On May 27, 1942, three Czechoslovakian resistance fighters ambushed and fatally wounded the brutal Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich, also known as the Hangman. The Nazis were outraged by the attack on one of their own. In a fury, they rounded up and shot all the men and boys over sixteen in Lidice, a small Czechoslovakian town known to be a center of the resistance. The remaining women and children were shipped to concentration camps with orders that they be treated harshly. The village of Lidice was burned to the ground. The remaining rubble was bulldozed so that no evidence of its existence was left. By the time the Nazis were done, it was as if Lidice had never existed, which was the way the Nazis wanted it. They even went so far as to dig up bodies in the cemetery and burn them before setting fire to the village.
Implied Main Idea
a. The destruction of Lidice is a good illustration of how the Nazis tried to hide their horrific cruelty.
b. In retaliation for the murder of Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazis wiped the entire village of Lidice, including its inhabitants, out of existence.
c. Reinhard Heydrich was one of the worst monsters the Nazis ever produced.
Question 2
Everyone knows stress has a negative effect on the body. It weakens the immune system and increases the chances of infection and disease. However, an experiment by two scientists at Rockefeller University in New York challenges that traditional wisdom. According to Firdaus S. Dhabhar and Dr. Bruce McEwen, mild forms of stress can act like a call to arms. If, for example, a person has to give a speech or meet a deadline, the body calls up immune cells from the bloodstream and sends them to battle stations throughout the body, thereby increasing rather than diminishing immunity. It may be that the immune system is weakened only when stress is long-term, severe and out of one's control. Mild stress might have an entirely different effect on the body.
Implied Main Idea
a. To combat stress, the body calls up immune cells from the bloodstream and sends them to all parts of the body.
b. According to new research, stress actually strengthens rather than weakens the body's immune system.
c. According to a new study, mild forms of stress may strengthen rather than weaken the body's immune system.