VOA标准英语2012--US Soldier Charged in Connection to Afghan Massacre

US Soldier Charged in Connection to Afghan Massacre¹

Bales now faces 17 counts of pre-mediated murder and a possible death sentence. He heard the formal charges on Friday. 

The case stems from the killing² of 17 villagers in Kandahar province on March 11, near a U.S. military outpost where Bales was stationed.

Afghan witnesses say Bales stabbed and shot the villagers, and set some of them on fire. A number of children were among the victims. 

Bales' attorney spoke³ to reporters this week after meeting with his client for several hours. 

“He has an early memory of that evening and he has a later memory of that evening. But he doesn’t have memory of in between,” said Bales' defense⁴ attorney, John Henry Browne.

Like many other U.S. service members in this decade of war, Bales had multiple deployments. He was on his fourth combat tour and suffered a brain injury in an earlier deployment⁵. That has fueled questions about combat stress, frequent deployments and head injuries. 

None of those questions or possibilities are quelling⁶ the anger of some Afghans who were already upset by another recent incident - the inadvertent destruction of the Quran by U.S. service members. 

The March 11 massacre has sparked calls for revenge and harsh justice. 

"We demand from the court in the United States to give the death penalty to the U.S soldier who massacred the civilians⁷, because he deserves hanging, because he committed the biggest crime. We want a punishment based on Islamic sharia law."

The case has raised tensions between the U.S. and Afghan governments. 

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has demanded that U.S. troops - scheduled to be in his country for two more years - stay out of Afghan villages.

For now, Bales is at a military prison in the U.S. state of Kansas, awaiting word on his fate.

1 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！

2 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。

3 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。

4 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

5 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

6 quelling   

v.（用武力）制止，结束，镇压( quell的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Quelling her grief, she said 'Good-bye! 'again and went on. 她把悲痛压下去，二番说了一声再见，又转身走去了。 来自辞典例句
• The police succeeded in quelling the riot. 警方把暴乱镇压了下去。 来自辞典例句

7 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。