新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第四册 课文 te-06b_new

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[00:00.00]喜欢hxen.net，就把hxen.net复制到QQ个人资料中！ The Biggest Threat to the Role of Police Officers
[00:-1.00]Every summer about a dozen journalists gather at a former army training camp
[00:-2.00]north of London to spend the day watching the training of London's special armed police unit.
[00:-3.00]These are the people who regularly have to tackle the increasing number of criminals
[00:-4.00]who are prepared to carry guns.
[00:-5.00]The journalists also get a chance to shoot a gun on the practice range;
[00:-6.00]none of it seems that difficult,
[00:-7.00]and we put most of the bullets somewhere on the target.
[00:-8.00]But then we move on to the next stage of the training,
[00:-9.00]where some of the problems which actually crop up on the street are imitated.
[00:10.00]The lights on the range are dimmed and we are stood in front of a large screen.
[00:11.00]We still have guns,but the bullets are fake,
[00:12.00]and videos are played where actors act out various types of situations.
[00:13.00]Does the man holding a woman in front of him really have a gun or not?
[00:14.00]Is the man apparently preparing to surrender really going to,
[00:15.00]or is he going to raise the gun in front of him and shoot?
[00:16.00]We have to decide whether to shoot and when,
[00:17.00]just like the police officer has to when faced with this situation for real.
[00:18.00]The journalists' results here were not so impressive.
[00:19.00]I am afraid we killed many an innocent person carrying nothing more lethal than a stick.
[00:20.00]The debate over whether more police in Britain
[00:21.00]should be armed with guns has been going on for years.
[00:22.00]The current policy is to have a small number of specialists available
[00:23.00]in each of the 43 police departments in Britain.
[00:24.00]They are kept up to scratch with intensive and regular training.
[00:25.00]But the wisdom of that policy
[00:26.00]has been questioned as the amount of violence encountered by the police has grown.
[00:27.00]It is usually the ordinary street officer who is on the wrong end of this,
[00:28.00]rather than the armed experts who arrive rather later.
[00:29.00]To see the direction in which the British police are heading,
[00:30.00]consider the experience of the Northumbria police
[00:31.00]who have responsibility for law and order in 5,000 square kilometers
[00:32.00]of Northeast England.
[00:33.00]The population is 1.5 million,
[00:34.00]living in rural areas and a few urban centers.
[00:35.00]The 3,600 police officers in the force
[00:36.00]deal with all the typical problems thrown up by the Britain of the 1990s.
[00:37.00]John Stevens,head of the Northumbria Police Department,
[00:38.00]has just published his review of the past years.
[00:39.00]During 1994,for example,
[00:40.00]61 officers (54 men and seven women)
[00:41.00]were forced into early retirement after being attacked on duty.
[00:42.00]Before being allowed to leave the police for medical reasons,
[00:43.00]they lost between them 12,000 days on sick leave:
[00:44.00]the equivalent of 50 police officers off the street for a full year.
[00:45.00]Stevens makes this observation:
[00:46.00]"The personal cost of policing has never been so high.
[00:47.00]One third of the officers leaving were disabled in the very worst degree
[00:48.00]and will suffer for the rest of their lives for their efforts
[00:49.00]in the fight against crime."
[00:50.00]This picture of a policeman's lot
[00:51.00]could be repeated in many other parts of Britain,
[00:52.00]yet the police themselves still oppose more widespread arming of their officers.
[00:53.00]The most recent survey,conducted last year,showed that only 46% were in favor.
[00:54.00]The general public,however,likes the idea:
[00:55.00]67% favored wider issuing of guns.
[00:56.00]But they,of course,would not have to carry them and maybe even use them.
[00:57.00]Recalling my own experience shooting a gun on the practice range,
[00:58.00]I certainly would not want the responsibility.
[00:59.00]It is clear to everyone
[-1:00.00]that the police need more protection against the gun and the knife.