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.



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。
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。
(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
  • He always vents his anger on the dog. 他总是拿狗出气。
  • The Dandelion Patch is the least developed of the four active vents. “蒲公英区”在这四个活裂口中是发育最差的一个。
n.汽车,机动车
  • He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
  • The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。
使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 ); 歜; 激愤
  • I was enraged to find they had disobeyed my orders. 发现他们违抗了我的命令,我极为恼火。
  • The judge was enraged and stroke the table for several times. 大法官被气得连连拍案。
n.监督者,管理者( supervisor的名词复数 )
  • I think the best technical people make the best supervisors. 我认为最好的技术人员可以成为最好的管理人员。 来自辞典例句
  • Even the foremen or first-level supervisors have a staffing responsibility. 甚至领班或第一线的监督人员也有任用的责任。 来自辞典例句
嘲讽( taunt的过去式和过去分词 ); 嘲弄; 辱骂; 奚落
  • The other kids continually taunted him about his size. 其他孩子不断地耻笑他的个头儿。
  • Some of the girls taunted her about her weight. 有些女孩子笑她胖。
adj.与世隔绝的
  • His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
  • Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。
学英语单词
acanthurus bleekeri
age of blood stain
Amagi-tōge
argon filling
artificial traffic generator
at the helm of a state
audio analyzer
australian kingdom
autochthonal, autochthonic
be about to do
beam monitor
Behulpsaam
byte swap
cash on delivery sales sales
cellulosid
childreach
clarification capacity
climbing form
co-attest
code dating
common voles
compact skin
coral-stromatoporoid reef
cross-wall
depran
descending facilitatory system
diameters
ditone
e.v
ectopions
electrical discharge wire
electronic multiplier
electrostatically focused klystron
emulsion aerosol
epigenetic development
excited ion
Fairview Park
fractionalise
free term
frequency telemetering
ftivazide
go through the gate
Hanceola labordei
Hekaton
honeycomb tubular filter element
interspecific territory
Karabukhino
kuijkens
lancies
low voltage power supply
made notes
moderating properties
Morand's disease
mroczek
multiemitter two-level structure
multitransformer spot welder
nagaclovia formosana
not fair
oil expression
peploe
perforating gunshot wound
peril insured against
Plavnikovyye, Ostrova
presentation services command processor
psychological life space
pump sb up
relative worth
rostrate pelvis
runes
saturated calomel electrode
scalar speed
SCHL
secernment
semeiologically
sex-crimes
singing propeller
skiograph
slightly-injureds
Sorbus caloneura
South Portland
soybean sauce
spiesses
state restoration
steam consumption
steamed
step function input signal
structural dependence
suppression of chaos
surface sealed system
suspended fourth
thoracic veins
trigooa omoclaviculare
upgrading column
user-friendliest
vacuum arc melting
vest ... with
virtual wait time
visicode
what the doctor ordered
work factor (wf)
work-softening
xerarch succession