His first successful fight was for the e...

His first successful fight was for the equal rights of black people in South Africa. Then, as the first black president, he fought to unite the country and organize the government. Now Nelson Mandela has set his sights on a new enemy, AIDS.

On March 19 the 82-year-old, former president, hosted his second AIDS-awareness concert. He warned that 25 million people in Africa were already infected with the fatal disease.

Mandela was born in a small village in South Africa in 1918. He was adopted by the chief of his tribe and could have been a chief himself and lived a happy country life.

But he refused to be a chief when his people lived under racial discrimination(歧视). He decided to fight for equal rights for all the people in South Africa. Before 1990, under the country’s Racial Segregation Law, colored and white people lived separately. Black people were treated unfairly even when taking a bus. Blacks had to stand at the back of the bus to make room for white people even when there were only a few of them on board.

For his opposition to the system, Mandela was arrested and spent 27 years in prison. He was freed in 1990 and became the president of the country after the first election were held in which everyone could vote.

Mandela was not only a political fighter who attacked with speeches. He was also a trained boxer and fought in the ring when he was young.

“Although I did not enjoy the violence of boxing, I was interested in how one moved one’s body to protect oneself, how one used a strategy both to attack and retreat”, he wrote in his autobiography.

As a skillful fighter, he chose music as his weapon against AIDS. He hopes to win another victory against AIDS.

1.When was Mandela arrested?

2.Nelson Mandela succeeded in doing the following except _______.

3.If Nelson Mandela hadn’t fought against racial discrimination, he_______.

4.Which of the following statements can best describe the life of Nelson Mandela?