VOA标准英语2013--Fort Hood Shooter Trial Begins Tuesday

 

Fort Hood¹ Shooter Trial Begins Tuesday

The mass shooting and the arrest of one of its own was devastating² to the military base and to the nearby town of Killeen.

Most residents are connected directly or indirectly³ to Fort Hood. They are angry about the shooting and the delay in bringing Major Hasan to justice.

"We all know he's guilty. He admits he did it. Let's just get it over with," one resident complained.

"There shouldn't be a trial about it. He did what he did and everybody saw that he did it," noted⁴ another resident.

Retired⁵ Army Staff Sergeant⁶ Dorothy Ann Grogan-Gardner was nearby when the shooting started.  She said the army could have prevented the massacre⁷ if it had taken note of Hasan's conversion⁸ to radical⁹ Islam.

"His behavior, his mannerisms, the things he was saying; the red flags were there," she said.

Some of those who were wounded in the attack have filed suit against Hasan and the U.S. government.  Many residents cheer that effort.

Killeen Mayor Dan Corbin said the suits are not likely to go far. But he understands why residents, with their ties to Fort Hood, take this case personally.

"The first thing we dealt with was the shock and the grief. That was followed by a period of anger at the perpetrator," the mayor explained, "and, since then, disappointment at how slowly the wheels of justice seem to turn.”

Military Law expert Geoffrey Corn, who teaches at the South Texas College of Law, said the court's deliberate pace in preparing the trial against Hasan will pay off.

"I prefer the word methodical rather than slow," Corn said. "Haste, in this case, could have gotten a conviction and it would have been in jeopardy¹⁰ on appeal."

While the delays have been painful for many, Mayor Corbin said people in Killeen are ready to handle their emotions.

"We are a very resilient community. You have to understand that more soldiers deploying¹¹ out of Fort Hood have been killed than from any other post," he stressed. “We have attended so many funerals and dealt with so much grief that when this happened in 2009, it was, to a certain extent, just more of the same.”

Uniformed military personnel stationed at Fort Hood, speaking off camera, said they are just going about their work and not thinking too much about the trial, but they are glad to see it's finally getting underway. 

1 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

2 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

3 indirectly   

adv.间接地，不直接了当地

参考例句：

• I heard the news indirectly.这消息我是间接听来的。
• They were approached indirectly through an intermediary.通过一位中间人，他们进行了间接接触。

4 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

5 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

6 sergeant   

n.警官，中士

参考例句：

• His elder brother is a sergeant.他哥哥是个警官。
• How many stripes are there on the sleeve of a sergeant?陆军中士的袖子上有多少条纹？

7 massacre   

n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀

参考例句：

• There was a terrible massacre of villagers here during the war.在战争中，这里的村民惨遭屠杀。
• If we forget the massacre,the massacre will happen again!忘记了大屠杀，大屠杀就有可能再次发生！

8 conversion   

n.转化，转换，转变

参考例句：

• He underwent quite a conversion.他彻底变了。
• Waste conversion is a part of the production process.废物处理是生产过程的一个组成部分。

9 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

10 jeopardy   

n.危险；危难

参考例句：

• His foolish behaviour may put his whole future in jeopardy.他愚蠢的行为可能毁了他一生的前程。
• It is precisely at this juncture that the boss finds himself in double jeopardy.恰恰在这个关键时刻，上司发现自己处于进退两难的境地。

11 deploying   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的现在分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Provides support for developing and deploying distributed, component-based applications. 为开发和部署基于组件的分布式应用程序提供支持。
• Advertisement, publishing, repair, and install-on-demand are all available when deploying your application. 在部署应用程序时提供公布、发布、修复和即需即装功能。