Lesson Three More Crime and Less Punishment --- III

1. Lesson ThreeMore Crime and Less Punishment --- III

2. Content • Quiz • Text Analysis Part II

3. I. Quiz Fill in the blanks with the proper form of the given words. • 1. The neighbors spoke withapprovalof Tim’s behaviour, but he just took it with a smile. (approve) • 2. He doesn’t want to get married because • he is afraid of any commitment. (commit) • 3. Exercise contributes to better health. • (contribution)

4. 4. After the dismissalof the cook we had to make our meals ourselves. (dismiss) • 5. Thefeasibilityof the project is still under • study. (feasible) • 6. The committee gave priority to those eye- • catching proposals. (prior) • 7. The chiefprosecutor told the court that • Johnson was guilty of a horrible crime and • asked for the maximum sentence. • (prosecute)

5. II. Text Analysis Part II 15. it makes little…on criminals: it isn’t reasonable to criticize the police, judges or those who are in charge of exercising punishment for being too lenient / not being tough with criminals. • make (little / no) sense: (not) to be reasonable, wise or practical.有（无）意义；（不）明智 • It doesn’t make sense. Why should the power and the phone line go off all of sudden? • Does it make sense to back out after all we’ve done? • It makes no sense to build any more shopping malls in this city.

6. make sense: to have a clear meaning 意义明确；意义明白 • No matter how I try to read it, his letter didn’t make any sense to me. • I didn’t know why he rejected the generous offer, but it all makes sense now. 16. There is not much else they can do:Apart from what they have been doing, they can do very little. 17. The police can’t find most criminals… and costly to convict: First, the police force is unable to find most criminals. Second, it is difficult to prosecute those they have found, try them and finally get a court to declare them guilty, and it costs a lot of money to do so, too.

7. cultural note: According to the judicial system of the US, a criminal is tried by a jury who reaches a verdict of innocent or guilty. The accused is to be found guilty “beyond reasonable doubt”. This makes it difficult to convict a criminal, for his/her lawyers can always raise a reasonable doubt concerning the evidence, the testimony or the reliability/ trustworthiness of the witness. Also, collecting evidence and having a trial cost a lot of money. Sometimes a trial might last months, or even years as the nine-month trial of O.J. Simpson, famous American football player and actor, who was charged with murdering his former wife and her boy friend, but eventually declared innocent.

8. 18.The society demands…the crime problem: what society requires is to do everything possible against crime, but in reality, what can be done about the problem on the part of the police, courts or prisons is very little. • 1) do everything against crime:尽一切努力打击犯罪 19. The criminal justice system…your children are: With criminals amounting to 16 to 18 percent of the country’s population to deal with, the criminal justice system is as helpless as a parent who has to take care of hundreds of teenage children and make sure that they are all home at 10 o’clock in the evening.

9. 20. Of every 100 serious crimes… to the police: Only 33 out of every 100 serious crimes that occur in the US are reported to the police. 21. Of the 33 reported, about six lead to arrest: Of the 33 crimes that are reported, about 6 of the criminals involved are arrested. • lead to: to result in usu. sth. unpleasant, to have sth. as a result • Overwork and lack of exercise can lead to heart problems. • Their last quarrel finally led to a divorce.

10. 22. Of the six arrested… convicted: Of the six criminals who are arrested only three are officially brought to court / charged and found / declared guilty 23. The others are rejected… instead of punishment: What happens to the other three arrested criminals who are not prosecuted and convicted? Either because there isn’t sufficient evidence or no witnesses can be found, they are not prosecuted and convicted. In such cases, the court either refuses to consider their cases, or stops examining them before a verdict is reached. Or instead of being put into prison, these criminals may be sent elsewhere for medical treatment (when they can produce proof for illness of some kind).

11. 24. of the select few…of five years. • the select few: the few criminals who are carefully chosen • select(adj.): carefully chosen and limited to a small number of highest quality (the word is used ironically here) • received a maximum sentence of five years: to be sentenced to five years in prison or less 25. The average inmate…about two years: however, the prisoner of ordinary kind stays in prison for about two years.

12. 26. Most prisoners…in the community: Most prisoners are released before they have served their sentence, not because the parole boards are kind in granting parole, but because it costs much more to keep a criminal in prison than to have them live under the supervision of the community. • be easy (on): (informal) to be less severe; to act or proceed with caution. • The school authorities are too easy on cheating. • The management should be easy on layoffs. • go/ be easy on sb: used to tell sb. not to punish or treat a person too severely. 对某人宽容 • Go easy on these little children and let them enjoy themselves more.

13. CF: go easy on sth: to use only a small amount of sth. • Go easy on the salt. 27. And, of course…from the courts: Another reason why most prisoners gain paroles easily is that new arrivals keep coming in every day, so that old inmates have to make room for the new. • make room for: to leave empty space for sb./ sth. • Please move along and make room for the old lady. • Let’s take these dishes away to make room for the roast duck. • CF: leave room for

14. 28. Yet when measured against…and local government: If criminals were kept longer in prison, crime rates would probably go down. But when we consider the money that state and local governments have to pay for this, longer prison sentences are not worthwhile. • when measured against: when longer prison sentences are measured against • measure sth/ sb against sb/ sth: to judge sb or sth by comparing them with another person or thing. • He constantly measures his work against that of the best CEOs in the country. • Our production costs are high, when (they are) measured against the world’s advanced level. • The country’s economic growth last year is impressive when measured against those of other Asian countries.

15. 29. Besides, those states…prison construction: Some states want to raise money to build new prisons by issuing government bonds. They have tried but failed to get voters’ approval. This shows that the public is unwilling to pay for building more prisons. This is another reason why longer prison sentences are not feasible / workable. 30. While it is not possible…for major crime convictions: Although we can’t possibly know exactly how many crimes are committed by released prisoners in a specific year, we do know how many of those people under parole are convicted again for serious crimes and put into jail again. • to…extent: how far sth. is true or how great an effect it has

16. 31. Even if released prisoners… each year: Even if each released prisoner commits two crimes, this would add up to a total of only 15,000 crimes. This means that only that number of crimes would be prevented if those prisoners were locked up in prison for an additional year. But each year 41 million crimes occur. Compared with 41 million, 15,000 is a very small number.’ • a drop in the bucket (AmE)/ the ocean (BrE): an amount of sth. that is too small or unimportant to make any real difference.沧海一粟，杯水车薪 • What we have raised is just a drop in the bucket. The project will need far more.

17. 32. This works out to …prevented: it costs more than $100,000 to prevent one crime. • work out to: to make a total amount of sth. add up to. • The total cost of the project worked out to 10 million. • CF: amount to, work out 33. But there is more: But that’s not all we’ve got to pay for each crime prevented 34. The first year…as a national policy: $150,000 would be worth it if there were only one person’s life, such as yours or mine, to save, but such a policy would be much too expensive to carry out nationwide. • operating cost: money you have to pay to put long prison sentences into practice.

18. 35. Faced with … the crime problem: When I consider these figures, I won’t conclude the essay with a solution to the crime problem. • so…as to do sth: to such a degree • I don’t think he is so careless as to forget about this important appointment. • They are not so poor as not to be able to afford a good education for their only son. • CF: so …that

19. 36. My contribution to …not the answer: This essay, one of a series discussing crime and punishment, begins and ends with the same statement: dealing with crime severely won’t solve the problem. • contribution: an item that forms part of a book, magazine, broadcast, discussion, etc. • His speech is an important contribution to the debate. • All contributions to the conference are expected to arrive by the end of July. 投稿、稿件（后常接介词to） • observation: a remark or statement, esp. one that is of the nature of a comment. 言语；评论

20. This is the end of Part Three