In November 1965, New York was blacked out by an electricity failure. The (S1)_______promised that it would not happen again. Pessimists were certain that it would occur again within five years at the latest. In July 1977, there was a repeat performance which, (S2)__________varying degrees of chaos throughout the city of eight million people. In 1965, the failure occurred in the cool autumn and at a time of (S3)__________prosperity. In 1977, the disaster was much more serious because it came when unemployment was high and the city was suffering from one of its worst heat waves.
In 1965, there was little crime or looting during the darkness, and fewer than a hundred people were (S4)_________In 1977, hundreds of stores were broken into and looted. Looters (S5)____ shop windows and helped them salves to (S6)_________, clothes or television sets. Nearly 4,000 people were arrested but far more disappeared into the darkness of the night. The number of policemen avail- able was quite (S7)__________and they wisely refrained from using their guns against mobs (S8)_______ Hospitals had to treat hundreds of people cut by glass from shop windows. (S9)________. The vast majority of New Yorkers, however, were not involved in looting. (S10)______. For twenty-four hours, New York realized how helpless it was without electricity. S10
【参考答案】
They helped strangers, distributed candles and batteries, an......