VOA慢速英语2013 Search for Boston Bombers

 

Search for Boston Bombers¹

From VOA Learning English, this is IN THE NEWS. 

American law enforcement officials this week looked for suspects in the bombings at the Boston Marathon. Three people were killed when two bombs exploded near the finish line on Monday. More than 170 others were injured.

On Thursday, federal investigators² released a video tape and pictures taken around the time of the Boston bombings. The images showed two young men carrying backpacks. Officials believe the bombs were transported in the bags.

On Friday, police identified the suspects as brothers and ethnic³ Chechens. The two were born in Kyrgyzstan and lived for several years in Dagestan before coming to the United States as refugees.

The uncle of the brothers spoke⁴ to reporters from his home in the state of Maryland. He says the brothers’ family is Muslim. He also confirmed their ethnic identity.

The issue of identity is complex. 

Aslan Doukaev directs the North Caucasus Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. He spoke to us from the Czech Republic. 

“Yes, I am familiar--I’m myself of Chechen origin and I know the social structure and I think I can speak about that. But if we’re going to talk about these two young persons, they had, they lived all their lives outside of Chechnya so it’s probably, it is probably not, would be not correct on my part to speak about them as part of this Chechnya, Chechen society or Chechen environment.

Mr. Doukaev says the young men appear to be unlike other terror suspects.

“I’m really personally a little bit baffled and confused because they do not fit the normal profile of, you know, North Caucasus terrorists. They are urban. They are well educated. They were probably well integrated in American society. So they do not fit the profile of people I’m used (to), as a journalist, to deal with.”

Stephanie Nawyn is an assistant professor of Sociology at Michigan State University. She has studied refugee resettlement and social inclusion of both male and female refugees. She says many refugees can experience a lack of belonging in a new country.

“Most will tell you that it takes about five to six years, to feel like they can be part of their communities. And most refugees actually do get to that point, where they feel integrated. But this initial alienation⁵ is quite common. However, it very, very rarely translates into this kind of anti-social behavior.”

She says that when violence takes place, it is the work of young people who came to the country as children.

Stephanie Nawyn also sees a difference between male and female refugees.

“I think, too, it is important to recognize this almost always happens among men. And among men who feel like they aren’t able to achieve the kinds of status that they would like or that they are deserving of and that is not just a threat to them, you know, to their sense of what they deserve based on their class status. But it is a threat to what they feel they deserve as men.”

And that’s IN THE NEWS, written by George Grow and Onka Dekker. I’m Kelly Jean Kelly. 

1 bombers   

n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 )；投弹手；安非他明胶囊；大麻叶香烟

参考例句：

• Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

4 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。

5 alienation   

n.疏远；离间；异化

参考例句：

• The new policy resulted in the alienation of many voters.新政策导致许多选民疏远了。
• As almost every conceivable contact between human beings gets automated,the alienation index goes up.随着人与人之间几乎一切能想到的接触方式的自动化，感情疏远指数在不断上升。