填空题

No event has had such a decisive effect in shaping the attitude of the Irish people towards the British as the Irish Famine. Looking back on the famine, the most (36) fact was that it should ever have reached such (37) . Although the potato crop failed, there was plenty of food left in Ireland, and while thousands died some of it was being (38) . Even if the local organizations for dealing with a crisis of such magnitude were completely (39) more positive and generous action. by the British Government could have (40) some of the worst effects. In the light of the large scale Government relief projects (41) today, the supreme irony of all was that the richest nation in Europe should have allowed one of the poorest to starve on its doorstep.
Yet the famine looked very different through nineteen-century eyes. Then, the (42) of letting people do things without the government’s (43) were generally accepted — in fact, were regarded as almost scared. (44) In the case of the Irish famine, it was argued, the Government had done all it could to help.
(45) , and it seems strange that the reports of suffering could have failed to move the Government towards a greater use of its resources. (46) Few Irish families had not been severely hit by the famine, and there were even fewer who did not lay the blame fairly and directly at Britain’s door.