It’s the worst event in human being’s nautical(航海的)history , six times more deadly than the Titanic . When the German cruise ship Wilhelm Gustloff was hit by torpedoes(鱼雷)fired from a Russian submarine in the final winter of World War II , more than 10,000 people – mostly women , children and old people fleeing the final Red Army push into Nazi Germany – were packed aboard .

An ice storm had turned the decks into frozen sheets that sent hundreds of families sliding into the sea as the ship tilted and began to go down . Others desperately tried to put lifeboats down . Some who succeeded fought off those in the water who had the strength to try to claw their way aboard . Most people froze immediately . “ I’ll never forget the screams , ” says Christa Ntitzmann , 87 , one of the 1,200 survivors . She recalls watching the ship , brightly lit , slipping into its dark grave-and into seeming nothingness , rarely mentioned for more than half a century .

Now Germany’s Nobel Prize-winning author Gtinter Grass has revived the memory of the 9,000 dead , including more than 4,000 children-with his latest novel Crab Walk , published last month . The book ,which will be out in English next year , doesn’t dwell on the sinking : its heroine is a pregnant young woman who survives the catastrophe only to say later : “ Nobody wanted to hear about it , not here in the West ( of Germany ) and not at all in the East . ”

The reason was obvious . As Grass put in a recent interview with the weekly Die Woche : “ Because the crimes we Germans are responsible for were and are so dominant , we didn’t have the energy left to tell of our own sufferings . ” The long silence about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff was probably unavoidable – and necessary .

By unreservedly owning up to their country’s monstrous crimes in the Second World War , Germans have managed to win acceptance abroad , marginalize the neo-Nazis at home and make peace with their neighbors .

Today’s unified Germany is more prosperous and stable than at any time in its long , troubled history . For that , a half century of willful forgetting about painful memories like the German Titanic was perhaps a reasonable price to pay . But even the most politically correct Germans believe that they’ve now earned the right to discuss the full historical record . Not to equate German suffering with that of its victims , but simply to acknowledge a terrible tragedy .

1.Why does the author say the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff was the worst event in nautical history ?

A. It was attacked by Russian torpedoes .

B. Most of its passengers were frozen to death .

C. Its victims were mostly women and children .

D. It caused the largest number of casualties .

2. How does Gunter Grass revive the memory of the Wilhelm Gustloff tragedy ?

A. By presenting the horrible scene of the torpedo attack .

B. By describing the ship’s sinking in great detail .

C. By giving an interview to the weekly Die Woche .

D. By illustrating the survival of a young pregnant woman .

3.What’s the meaning of the underlined word “ marginalize

A. highlight B. weaken

C. strengthen D. fasten

4.It can be learned from the passage that Germans no longer think that

A. they will be misunderstood if they talk about the Wilhelm Gustloff tragedy

B. the Wilhelm Gustloff tragedy is a reasonable price to pay for the nation’s past misdeeds

C. Germany is responsible for the horrible crimes it committed in World War II

D. it is wrong to equate their sufferings with those of other countries

完形填空(共1小题)

In 1956,Phoenix,Arizona,was a city with boundless blue skies.One day as I walked around the house with my sister Kathy’s new parakeet on my finger,I wanted to show.

Perky the sky looked like.Maybe he could make a little bird out there.I took him into the backyard,and then,to my ,Perky flew off.The enormous blue sky swallowed up my sister’s blue and suddenly he had gone,clipping its wings.

Kathy managed to me.With fake optimism,she even tried to reassure me that Perky would find a new .But I was far too clever to that such a thing was possible.

Decades later,I watched my own growing.We shared their activities,spending soccer Saturdays in folding chairs with the of the kids’ friends,the Kissells.The two families went camping around Arizona together.We became the of friends.One evening,the game was to tell Great Pet stories.One person claimed to the oldest living goldfish.Someone else had a psychic dog. Barry,the father of the other family,took the floor and that the Greatest Pet of All Time was his blue parakeet,Sweetie Pie.

“The best thing Sweetie Pie,” he said,“was the we got him.One day,when I was about eight,out of the clear,blue sky,a little blue parakeet just down and landed on my finger.”

When I was finally able to ,we examined the amazing evidence.The dates and the locations and the pictures of the bird all .It seems ourtwo families had been long before we ever met.Forty years later,I ran to my sister and said,“You were ! Perky lived!”

1.A.what B.how C.which D.where

2.A.food B.nest C.friend D.family

3.A.joy B.horror C.disappointment D.satisfaction

4.A.pleasure B.sadness C.treasure D.sense

5.A.forgive B.comfort C.help D.delight

6.A.parent B.home C.master D.life

7.A.imagine B.suppose C.doubt D.believe

8.A.birds B.happiness C.worries D.children

9.A.parents B.birds C.interests D.games

10.A.first B.best C.last D.happiest

11.A.catch B.find C.buy D.have

12.A.Suddenly B.Fortunately C.Then D.However

13.A.announced B.said C.told D.hoped

14.A.in B.about C.of D.on

15.A.day B.place C.way D.story

16.A.floated B.dived C.settled D.went

17.A.think B.speak C.interrupt D.explain

18.A.came up B.turned up C.turned out D.matched up

19.A.known B.fastened C.connected D.introduced

20.A.right B.wrong C.silly D.mad

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