VOA标准英语2010年-Random Acts of Deadly Violence Haunt t-英语课

时间：2019-01-13 作者：英语课 分类：VOA标准英语2010年(八)月

英语课

A police officer near the Hartford Distributors in Connecticut on Aug. 3, 2010, where eight people were killed by a fellow worker who'd just been fired from his job. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

There have been a number of deadly workplace shootings around the United States this year.

Most recently, in Connecticut, a beer-truck driver who, his company said, was caught stealing on a surveillance tape, was asked to resign. He listened quietly, walked to the lunchroom, pulled a handgun from his lunchbox and began shooting other workers — eight fatally — before killing 1 himself as well.

What goes on behind these postal 2 boxes? Routine sorting and such, usually. But from time to time, a disgruntled employee goes postal and vents 3 pent-up anger with violence.

Other disgruntled employees have been tied to a string of violent workplace deaths. In post offices, insurance companies, attorneys' offices, automobile 4 assembly plants — even a tightly secured U.S. Army base in Texas — the story has been the same: A raging worker bursts in and shoots coworkers, bystanders, and usually himself.

In fact, homicide is the second-leading cause of death on the job, after highway accidents. More than 750 Americans each year die at the hands of people who occupy a nearby desk or workbench.

Workplace violence even has a nickname. It's called going postal.

What sends resentful and enraged 5 employees over the edge? Explanations vary and are sometimes hard to come by, since workplace shooters frequently take their own lives as well as many others'.

The term traces to a cold Michigan morning in 1991, when a worker who had been fired from his post-office job stormed the facility and shot four supervisors 6 and himself to death.

What triggers such rage? In the recent case, the truck driver, who was black, complained to friends and family that co-workers were racists who taunted 7 him and gave him the worst assignments. In the post-office incident, friends said the shooter snapped under a demanding and highly stressful work environment.

California psychologist Michael Mantell has written that deadly workplace shooters are often socially isolated 8 loners who think poorly of themselves. They see themselves as victims, complain about their jobs constantly, and blow up at the slightest perceived insult.

But take away that job, and these human time bombs have nothing — nothing to lose, nothing to live for, and nothing to stop them from seeking revenge.

1 killing

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

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。

2 postal

adj.邮政的，邮局的

A postal network now covers the whole country.邮路遍及全国。
Remember to use postal code.勿忘使用邮政编码。

3 vents

（气体、液体等进出的）孔、口( vent的名词复数 )；（鸟、鱼、爬行动物或小哺乳动物的）肛门；大衣等的)衩口；开衩