Question 60 Answer and Explanation _ACT December 2009 Form 68A English Section

Passage IV

"Operation Vittles"

The following paragraphs may or may not be in the most logical order. Each paragraph is numbered in brackets, and question 59 will ask you to choose where Paragraph 4 should most logically be placed.

[1]

It was 1948. A humanitarian and political drama of lasting importance was about to unfold under the homely name "Operation Vittles." (48)

[2]

Since the end of World War II three years earlier, the victorious Allies had divided defeated Germany into four sectors. The United States, Great Britain, and France had combined their portions into West Germany, while the Soviet Union had installed a separate government in East Germany.

[3]

Berlin-the capital of Germany, was similarly divided into four sectors. However, the city's location deep inside East Germany gave a strategic advantage to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who wanted control over the entire city, not just the one Soviet sector. Stalin planned to use a tactic of warfare dating back to medieval times. He cut off all ground access into West Berlin—the part of the city he did not already control. Threatening to starve the 2.5 million residents of West Berlin he thought, might force the other three countries to cede the whole city to him.

[4]

Stalin's siege might have been successful in an era of castles and knights. But this was the aeronautical age, and Stalin's antagonists on ground transportation did not have to rely to move food and supplies into West Berlin. What resulted from this siege was one of the largest humanitarian efforts to date pilots who had bombed Berlin relentless during the war were now called upon to deliver food—"vittles"—as part of the Berlin Airlift. (57) "Operation Vittles" needed to operate around the clock, with a C-54 aircraft landing in Berlin every three minutes to keep the residents from starving. About 3,500 tons of food, medical supplies, and fuel arrived at Tempelhof Airfield daily.

[5]

The Soviets tried to thwart the operation by bugging and harassing pilots with blinding spotlights, near misses by Soviet planes, and radio interference. These tactics failed. After fifteen months, Stalin relented, the roads to West Berlin were reopened, and "Operation Vittles" came to a successful conclusion.

Questions 59 and 60 ask about the preceding passage as a whole.

60. Suppose the writer had intended to write a brief essay focusing on the important humanitarian efforts during the period following World War II. Would this essay accomplish that goal?

F. Yes, because it focuses on many humanitarian programs, which it succeeds in presenting as a representative group of such humanitarian efforts.

G. Yes, because it focuses on one example of a humanitarian program that is described in detail and carefully linked to other humanitarian efforts that immediately followed World War Ⅱ.

H. No, because it focuses on only one example of a humanitarian program and neglects to treat it as representative of other post-World War II humanitarian efforts.

J. No, because it devotes too much emphasis to World War II itself, rather than focusing on humanitarian efforts around that time.

Answer and Explanation

Your Answer is

Correct Answer is H

Explanation

Item F/G: The title stem assumes that the subject of the article is "many important humanitarian actions in World War II", and the efforts in the title stem are wrong. The article only mentions one effort, excluding F/G.

Item J: "Because this question overemphasizes World War II itself, instead of focusing on humanitarian subject actions" the reason is wrong.