365个英语简短小故事-273. Are Criminals Taking Over LA

A 29-year-old woman was driving her car in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was fatally wounded by a couple of stray bullets. The bullets were intended for a 20-year-old man, who was seriously wounded by two other bullets.

The shootings occurred an hour before sunset, a mile west of downtown Los Angeles. Two gang members attempted to rob the 20-year-old man. The victim punched one of his attackers, knocking him down, and then took off running. As he ran, the gangsters¹ fired several times and struck him in the back.

They also put a couple of errant shots into the head of the woman driver. Mortally wounded, she crashed through the big glass window of a salon², coming to a stop at the hair-washing sinks.

Fortunately, the salon was closed because its owner was at a family funeral. His nephew had been stabbed to death by a gang member a week earlier. The gang member, who was robbing the nephew, got angry when all he found in the nephew’s wallet was a dollar, an ID card, and a library card.

“A library card!” the gang member said angrily. “You think you're smarter than me? If you're so smart, why are you getting robbed?” He then stabbed the victim multiple times, ripped up the library card, spit on it, and ran away.

“This city’s getting ridiculous,” said a local neighborhood watch member. “Criminals are killing³ people almost every day. They laugh at us. They know that, even if convicted, they will get free housing, free meals, and free medical care. And they get to sit around in jail all day reading magazines! That’s punishment? It sounds more like a reward! What do the rest of us get for being HONEST? We get to work hard all day so we can die tired and poor.”

 

1 gangsters   

匪徒，歹徒( gangster的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gangsters offered him a sum equivalent to a whole year's earnings. 歹徒提出要给他一笔相当于他一年收入的钱。
• One of the gangsters was caught by the police. 歹徒之一被警察逮捕。

2 salon   

n.[法]沙龙；客厅；营业性的高级服务室

参考例句：

• Do you go to the hairdresser or beauty salon more than twice a week?你每周去美容院或美容沙龙多过两次吗？
• You can hear a lot of dirt at a salon.你在沙龙上会听到很多流言蜚语。

3 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。