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  3. In a few weeks researchers will begin scouring the Florida seafloor for a 177-year-old shipwreck—and the resting place of dozens

In a few weeks researchers will begin scouring the Florida seafloor for a 177-year-old shipwreck—and the resting place of dozens

admin2016-12-06  22
问题     In a few weeks researchers will begin scouring the Florida seafloor for a 177-year-old shipwreck—and the resting place of dozens of slaves who drowned in chains. Despite its drama, the story of the Guerrero remains little-known.
    Around 7 pm on the evening of December 19th, 1827, keeper John Whalton was tending to his lightship, a sort of mobile lighthouse. He was anchored a few miles off
    Key Largo when, he said later, "I saw the flash and heard the report of seven or eight guns."
    Whalton was about to witness the tragic ending of a desperate chase in the waters off what was then the US Territory of Florida. The Guerrero, with hundreds of Africans enchained in its hold and crewed by 90 Spaniards who were little more than pirates, was fleeing the Nimble, a British warship that was enforcing the international ban on slave trade.
    British officials had gotten a tip that the Guerrero was bound for Cuba, where bribed officials would look the other way while the Guerrero’s human cargo was exchanged for goods worth a fortune in Europe.
    The Nimble and the Guerrero were swapping cannon fire as they skirted much too close to the shore. As Whalton watched, both ships piled onto Carysfort Reef, one of the many reefs that lie three or four miles (about five or six kilometres)off the Florida Keys.
    The Nimble was aground but not badly damaged. The Guerrero, however, struck with such force that its masts snapped and collapsed, and the massive poles plunged into the hold where the Africans were imprisoned. The ship sank immediately in the shallow water, and some 40 captives drowned.
    The men aboard the Nimble could hear the screams from two miles(about three kilometres)away. "The cries of 561 slaves and(Guerrero’s)crew were appalling beyond description," The Niles Weekly Register, a Baltimore newspaper, later reported.
Why did the Guerrero sink?
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答案Because it struck the Carysfort Reef with great force。
解析 倒数第3段提到了两艘船交火，但并没有提到沉没。该段第2句提到了两艘船都撞到了珊瑚礁上，倒数第2段接着说到撞珊瑚礁后的结果：the Nimble搁浅了，但the Guerrero因为撞击的力量太大，沉没了。可见，导致the Guerrero沉没的原因就是“它猛烈撞击到了珊瑚礁”。
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