VOA慢速英语2011--Questions for Britain After the Riots

IN THE NEWS - Questions for Britain After the Riots¹

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
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This week, Britain faced its worst riots since the nineteen eighties. The unrest began in London and spread to other cities, including Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool.
Police have been launching raids², making arrests and studying images from security cameras. Officials charged hundreds of people with disorder³, violence and stealing from looted stores.
Police said a sixty-eight-year-old man became the fifth person to die as a result of the violence. He was attacked during the riots.
The rioting⁴ began last Saturday after a peaceful demonstration⁵ over the deadly police shooting of a twenty-nine-year-old man. The shooting happened last week in a poor neighborhood in north London.
Rioters burned buildings and cars, broke into hundreds of stores and fought with police.
Britain had its first calm night on Wednesday. Sixteen thousand police officers will remain on duty in London through the coming days. This is the most ever during peacetime.
Prime Minister David Cameron says he will seek advice from American cities that have fought gang violence. These include Boston, Los Angeles and New York.
Mr. Cameron returned early from a vacation to deal with the unrest. He said he was considering interfering⁶ with electronic devices and websites that rioters have used to organize their activities.
DAVID CAMERON: "Free flow of information can be used for good but it can also be used for ill. So we are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people from communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality."
Mr. Cameron spoke⁷ Thursday at an emergency meeting of parliament. He said the violence was not political but criminal.
DAVID CAMERON: "Mr. Speaker, we will not put up with this in our country. We will not allow a culture of fear to exist on our streets, and we will do whatever it takes to restore law and order and to rebuild our communities."
In Birmingham, three Pakistani men were killed Wednesday when a car struck them as they tried to protect businesses in their community. Hours later, Tariq Jahan, the father of twenty-one-year-old victim Haroon Jahan, appealed for calm.
TARIQ JAHAN: "Basically, I lost my son. Blacks, Asians, whites -- we all live in the same community. Why do we have to kill one another? What started these riots, and what’s escalated⁸? Why are we doing this?"
Many people blamed the unrest on high unemployment, slow economic recovery and cuts to public services by the new British government. Mr. Cameron blamed it on selfishness, lack of responsibility, poor discipline in schools and bad parenting.
Chris Hamnett lives in north London, not far from some of the worst rioting.
CHRIS HAMNETT: "Essentially⁹, what we've seen is rioting for fun and profit. This is not people expressing their anger against an oppressive state. This is people thinking it would be nice to get a slice of the action.”
The riots were centered in neighborhoods with large African and Caribbean populations. Both groups have a history of tensions with the police. Basani Mabyalane lives in the area.
BASANI MABYALANE: "I feel there is maybe more that could be done to empower the young people because, from what I saw yesterday, to me it looked like they don’t have much to do. They have got the time. They have got the energy. But they are using that energy on negative things.”
In the north London neighborhood of Haringey, some young people are using their energy to do positive things. They have formed a group called HYPE: Haringey’s Young People Empowered.
One of those young people is Erica Lopez. She thinks a majority of the rioters simply wanted to loot. But she says she understands and shares the anger of many of her young neighbors over a lack of jobs and cuts in youth services.
ERICA LOPEZ: “The government really needs to actually take time and listen to these young people because for a long time they have been crying in silence saying, 'This is what matters to me.' They have really been crying for a long time.”
And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.
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Contributing: Avi Arditti, Selah Hennessy and Al Pessin

1 riots   

n. 暴乱, 骚乱, 暴动 vi. 骚乱, 闹事

参考例句：

• the instigators of the riots 煽动骚乱的人
• The riots are a clear manifestation of the people's discontent. 骚乱清楚地表明了人们的不满情绪。

2 raids   

突然袭击( raid的名词复数 )； 劫掠，劫夺； 突然查抄[搜捕]

参考例句：

• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。
• We can annoy the enemy by raids. 我们可以用空袭骚扰敌人。

3 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

4 rioting   

暴乱，骚乱

参考例句：

• There were ugly scenes in the streets last night as rioting continued. 昨晚暴乱持续之际，街上险象环生。
• They are rioting in the streets. 他们在街上闹事。

5 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

6 interfering   

adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词

参考例句：

• He's an interfering old busybody! 他老爱管闲事！
• I wish my mother would stop interfering and let me make my own decisions. 我希望我母亲不再干预，让我自己拿主意。

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 escalated   

v.（使）逐步升级( escalate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）逐步扩大；（使）更高；（使）更大

参考例句：

• The fighting escalated into a full-scale war. 这场交战逐步扩大为全面战争。
• The demonstration escalated into a pitched battle with the police. 示威逐步升级，演变成了一场同警察的混战。

9 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。