C. one can be successful through hard work in the USA no matter what color he is
D. it is certain that someday the USA will have a black president
