Look in the text and find the answers as quickly as possible.
1. When did the terrorist bombs explode?
2. How many people died?
3. How many people were injured?
4. When was the election in Spain?
5. How many Spanish soldiers are in Iraq?
6. How many explosions were there?
Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2004
Taken from the News
section in
www.onestopenglish.com
Angry Spain
ousts ruling party
On 11
th
March ten terrorist
bombs exploded at railway
stations in Madrid, the capital of
Spain. The terrorists planted the
bombs in busy trains. More than
200 people died in the terrorist
attack and 1,500 were injured.
At first the Spanish government
said that the Basque separatist
group Eta planned the attack.
Many Spanish people did not
believe the government. They
did not think that Eta was the
group which planted the bombs
in the trains. They believed that it
was Al-Qaeda, the Islamist
terrorist group, the group which
attacked the World Trade Center
in New York on September 11
th
2001.
Then the police found a
videotape in Madrid. In the video
a man said Al-Qaeda planted the
bombs in the trains. Then the
police arrested 3 Moroccan men.
Now everyone knew it was Al-
Qaeda and not Eta.
On 14
th
March, three days after
the terrorist attacks in Madrid,
the Spanish people voted in a
general election. Before the
election everyone thought that
the People's Party, led by the
Prime Minister, Jose Maria
Aznar, was going to win the
election. But people were very
angry about the terrorist attacks.
They were also angry because
they thought that the
government was not telling the
truth. When the government said
that Eta was the group which
planted the bombs, many people
believed that the government
was lying.
The result of the election was a
shock for many people. The
Socialist Party, led by
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero,
won the election. This was a
shock for President Bush and
the American government too.
The new Spanish government
immediately promised to bring
the 1,300 Spanish soldiers in
Iraq back to Spain. Mr Zapatero
also said that President Bush
and Tony Blair were lying about
Iraq. In his first radio interview he
said: "Mr Blair and Mr Bush must
do some thinking... you can't
organise a war with lies."
Mr Zapatero began his victory
speech with a minute's silence
for the victims of the attacks – a
series of ten explosions on
commuter trains at Atocha, El
Pozo and Santa Eugenia
stations in the south of Madrid.
"Together we will defeat
[terrorism]," he told his
supporters. He also said that he
wanted to end Spain's close
relationship with the USA and to
start up its former friendship with
France and Germany again.
Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2004
Taken from the News
section in
www.onestopenglish.com
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