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to keep the city safe were gone in the thirty second the earth moved. Out at sea it was calm. No wind came up. Yet from every directioneast,weast,north,andsouth,strong winds blew upon the unlucky city. Man himself had to make ruins of the city’s best buildings so that they would not be a danger to those in the streets. A list of buildings undesteryed was now only a few addresses. A list of the brave men and the women would fill a library. A list of all those killed will never be made. Amazing as it may seem, Wednesday night was a quiet night. There were no crowds. The policemen saidnothing。 even their horses were quit. There were no shouts or people doing crazy things. In all those terrible hours I saw not one woman who cried, not one man who was excited. Before the fires, through the night, thousands and thousands of people who had lost their homes left for safety. Some were covered in blankets. Sometimes whole families put everything they owned and could save into wagons. They helped one another climb the high hills around the city. Never in all SanFrsncio’s histroy were her people so kind as on that terrible night.Unit 5Elias’ storyMy name is Elias. I am a poor worker in SouthAfrica. The time when I first met Nelson Mandela was a very difficult period of my life. I was twelve years old. It was in 1952 and Mandela was the black lawyer to whom I went for advice. He offered guidance to poor black people on their legal problems. He was generous with his time, for which I was grateful.I needed his help because I had very little education. I began school at six. The school where I studied for only two years was three kilometers away. I had to leave because my family could not continue to pay the school fees and the bus fare. I could not read or write well. After trying hard, I got a job in a gold mine. However, this was a time when one had to got to have a passbook to live in Johannesburg. Sadly I did not have it because I was not born there, and I worried about whether I would bee out of work.The day when Nelson Mandela helped me was one of my happiest. He told me how to get the correct papers so I could stay in Johannesburg. I became more hopeful about my future. I never forgot how kind Mandela was. When he organized the ANC Youth League, I joined it as soon as I could. He said:“ The last thirty years have seen the greatest number of laws stopping our rights and progress,until today we have reached a stage where we have almost no rights at all.”It was the truth. Black people could not vote or choose their leaders. They could not get the jobs they wanted. The parts of town in which they had to live were decided by white people. The places outside the towns where they were sent to live were the poorest parts of South Africa. No one could grow food there,. In fact as Nelson Mandela said:“… We were put into a position in which we had either to accept we were less important, or fight the government. We chose to attack the laws. We first broke the law in a way which was peaceful。 when this was not allowed… only then did we decide to answer violence with violence.”As a matter of fact, I do not like violence… but in 1963 I helped him blow up some government buildings. It was very dangerous because if I was caught I could be put in prison. But I was very happy to help because I knew it would help us achieve our dream of making black and white people equal.The rest of Elias’ storyYou cannot imagine how the name of Robben Island made us afraid. It was a prison from which no one escaped. There I spent the hardest time of my life. But when I got there Nelson Mandela was also there and he helped me. Mr Mandela began a school for those of us who had little learning. We read books under our blankets and used anything we could find to make candles to see the words. I became a good student. I wanted to study for degree but I was not allowed to do that. Later, Mr Mandela allowed the prison guards to join us. He said they should not be stopped from studying for their degrees. They were not cleverer than me, but they did pass their exams. So I knew I could get a degree too. That made me feel good about myself.When I finished the four years in prison, I went to find a job. Since I was better educated, I got a job working in an office. However, the police found out and told my boss that I had been in prison for blowing up government buildings. So I lost my job. I did not work again for twenty years until Mr Mandela and the ANC came to power in 1994. All that time my wife and children had to beg for food and help from relatives or friends. Luckily Mr Mandela remembered me and gave me a job taking tourists a