On Thursday August 14th, a massive power failure switched off lights and shut down factories across a large area of the north-eastern United States and southern Canada. The outcome affected some of the world's biggest and busiest cities, including New York, Detroit, Cleveland and Toronto, leaving up to 60m people without electricity, equivalent to the entire population of France or Britain.
So severe was the disruption (破坏) in New York State that its governor, George Pataki, declared a state of emergency. Confused workers spilled on to the streets, while thousands more were trapped for hours in lifts and hot, crowded subway trains. Lots of stranded (进退两难的) people ended up spending Thursday night on New York's streets. Thieves in Brooklyn in New York, and in Canada's capital, Ottawa, took advantage of the absence of streetlights and burglar alarms, and went on a looting spree (疯狂抢掠). Officials were taken aback by the speed at which the chaos unfolded. President George Bush described the incident as a 'massive national problem' and promised a full investigation into what caused it.
That is still a matter of some debate. At first, naturally, there were fears of terrorist involvement, but this was quickly ruled out. However, officials were left arguing about what had actually happened. The office of Canada's prime minister, Jean Chretien, said that a severe accident at a nuclear-power plant in Pennsylvania may have been the cause. Earlier, American and Canadian officials had said a fire or perhaps lightning had hit a power plant near Niagara Falls in New York State.
1、Several cities were affected by the massive power failure on August 14th except____.
A、Ottawa
B、Cleveland
C、Chicago
D、Brooklyn
2、The word 'outage' in Paragraph 1 can be best replaced by____.
A、power shortcut
B、 disruption
C、 massive national problem
D、 power failure
3、Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?____
A、Many streetlights and burglar alarms were stolen during the blackout.
B、Some terrorists were involved in the incident.
C、President George Bush demanded a full investigation into the disruption in New York.
D、Officials were not sure what had caused the power failure.
4、It can be inferred from the passage that____.
A、France has a population of about 60 million.
B、Only some large cities were affected by the power failure.
C、 Canada's prime minister knew what had caused the power failure.
D、Water was spilt onto the streets by confused workers.
5、The power failure on August 14th brought about big chaos except that____.
A、thousands of people were trapped in lifts
B、 many people had to stay on streets for Thursday night.
C、 stores were robbed by the thieves.
D、a power plant near Niagara Falls was hit by a fire or lightning.