35-3 New Concept English 35 Justice was done 伸张正义

Listen to the tape then answer the question below.
听录音，然后回答以下问题。
The word‘justice’ is given two different meanings in the text.

What is the distinction between them?

The word justice is usually associated with courts of law. We mightsay that justice has been done when a man's innocence or guilt hasbeen proved beyond doubt. Justice is part of the complex machineryof the law. Those who seek it undertake an arduous journey andcan never be sure that they will find it. Judges, however wise oreminent, are human and can make mistakes.

There are rare instances when justice almost ceases to be an abstract concept. Reward or punishment are meted out quite independent of human interference. At such times, justice acts like a living force. When we use a phrase like‘it serves him right’, we are, in part, admitting that a certain set of circumstances has enabled justice to act of its own accord.

When a thief was caught on the premises of a large jewellery store one morning, the shop assistants must have found it impossible to resist the temptation to say‘it serves him right’. The shop was an old converted house with many large, disused fireplaces and tall, narrow chimneys. Towards midday, a girl heard a muffled cry coming from behind one of the walls. As the cry was repeated several times, she ran to tell the manager who promptly rang up the fire brigade. The cry had certainly come from one of the chimneys, but as there were so many of them, the fire fighters could not be certain which one it was. They located the right chimney by tapping at the walls and listening for the man's cries. After chipping through a wall which was eighteen inches thick, they found that a man had been trapped in the chimney. As it was extremely narrow, the man was unable to move, but the fire fighters were eventually able to free him by cutting a huge hole in the wall. The sorry-looking, blackened figure that emerged, admitted at once that he had tried to break into the shop during the night but had got stuck in the chimney. He had been there for nearly ten hours. Justice had been done even before the man was handed over to the police.

New Words and Expressions 生词和短语

justice (title) /'dʒstis/ n. 正义，公正；司法

court (1. 1) /kɔ:t/ n. 法院
law (1. 1) /lɔ:/ n. 法律
innocence (1. 2) /'inəsəns/ n. 无辜
undertake (1. 4) /'ʌndə'teik/ v. 承担，着手做
arduous (1. 4) /'a:djuəs/ adj. 艰苦的，艰难的
abstract (1. 7) /'æbstrækt/ adj. 抽象的
concept (1. 7) /'kɔnsept/ n. 概念，观念
mete out (1. 8) /mi:t-aut/ 给予，处置
interference (1. 8) /'intə'fiərəns/ n. 干涉
accord (1. 10) /ə'kɔ:d/ n. 一致
premises (1. 11) /'premisiz/ n. 房屋
convert (1. 12) /kən'və:t/ v. 转变，改变
disused (1. 13) /dis'ju:zd/ adj. 不再用的，废弃的
fireplace (1. 13) /'faiəpleis/ n. 壁炉
muffle (1. 13) /'mʌfəl/ v. 捂住，厌抑
chip (1. 17) /tʃip/ v. 砍，削，凿
blacken (1. 20) /'blækən/ v. 不变黑
emerge (1. 20) /i'mə:dʒ/ v. (从某处)出现

Notes on the text 课文注释

1 beyond doubt，确凿无疑。
2 however wise or eminent，不管他们是多么精明、多么杰出。
however 为连接副词，作“不管……如何”解，所引导的让步状语从句中经常可以省略某些词，此处省略了they are。
3 quite independent of human interference，完全不受人的干预。 be independent of，不受。
4 it serves him right，他罪有应得。
5 in part，部分地，在某种程度上。
6 of its own accord，自愿地，自动地。
7 impossible to resist the temptation to say…，情不自禁地说……。

参考译文

“正义”这个词常常是同法庭连在一起的。当某人被证据确凿地证明无罪或有罪的时候，我们也许会说正义得到了伸张。正义是复杂的法律机器的组成部分。那些寻求正义的人走的是一条崎岖的道路，从来没有把握他们最终将找到正义。法官无论如何聪明与有名，毕竟也是人，也会出差错的。

在个别情况下，正义不再是一种抽象概念。奖惩的实施是不受人的意志支配的。在这种时候，正义像一种有生命的力量行使其职能。当我们说“他罪有应得”这句话的时候，我们部分地承认了某种特定的环境使得正义自动地起了作用。

一天上午，当一个小偷在一家大型珠宝店里被人抓住的时候，店员一定会忍不住说：“他罪有应得。”那是一座老式的、经过改造的房子，店里有许多废置不用的大壁炉和又高又窄的烟囱。快到中午的时候，一个女售货员听见从一堵墙里传出一种闷声闷气的叫声。由于这种喊叫声重复了几次，她跑去报告了经理，经理当即给消防队挂了电话。喊叫声肯定是从烟囱里传出来的，然而，因为烟囱太多，消防队员无法确定到底是哪一个。他们通过叩击烟囱倾听那人的喊叫声而确定了传出声音的那个烟囱。他们凿透了18英寸厚的墙壁，发现有个人卡在了烟囱里。由于烟囱太窄，那人无法动弹。消防队员在墙上挖了个大洞，才终于把他解救出来。那个看起来满脸沮丧、浑身漆黑的家伙从烟囱里一出来，就承认头天夜里他企图到店里行窃，但让烟囱卡住了。他已经在烟囱里被困了将近10个小时。甚至在那人还没被送交给警察之前，正义就已得到了伸张。

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