美国史上最严重的校园枪击案引起了全世界的震惊，连一向不对公众新闻发言表态的英国伊丽莎白女王二世也发表了公开讲话。让我们来第一时间看看美国的几个主要官方媒体的报道，请注意几个重要描述。

Cho was alonerand authorities are having a hard time finding information about him.
注：loner——独来独往的人

Authorities say they initially believed the dorm shooting was an "isolated incident" and were still investigating it when theslaughteroccurred at Norris Hall.
注：slaughter——屠杀
美国的媒体普遍把这次校园枪击事件形容为“屠杀”。当然，句中的slaughter特指“发生在诺里斯教学大楼里的乱枪扫射”（案发者在宿舍楼前击毙两人后，又赶往工程系教学楼行凶）。此外，“massacre”也常用来形容“屠杀”。

"He seemed verythoroughabout it, getting almost everyone down, I pretended to be dead." 注：thorough的一个意思是“彻底的”，而在这里表示“缜密、周密”。

"As I got closer, I saw it was a girl lying on the floorjerkingaround as if she was trying to get up." 
注：jerk——抽搐

Gun controlsurged back onto the US agenda after the deadliest school shooting in US history, but with few politicians willing to take up the sensitive issue, chances of major change look remote.
注：gun control——枪支管理
“枪支管理”已经成为美国社会关注的主要议题,甚至会影响到今年的大选。总统经选人也会在这个议题上大做文章。

（余晓敏投稿 英语点津陈蓓编辑）