LONDON STRIKE 2 (Monday, July 25, 2005 / 11:47 am)
London: Strike 2
But the govt must brace itself for a bigger wave of attacks By Jonathan Eyal Straits Times Europe Bureau In London
I found this article particularly interesting among all the rest of the London strike articles I read this morning. So, to improve my English and yours, I decided to post this up. Happy reading. BTW, this is extracted. I don't have the capability of having the patience to sit here all day to type this lengthy article.
Oh, and there's a concordance at the bottom, so I bold all the more difficult words, (in my opinion). And used the Macmillan English Dictionary, for advanced learners. [international student edition] so I reckoned that the stuff in the concordance should be right x).
LONDON was spared a second wave of death and destruction by what appears to have been a 1.botched operation by four terrorists seeking to spread fear and 2.mayhem in the city.
As news about the second terror attack in the British capital in two weeks sank in, it came with an ironic sense that London had been "lucky" to have escaped so lightly this time.
Signs are emerging that another massive 3.atrocitywas averted only because of the terrorists' sheer incompetence. The question as to why the bombs failed to explode remains crucial to the future of the police investigation.
A particularly interesting indicator may be the fact that in at least some of the attacks, only one 4.detonator was used. Typically, bombers --- and especially suicide bombers --- insert two or three detonators into the explosives, precisely in order to compensate for the possibility that one may fail to trigger off the bomb.
But, whichever explanation turns out to be correct, it is clear the the terrorists were poorly prepared and lacked some of the resources which the previous gang enjoyed when they blew themselves up two weeks ago.
5.Paradoxically, this failure meant that, at least in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the British security services had to take more, rather than fewer, precautionary measures.
All in all, London was lucky: a new massacre was prevented more by accident that design.
Although the British security services have moved in quickly to hunt down the bombers, there is a barely concealed frustration at the fact that a second series of attacks took place while London remained on its highest possible alert.
The clearly incompetent performance of this operation may provide additional evidence for the theory that it was a rush job, rather than part of a carefully planned campaign.
But the British govt must also be prepared for the other, grimmer possibility: that the two attacks are merely the start of a bigger wave, designed to last for a long period of time and aimed not only at killing, but also destroying the political resolve of the British people and govt.
But, for the moment, the spirit of ordinary Londoners remains unbroken.
I found this especially interesting among the whole article. Check this out.
"Good news, ladies and gentlemen," one Underground train driver cheerfully told his passengers on Thursday.
The Waterloo and City line is back open, so you'd better get on it before they close it again."
Few laughed, but many appreciated the black humour so characteristic of the British.
Jonathan.eyal@gmail.com
Concordance
1. Botched - adj; badly done or badly planned, and therefore unsuccessful: a botched assassination attempt
2. Mayhem - noun; a very confused situation; chaos; It was absolute mayhem on the first day of the sales
3. Atrocity - noun; a cruel and violent act; often in a war
4. Detonator - noun; a piece of equipment on a bomb that makes it explode
5. Paradoxically - adv; used for saying that something is strange because it is the opposite for what you expect: Paradoxically, it is their differences that bring them closer to each other
Well. This is what I discovered this morning by not going to school. tata. That's about it. I gotta do some mugging now. :))
P/S: Leave a comment if you think that such articles can enhance your vocab. Thanks :))
