【时事聚焦】
SEASCALE, England - A taxi driver drove his vehicle on a shooting spree across northwest England overnight, methodically killing 12 people and wounding 25 others before turning the gun on himself, officials said.
The rampage in the county of Cumbria was Britain's deadliest mass shooting since 1996 and it jolted a country where handguns are banned and multiple shootings rare.
The body of the suspected gunman, 52-year-old Derrick Bird, was found in woods near Boot, a hamlet popular with hikers and holidaymakers in England's hilly, scenic Lake District. Police said two weapons were recovered from the scene.
Eight of the wounded were in the hospital, with three of them in critical condition. Queen Elizabeth II, who rarely issues statements responding to the news, said she shared in "the grief and horror of the whole country" and passed on her sympathy to the families of the victims.
The shootings had "shocked the people of Cumbria and around the country to the core," Police Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Hyde said.
Police said it was too early to say what the killer's motive was, or whether the shootings had been random. Some reports said Bird had quarrelled with fellow cab drivers the night before the killings.
Peter Leder, a taxi driver who knew Bird, said he had seen the gunman Tuesday and didn't notice anything that was obviously amiss. But he was struck by Bird's departing words.
"When he left he said, 'See you Peter, but I won't see you again,"' Leder told Channel 4 News.
The first shootings were reported in the coastal town of Whitehaven, about 560 kilometres northwest of London. Witnesses said the dead there included two of Bird's fellow cabbies.
Police warned residents to stay indoors as they tracked the gunman's progress across the county. Witnesses described seeing the gunman driving around shooting from the window of his car.
Victims died in Seascale and Egremont, near Whitehaven, and in Gosforth, where a farmer's son was shot dead in a field. Workers at the nearby Sellafield nuclear processing plant were ordered to stay inside while the gunman was on the loose.
Hyde said there were 30 separate crime scenes. Many bodies remained on the ground late on Wednesday local time, covered with sheets, awaiting the region's small and overstretched force of forensic officers.
Barrie Walker, a doctor in Seascale who certified one of the deaths, told the BBC that victims had been shot in the face, apparently with a shotgun.
【雅思达人点评】
上面这则新闻摘自http://www.nzherald.co.nz/，报道了先前发生在英国的重大枪击案件，的哥沿路杀死12人。此外，还引用了一些证人的证词还采访了这位的哥的熟人，试图分析其杀人原因和动机。其实这则新闻和雅思写作议论文中的很多话题都有相关，且其中有很多我们在雅思写作中可以借鉴的思路甚至是直接引用的论据。
1. 说到这个杀人狂魔及这个令人惊愕的新闻，我们不禁会想起雅思在2010年1月30的议论文考题，提到一个anti-social behavior“反社会”这个全新的概念，我们不妨先来看一看这道题目：
Today there is a great increase in anti-social behavior and lack of respect to others. What are the causes of this phenomenon? What measures can be taken to reduce the problem?
初见这个题目，很多学生都无从下手，解答这个题目，必须要先弄懂anti-social behavior这个概念。如theft, vandalism, bullying, terrorism, drug abuse, gambling, rape, unmarried pregnancy, fraud等，而新闻中的这个的哥的杀人事件完全可以作为此题的一个具体的例子进行论证。
2. 下面，雅思达人建议考生可以从另外一个角度来分析这个题目，在新闻中提到，的哥是在旅游景区枪击多名市民，所以和“旅游”相关的话题相联系是非常合理的。如2006年5月的A类议论文：
International tourism has become a huge industry in the world. Are the problems exploring this resource causes greater than the advantages it brings?
本题讨论国际旅游的优缺点，考生基本会从经济，文化，环境等方面考虑，而忽略了安全的问题。通过与本则新闻的联系，我们可以通过一个全新的视角来分析旅游的缺点，即安全隐患问题。
3. 再来一题是2009年6月19号关于“英国警察携带枪支”的问题。我们来看一下原题。
>>点击查看英国留学专题，阅读更多相关文章！
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