IV Find the word or words in the text that mean the same as:

a) consisted

b) decided

c) took in his fingers

d) assert

e) swiftness

f) sudden fear

g) made a loud noise

h) made very wet

THE END

TEXT 19 EVEN COW GIRLS GET THE BLUES

by Tom Robbins

Tom Robbins (b. 1936) – an American writer, author of serio-comic novels with a strong social and philosophical undercurrent.

When he was eight, he emigrated to the United States of America, where his uncle tended gardens in San Francisco. < … >

The Chink picked up English and other bad habits. He went to high school and other dangerous places. He earned American citizenship and other dubious distinctions.

When asked what he wished to do with his life, he answered (although he had learned to appreciate movies, jukebox music, and cheerleaders) that he wanted to grow yams on the side of a volcano – but as that was impracticable in the city of San Francisco, he became, like his uncle, a gardener. For more (10) than a dozen years he made the grass greener and the flowers flowerier on the campus on the University of California at Berkeley. < … >

By special arrangement with his employers, the Chink attended one class a day at the university. Over a twelve-year span he completed a good many courses. He never graduated but it would be a mistake to assume he did not receive an education.

He was astute enough to warn his relatives, on December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor, “The Shinto is gonna hit the fan. We’d better get our yellow asses back to some safe volcano and eat yams until it blows over.” They didn’t listen. After all, they were patriotic, property-owing, tax-paying (20) American citizens.

The Chink wasn’t anxious to flee, either. He was in love again. Camping on the rim of a different volcano. So to speak.

On February 20, 1942, came the order. Two weeks later, the Army took steps. In March, evacuation was in full swing. Some 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry were moved out of their homes in “strategic” areas of the West Coast and settled in ten “relocation” camps further inland. They could bring to camp only what they could carry. Left behind were houses, businesses, farms, home furnishings, personal treasures,

liberty. Americans of non-Nip ancestry bought up their farmland at ten cents (30) on the dollar (the crops failed). Seventy percent of the relocated people had been born and reared in the U.S. “Loyal” Japanese were separated from “disloyal”. If one would swear allegiance to the American war effort – and could pass an FBI investigation – one had the choice of remaining in a relocation camp or finding employment in some nonstrategic area. The camps were militaristic formations of tarpaper barracks, supplied with canvas cots and potbellied stoves.

Six to nine families lived in a barracks. Partitions between “apartments” were as thin as crackers and did not reach to the ceiling. (Even so, there were an average of twenty-five births per month in most camps.)

(40) There was no great rush to leave the camps: a loyal family that had been relocated on an Arkansas farm had been killed by an irate anti-Jap mob.

Disloyal Japanese-Americans – those who expressed excessive bitterness over the loss of their property and the disruption of their lives, or who, for various other reasons, were suspected of being dangerous to national security – were given the pleasure of one another’s company at a special camp, the Tule Lake Segregation Center in Siskiyou County, California. The Chink had been asked if he supported the American war effort. “Hell no!” he replied. “Ha ha ho ho and hee hee.” He waited for the logical next question, did he support the Japanese war effort, to which he would have given the same negative

(50) response. He was still waiting when the military police showed him on the train to Tule Lake.

NOTES

Chink – a racist term used to describe a Chinese person or someone from another Asian country

high school – a secondary school that begins with grades nine or ten and ends with grade twelve with students attending until they are 17 or 18

jukebox music – music from a coin-operated machine

cheerleader – in the US, a person, usu. a young girl, who leads spectators in organized cheering for the players at sporting events

yams – a variety of sweet potato

a good many – a lot of

Pearl Harbor – an American naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, the attack on which by the Empire of Japan on Dec.7, 1941, brought the United States into World War II.

The Shinto is gonna hit the fan. – Here: There’s going to be trouble.

Nip – A Japanese person (derogatory, from Nippon, the Japanese word for Japan)

FBI – the Federal Bureau of Investigation

potbellied stoves – here: large round stoves

Arkansas ['ɑ:kənsɔ:] – a state located in the south of the U.S.

the Tule Lake Segregation Center – an internment camp in California with the highest level of security which existed until 1946

EXERCISES