Early last Tuesday, six men carrying machine guns, a pistol and a hunting rifle got on a four—car electric “ milk train” at the Dutch town of Assen. Shortly after it left Beilen, ten miles away, the terrorists stopped the train and seized the passenger as hostages. As police and Dutch soldiers ringed the train, another group of terrorists stuck in Amsterdam, forcing their way into the Indonesian consulate and taking 41 more hostages, including 16 children. By week’s end the terrorists had murdered three people aboard the train, and four more had been wounded in the raid on the consulate.
The kidnapping, and the subsequent cold—blooded murders, virtually rocked the Netherlands. While the Cabinet met in emergency sessions, television and radio station paused normal programming in favor of solemn music and news bulletins.
The terrorists were Indonesians from the South Moluccan Islands in the Pacific Ocean, and they were demanding that the Dutch help them gain independence from the Jakarta regime.(雅加达 * * )
The twin acts of violence were not the first signs of South Molucca anger. Just before a 1970 visit to the Netherlands by Indonesia’s President Suharto, they attacked the Indonesian embassy in the Hague, killing a Dutch policeman. Last week’s kidnappings are two days before the Dutch Appeals Court was to trial 16 South Moluccan’s who were implicated in a plot last April to kidnap Queen Juliana and other members of the Royal family. They planned to storm the palace at Soestdijk after attacking the gates with an armoured car(装甲车).
The Moluccan headache is a heritage(遗留问题) of the old days of empire. A chain of islands at the eastern of the Indonesian archipelago, the Moluccas were once known as the Spice Islands. When the Netherlands gave up its East Indies colonies in 1949, the Moluccans wanted to set up a South Moluccan Republic, some 12,000 islanders were allowed to settle to the Netherlands. Their number swollen by Dutch—born children now reached 35,000. the young Moluccans here are demanding that the Dutch help them gain independence from the Jakarta regime.
小题1:Which of the following is not mentioned in the passage?
A．Dozens of people were seized by the terrorist as hostages.
B．The Indonesian consulate was located in Amsterdam.
C．The terrorists were Indonesians living in the Netherlands.
D．The terrorists all surrendered(投降) to the police and soldiers.小题2:Why did television and radio stations pause normal programming?
A．The acts of violence shocked the whole country.
B．The terrorists destroyed necessary equipment.
C．the Cabinet needed to think quietly.
D．Their men were too sad to produce good program.小题3:The last paragraph __________.
A．is mainly about the history of Indonesia
B．tells us how Indonesia won its independence
C．tell us how the Netherlands gave up its rule
D．briefly accounts for the acts of violence
