雅思阅读精选：20颗闪亮的星星

　　新东方在线雅思网特为大家准备了雅思阅读精选：20颗闪亮的星星。通过模拟练习题，同学们可以直观地了解到自己的备考状况，从而更有针对性地进行复习。更多雅思报名官网的最新消息，最新、最专业的雅思备考资料，新东方在线雅思网将第一时间为大家发布。

　　2012年12月14日，美国举国上下沉浸在一篇悲痛的情绪中，在美国康涅狄格州纽敦市的桑迪.胡克小学发生了一起严重的枪击案，一名20岁的少年持枪闯入桑迪.胡克小学，杀害了包括枪手在内的28人，其中20人为儿童，系美国历史上死伤最惨重的校园枪击案之一。美国政府和媒体对此事几位关注，并在顿短间内做出了详细的报道。下面新东方网雅思频道从国外网站上收集整理了雅思时事阅读系列之康涅狄格州校园枪击案系列报道，供考生们使用，这些文章都是很好的雅思阅读材料，考生可以先泛读掌握其大意，再精读学习其中的词汇用法，以下为详细内容。

　　20颗闪亮的星星：康涅狄格州哀悼校园枪击案被害儿童

　　Twenty Brighter Stars: Shocked Conn. Town Mourns Its Slain Children

　　(From: TIME, Auther: Nate Rawlings / Newtown, Connecticut, Date: Dec. 15, 2012)

　　The flag that flies above Newtown, Connecticut sits in the middle of Main Street, atop aforty-foot flagpole at the intersection of Church Hill Road. The street names are literal: MainStreet contains the police station and the town’s historic homes, while Church Hill slopes downpast a stone Episcopal chapel. Spotlights mid way up the mast ensure that the flag remainsilluminated even in the darkness. As night descended over Newtown yesterday, the 10-foot longflag hung limply at half-staff just above the spotlights.

　　Less than eight hours before, a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School just on theother side of this small, affluent town, killed twenty children and six adults, then reportedlytook his own life. Early reports detail a chaotic scene. According to eyewitnesses, the childrencould hear screams over the intercom as their friends were slaughtered.

　　According to media reports, some of the children were told to close their eyes and holdhands as they were led from the building.

　　Once in the safety of the local volunteer firehouse, the trauma ended, but the tragedy’ssecond phase played out. Parents, having been alerted to a school shooting by a reverse 9-11call rushed to the fire house where they frantically searched for their children. For many, therewere tearful reunions, but for several other parents, the searches ended when police officialsasked them to go into a separate room. There, they were told that their children were amongthose believed to be dead.

　　For many of the young children emerging from a nightmare, it was a confusing scene. “They were kind of torn, whether they wanted to go home with their parents or they wanted tostay there and protect their friends,” Monsignor Robert Weiss, pastor of St. Rose of LimaCatholic Church said. He was one of the first of the town’s clergy to arrive at the firehouse andcounseled parents whose children had been killed. “It was brutal,” he said. “I can’t think of abetter word. It was just brutal to witness the pain today.”

　　Shortly after darkness fell, nearly a thousand of the town’s residents packed the St. Roseof Lima church. Every single seat in the 650-person chapel was filled, and people stoodshoulder to shoulder in the sanctuary’s aisles. They packed the choir pews and spilled outinto the parking lot from every open door. People stood dozens-deep in the narthex and outinto the parking lot.

　　Just inside the church, a sign hung above their heads, saying in big block letters, LOVEONE ANOTHER. This was Jesus’ commandment, as written in the Gospel according to John: “AsI have loved you, so you must love one another.” Along the church’s brick facade, people maderoom for one another, taking turns by the open windows to listen in silence to the sounds ofthe service The music of hymns wafted out of the warm church and over those gathered in thefrigid night air.

　　Towards the end of the service, two young parishioners who barely looked like teenagerswalked to the edge of the parking lot and offered the assembled masses the Holy Communion.Dozens accepted, reverently consuming the wafers before disappearing back into the crowd.

　　An hour after Msgr. Weiss began the service, the sounds of the devotional song “OnEagle’s Wings” emerged from the church:

　　And he will raise you up on eagle’s wings/Bear you on the breath of dawn

　　Make you shine like the sun/And hold you in the palm of His hand.

　　As the congregation began to depart, Msgr. Weiss spoke about the children they hadlost, and the parents who now have to bury them. He talked about a father who had describedhow excited he was when his son, who was killed in the massacre, had scored his first soccergoal. “There was a lot of happiness in the midst of a lot of tears today,” Weiss said.

　　When a reporter asked how the community would deal with such an immense tragedy atChristmas time, Weiss answered, “These 20 children lit up this community better than all theChristmas lights we have.” And with a gentle nod upward, he added, “There are 20 brighterstars in the heavens.”

　　Well after midnight, stars shone brightly over Newtown. In a sky with no clouds, theyscattered over treetops and houses and church steeples, and above the towering flagpole atthe center of the town. The flag glowed brightly in the spotlight as if it hadn’t moved at all, stillhanging halfway down the mast. It is likely to remain there for some time.

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