Reading report

Name: Cristina Soledad Guzmán
Date: August 27
Title: School deaths that stunned black America
Source: www.guardian.co.uk Date of publication: Sunday August 19, 2007
Vocabulary

Outrage: 1. a. Grossly offensive. b. Beyond the bounds of good taste. 2. Extravagant; immoderate.
Galvanize: 1. To stimulate or shock with an electric current. 2. To arouse to awareness or action; spur. 3. To coat (iron or steel) with rust-resistant zinc.
Scar: 1. A mark left on the skin after a surface injury or wound has healed.
2. A lingering sign of damage or injury. v. scarred scar·ring3. To mark with or form a scar.
bout: 1. A contest; match: a wrestling bout. 2. A period of time spent in a particular way; spell: a bout of the flu
tit-for-tat:a situation in which you do something bad to somebody because they have done the same to you.
unscathed: 1. Not injured or harmed
Beating the odds
Slope: 2. An inclined line, surface, plane, or stretch of ground.
Prey: 1. An animal hunted or caught for food; quarry. 2. A victim. 3. The act or practice of preying.
Lodge: 9. To be or become embedded.
Byword: 1. a. A proverb. b. An often-used word or phrase.2. One that represents a type, class, or quality:
Blight: 2. An adverse environmental condition, such as air pollution. 3. Something that impairs growth or withers hopes.
Rut: 2. A fixed, usually boring routine.
Watershed: 3. A turning point. 1. A ridge of high land dividing two areas drained by different river systems.
Poignant: 2. Profoundly moving; touching1. Keenly distressing to the mind or feelings
Sheer: 2. Undiluted; pure: sheer happiness.
Sought:seek: 2. To try to obtain or reach.
Clip: 1. To cut off or out with or as if with shears. 2. To shorten; trim.
Sturdy: 1. Substantially built; strong. 2. Healthy and vigorous; robust.
Swarm: 4. To move or gather in large numbers.
Bear: 5. To have or exhibit.
Blare: 1. To sound or cause to sound loudly and stridently.
Sprout: 2. To emerge and develop rapidly.
Balloon: 1. a. A flexible bag inflated with a gas, such as helium, that causes it to rise in the atmosphere. b. Such a bag capable of lifting and transporting a gondola or other load.2. An inflatable toy rubber bag.
Bucket: 1. a. A cylindrical vessel used for holding or carrying liquids or solids; pail.
Scrub: 1. To rub hard in order to clean. 2. To clean or wash something by hard rubbing.
snitch: 1. To steal.
bail: 1. Security, usually money, supplied as a guarantee that an arrested person will appear for trial. 2. Release from imprisonment obtained by bail.
sole: 1. Being the only one; single.
plaudit: 1. An expression of praise or approval.
stance: 2. Point of view.
gang: 1. A group of criminals or hoodlums.2. A group of youths who band together for social and often criminal purposes. 3. Informal. A group of people who associate or work together.
pledge: 1. A formal promise.2. Something considered as security to guarantee payment of a debt or obligation
tip-off: 1. A piece of inside information; hint or warning.

Main ideas

A multiple murder took place in Newark were violence and drugs are part of the everyday life.
Newark is the centre of a bout of national soul searching about life in urban America and black youth.
The crime caused shock because the victims were not involved in a tit-for-tat piece of ghetto violence.
There is a growing sense of crisis in black America.
It seems even the brightest and best of black America can not avoid falling prey of the plague of street violence.
The reaction to the murders has been a mixture of disbelief and outrage.
The victims were four friends, only one survived.
The four had gathered in the playground of Mount Vernon High School and at around 11:30 p.m. a group of men approached them and shut them down.
The sheer pointlessness of the deaths is shocking
Parents are blame because of the way they raise their children.
The suburb where the deaths occurred has a crime rate relatively low.
The whole city is full of police cars and stop and searching operations offering a reward for information.
Residents are united in grief and anger.
Newark along with several other East Coast cities has been the centre of a `stop snitching´ campain led by rap artists and drug dealers.
Three men are under arrest.
Unlike many violent crimes in Newark these murders look as though they will be solved although that will be any consolation.
Newark mayor has taken a high-profile stance over the killings.
Newark is showing signs of forcefully tackling its problems.
The actions of ordinary people were more significant that the mayor`s actions.
There is still a long way to go.

Personal reaction

This article presents the problem of violence and drugs that affects the young black American society mainly in the East Coast cities of the United States.
The recent murders of four young black American students have shocked the whole nation because these youngsters were complete out of the environment of violence, drugs and crime that involves many othe adolescents nowadays. In fact they were students and none of them had a police record.
These cases of crime and violence are close related to the levels of crime that affect our Argentinian society, especially in crowded cities where many families are poor. But it would be a very unfair statement to blame poor people of being involved in this sort of crime because not every poor person is a criminal. In fact, I agree with the vew of the parents of the victims that say this is not only a fact of lack of economical sources but also a fact of education and raising.