CNN 2012-07-26

 Good evening, everyone. We're coming to you live tonight from Aurora¹, Colorado, from a city, from a state in mourning. 

 

Over my shoulder, a few blocks away, you can still see the movie theater where less than 24 hours ago, about 22.5 hours ago, a massacre² took place. There is a lot happening right now to tell you about. Bomb technicians have just suspended work tonight at the suspect's apartment, which he booby-trapped to explode, we're told. That's about four miles away from here.

 

We have got late details on how the place was rigged plain and simple to kill first-responders and to kill neighbors. But before we go any further, I just want to say that I'm only going to mention the alleged³ shooter's name a few times over the course of this next hour.

 

Too often after a shooting like this, the killer⁴'s name becomes well-known and months, even years later the killer's name is recalled, but the victims, the survivors⁵' names are not. I think that's wrong. 

 

We're going to tell you about the suspect, all we know, all we can, but we want to focus in the hour ahead on the 70 people shot or wounded last night, including the 12 of whom have died. 

 

Now, we don't know many of the names of the dead, but police now do. Just before airtime, they announced that they expect the notifications to begin tonight. It is a brutal⁶ job after a brutal 24 hours. 

 

Our cops went through a lot. As I told you this morning, they rushed people out of that theater, into police cars. I have heard some compelling stories. One of the things we are working on is how we're going to deal with our own trauma⁷. 

 

An emotional Police Chief Dan Oates with another rough night ahead of him. 

 

We do not want to speculate on victims' identities of course, because the last thing any of us want is for someone's family to hear that kind of speculation⁸. We do know though of one young woman whose life has been cut short. Her name is Jessica Ghawordy, a journalist, a blogger who also went by the name of Jessica Redfield. She narrowly escaped a similar but less deadly shooting last month in Toronto. She was only 24 years old. Her brother joins me tonight to talk about his sister and all the others wounded in that theater.

 

Again, our focus is on the victims, on the survivors and on the first-responders who rushed in at great risk to themselves.

 

There were military personnel as well in that theater, in theater number nine of the Century 16 multiplex last night. One sailor is unaccounted for, along with 10 others. Tonight we talk of survival, of loss and of the tragically⁹ fine and utterly¹⁰ random¹¹ line between the two, the line between good and bad fortune, between hugging a loved one who made it out safely and burying one who didn't.

 

So many people spent today at a police staging area in a high school nearby from here, not knowing if their son, if their daughter, if their father, if their mother was alive or dead. Waiting for word, waiting for their loved ones to finally be removed from inside theater number nine. 

 

We're going to be telling, talking of them tonight, telling you about them, and talking to people who were inside that theater when the gunman burst in, people who lived through this. 

 

That's just a few frenzied¹² moments after people thought what initially¹³ appeared to be some kind of a promotional stunt¹⁴ for the Batman premiere - that's what a lot of people in the theater thought they were watching - was in fact mass murder. 

 

As for the suspect, we're going to tell you about the search for clues to what may have motivated him, though at this hour much remains¹⁵ unknown. 

 

Nationwide, flags are flying at half-staff. Both President Obama and Mitt¹⁶ Romney have suspended campaigning for the moment, for the day. The president, who was awakened¹⁷ at about 5:30 with the news this morning, spoke¹⁸ about it earlier. 

 

We will take every step possible to ensure the safety of all of our people. We're going to stand by our neighbors in Colorado during this extraordinarily¹⁹ difficult time. 

 

And I had a chance to speak with the mayor of Aurora, as well as the governor of Colorado, to express not just on behalf of Michelle and myself, but the entire American family, how heartbroken we are. 

 

A short time later, Mitt Romney offered his condolences. 

 

Each one of us will hold our kids a little closer, linger a bit longer with a colleague or a neighbor, reach out to a family member or friend. 

 

We will all spend a little less time thinking about the worries of our day and more time wondering about how to help those who are in need of compassion²⁰ most. 

 

Again, we will tell you all we know about the alleged killer, but we will focus as little as possible on him.

1 aurora   

n.极光

参考例句：

• The aurora is one of nature's most awesome spectacles.极光是自然界最可畏的奇观之一。
• Over the polar regions we should see aurora.在极地高空,我们会看到极光。

2 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！

3 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

4 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

5 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

6 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

7 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

8 speculation   

n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机

参考例句：

• Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
• There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。

9 tragically   

adv. 悲剧地，悲惨地

参考例句：

• Their daughter was tragically killed in a road accident. 他们的女儿不幸死于车祸。
• Her father died tragically in a car crash. 她父亲在一场车祸中惨死。

10 utterly   

adv.完全地，绝对地

参考例句：

• Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民，把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
• I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。

11 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

12 frenzied   

a.激怒的；疯狂的

参考例句：

• Will this push him too far and lead to a frenzied attack? 这会不会逼他太甚，导致他进行疯狂的进攻？
• Two teenagers carried out a frenzied attack on a local shopkeeper. 两名十几岁的少年对当地的一个店主进行了疯狂的袭击。

13 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

14 stunt   

n.惊人表演，绝技，特技；vt.阻碍...发育，妨碍...生长

参考例句：

• Lack of the right food may stunt growth.缺乏适当的食物会阻碍发育。
• Right up there is where the big stunt is taking place.那边将会有惊人的表演。

15 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

16 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

17 awakened   

v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到

参考例句：

• She awakened to the sound of birds singing. 她醒来听到鸟的叫声。
• The public has been awakened to the full horror of the situation. 公众完全意识到了这一状况的可怕程度。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 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。

19 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

20 compassion   

n.同情，怜悯

参考例句：

• He could not help having compassion for the poor creature.他情不自禁地怜悯起那个可怜的人来。
• Her heart was filled with compassion for the motherless children.她对于没有母亲的孩子们充满了怜悯心。