单选题
In November 1965, New York was blacked out by an
electricity failure. The authorities promised that it would not happen again.
Pessimists were certain that it would occur again within five years at the
latest. In July 1997,there was a repeat performance which produced 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 comparative prosperity. In
1997,tha 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 arrested. In 1997, hundreds of stores were broken
into and looted. Looters smashed shop windows and helped themselves to jewelry,
clothes or television sets. Nearly 4 000 people were arrested but far more
disappeared into the darkness of the night. The number of policemen available
was quite inadequate and they wisely refrained from using their guns against
mobs which far outnumbered them and included armed men.
Hospitals had to treat hundreds of people cut by glass from shop windows. Banks
and most businesses remained closed the next day. The blackout started at 9:30
p.m., when lightning hit and knocked out vital cables. Many stores were thus
caught by surprise. The vast majority of New Yorkers, however,
were not involved in looting. They helped strangers, distributed candles and
batteries, and tried to survive in a nightmare world without traffic lights,
refrigerators, elevators, water and electrical power. For twenty-four hours, New
York realized how helpless it was without electricity.
单选题
From the first paragraph, we know that ______ were right.