VOA听力原文

Bomb Attacks in London

亲历伦敦爆炸事件

The bomb attacks in London on Wednesday which killed dozens and wounded hundreds more brought chaos to the streets of Britain's capital city. As well as those directly affected by the blasts, hundreds of thousands of Londoners and visitors were caught up in the confusion as the transport system was shut down, and telephone communications became difficult, or even impossible. Among them was the BBC's Jerusalem Bureau Editor Simon Wilson who was on a trip back to London, his home city, when the bombers struck:

My tiny walk-on role in London's drama began shortly after nine in the morning. The underground train I was travelling on stopped sharply as we approached Paddington station. "Something's happened on the line ahead", said the driver, "it must be serious". It was. Although at that stage I didn't know it, a bomb had exploded on a train at the very next station Edgware Road killing and injuring dozens of people.

We were led along a section of track and up some stairs. On the roads outside, ambulance and police sirens wailed. Long suffering London commuters -- still unaware of the cause or scale of what was happening -- began to look for alternative routes. Strangers talked to strangers -- a rare event in the morning rush hour. Everyone had a theory. A train crash, a power surge, a bomb attack -- perhaps two bombs, maybe more.

Then it was clear, London had been attacked. People, ordinary people on buses and trains had been killed and injured. In my experience, there is a universal human response to such news. Whether it happens in London or Jerusalem, New York or Baghdad, Madrid or Bali.

Find family and friends, call them now -- make sure they're ok -- tell them you're

ok. Everything else can wait.

In my case, there was an instant sense of irony. For the past four years, I have lived with a young family in Jerusalem through one of the most intensive campaigns of suicide bombing that any single city has ever experienced. At times it has seemed that each bus might explode, that every restaurant, every cafe was a potential death trap. A number of

friends and colleagues have had close shaves and as a journalist I've seen the horror such attacks can cause. But as I called my wife in Jerusalem to reassure her, I realised that this incident in London was as close as I'd ever been to getting caught up in a bombing myself.

Now, as the dust begins to settle, I can't help wondering how all this might affect London in the long run. In Israel, repeated attacks against civilians over a period of years have led to a culture of extreme security -- guards on the door of virtually every public place, vehicles checked before entering car parks, police roadblocks on busy shopping streets.

Normal life does continue, but with constant reminders of the threat.

One of the joys of family visits to London in recent years has been the simple pleasure of extreme normality. A meal in a restaurant without constant glances toward the door, a long, relaxing bus ride across town, NOT having to explain to my daughters why soldiers with guns are stopping cars in the street. Above all, London is one of the great melting pots of world culture, where people of all races, all religions and cultures can and do live in relative harmony. Could this now be under threat?

In Jerusalem the ravages of history have left a city sharply divided -- often literally street by street -- Arab from Jew, Christian from Muslim, Secular from Religious. Only since living there have I grown to realise how much I took for granted growing up on London's

cosmopolitan streets.

And yet after the bombings here, the mood on those same streets seems clear. And absolute determination not to allow the killings to change London's way of life in any substantial way. The newspapers are full of fiery resolve, of how Londoners have seen off the German Luftwaffe and the bombers of the IRA in the past and will now face down the islamic extremists suspected of this latest attack. And as I pack my bags to return to Jerusalem, I have little doubt that that's exactly what my fellow Londoners will do.

参考译文：

星期三在伦敦发生的炸弹爆炸事件中，有数十人死亡，上百人受伤。这起事件以后，英国首都的街道上骚乱不断。除了直接受到爆炸事件影响的那些人以外，还有数十万伦敦市民和旅游者受困于随后的混乱中，因为交通系统关闭，电话很难打通，甚至根本打不通。英国广播公司耶路撒冷分部的编辑西蒙·威尔逊就是其中之一。他正在他的家乡伦敦停留，这时爆炸

就发生了。

在这部上午九点过后发生的闹剧中，我扮演着一个小角色。我乘坐的那趟地铁在快要到达帕丁顿时突然一个急刹车停下了。“前面好像发生了什么事情，” 司机说，“的确很严重。”尽管当时我并不知道，但是在下一站埃奇韦尔路的一次爆炸中，有数十人死亡和受伤。

我们沿着一条小路走上几层台阶。在公路上，救护车和警车的鸣笛声不绝于耳。那些乘客还不知道外面究竟发生了什么，不知道事情的规模到底有多大。他们正在寻找另一条路来上班。陌生人之间开始交谈，这样的情况在这样一个繁忙的时间里是很罕见的。每个人都有一种说法。有人说是火车相撞，有人说是漏电事件，还有人说是炸弹爆炸——或者可能是两颗炸弹

一起爆炸。

后来大家都知道了，原来伦敦被袭击了。在公共汽车上和地铁上的普通人有死有伤。我觉得这个时候，所有的人的反应只有一个，无论在耶路撒冷，在纽约，在巴格达，在马德里还是把巴里岛，人们都会打电话给亲人和朋友，确定他们是否安全，同时告诉他们自己很安全。

其他的事情都可以放在以后再说。

但是对于我来说，我经历的是一个很讽刺的事情。在过去的四年里，我和我的家人生活在那众所周知的爆炸袭击猖獗的耶路撒冷。很久以来，每个汽车看起来都有可能爆炸，每个餐馆或者咖啡厅似乎都会成为爆炸地点。很多同事和朋友都经历过这样的事情，而我也明白这样的事情会造成什么样的后果。但是当我打电话给我远在耶路撒冷的妻子时，我发现伦敦的这次爆炸事件和我曾经在耶路撒冷经历的那次爆炸事件出奇地相似。

现在，随着事情渐渐地水落石出，我开始考虑，这次的事件会给伦敦带来什么样的影响。在以色列，长期以来针对普通民众的袭击爆炸事件频繁发生，这给当地造成了一种需要绝对安全的文化——几乎每个公众场所都要有保安，汽车进入停车场以前要经过严格的检查，在繁忙的商业区，警察也要拦路检查。正常的生活仍然在继续，但是人们心中都时刻警惕着这样

的威胁。

这几年回伦敦，一个很大的乐趣就是伦敦异常平静的生活。在饭店吃饭，我不需要总是注视着刚刚进门的人，不需要看看门外慢慢驶过的汽车，也不需要向我女儿解释为什么那些持枪的战士要在大街上拦住汽车。总之，伦敦是世界文化的一个大熔炉，在伦敦，所有的宗教，种族和文化都可以和谐地共存。难道这些现在都要受到这样的威胁了吗？

耶路撒冷和伦敦形成了强烈的反差。长期的破坏和掠夺使得这座城市严重分化——可以说，一条街和另一条街之间，阿拉伯和尤太人之间，基督教和穆斯林之间，非宗教和宗教之间都存在着严重的分歧。只有生活在耶路撒冷以后，我才发现生活在伦敦这个大都市时我是身在

福中不知福。

这次的爆炸事件过后，人们的情绪似乎很明朗。他们下定决心，一定要尽量减小这次的袭击事件对伦敦的生活方式造成的影响。报纸上一直在刊登一些紧急的解决方法，讨论着以前英国是如何击溃德国空军的，是怎样打败爱尔兰共和军的，以后又将会如何击垮本次爆炸事件的嫌疑人——伊斯兰极端分子。现在我要收拾行囊返回耶路撒冷了，但是毋庸置疑，我的伦

敦同行们一定会继续努力的！