Vocabulary notes

frustration	разочарование
distrust	недоверие
disposition	зд. расмотрение
to take toll	наносить тяжелый урон (чему-то)
to enrage	приводить в ярость
solemn	торжественный
perjury	лжесвидетельство
to weave	вить
to convey	передавать

Task 3. Read the text again and make sure you know all underlined parts of the text. Give their Russian equivalents

Task 4. Answer the following questions:

1. What is this passage mainly concerned with?

2. Why are judges frustrated with the judicial system?

3. ­What discredits the judicial sys­tem?

4. In what cases should juries be necessary?

5. Why can’t the judge show or tell what he/she feels?

6. What is the chief objective of all legal investiga­tion?

7. What is the author’s opinion about the rules of evidence?

8. What is “burden of proof” and whose responsibility is it?

Task 5. Agree or disagree with the following statements. Give the arguments to support your point of view

1. Americans view their judicial system with admiration.

2. A judge may in any given month be assigned more than 100 cases.

3. A judge must try to do his duty in a judicial system very much changed from what it was a century ago.

4. Judges apply the law to the facts, as found by an investigating officer.

5. The threat of years of im­prisonment for perjury ensures the telling of truth.

6. A judge must listen impassively to contradictory versions of events.

7. No criminal defendant has the burden of proving his inno­cence.

Task 6. Compose the questions. Use the following words and word combinations from the text:

To view, to empha­size, to provide a disposition of a case, to do one’s duty, interpretation, to discredit the judicial sys­tem, a comforting fiction, the chief objective, to suppress, function

Task 7. Explain in English what the words and word combinations mean. Use them in your own sentences

Frustration, distrust, disaffection, economi­cal, to take toll, to discredit, fiction, perjury, comforting, impassively, version, to swear, ex­pert, to weave an inescap­able web of evidence around somebody, to take the stand, to set one’s features in stone, a lottery

.

Task 8. Practice the speech patterns given below. Make up two sentences of your own on each pattern

1. There is a growing tendency for Americans to view our judicial system with frustration, distrust and even horror. It’s difficult for the victim to verify that he is in the right place. The jury retires and the victim waits, again, for them to reach a verdict. They were the real thing — real enough for Patty, on this one weekend, to cash worthless checks totaling $17,000.

2. The threat of years of imprisonment for perjury ensures the telling of truth about as much as knocking on wood ensures good fortune. Americans are afraid of serial killers as much as they loathe them. States are different and tough-sentencing laws might be a reaction to a high crime rates as much as a way of bringing it down.

3. I vividly recall hearing a man swear. He could remember warning the man against overspeeding. I remember seeing that guy before but I can’t remember where.

4. The judge hears police officers, ex­perts and citizens state in painful detail what they know, saw or heard. I heard the witness describe the perpetrator in every detail. Nobody heard the burglar enter the house; every one was fast asleep at that time of night. I vividly recall hearing a man swear.

5. He presents a tale so unbelievable that the judge must set his features in stone lest they convey a forbidden opinion to the jury. He wrapped the weapon and hid it lest it be discovered by police by chance.

Task 9. Make the summary of the text. Use the key words and word combinations

Text 2

Task 1. Answer the questions:

1. Do you know how to deal with the judiciary system?

2. Have you ever attended a trial of any kind?

3. Do you know anything about the rights of a victim?

Task 2. Read the text to get the main idea paying special attention to the underlined parts of the text (key words and word combinations)

Case Postponed. But enough about the plight of the judge. What about the citizen who has to deal only occasionally with the system? What about, for instance, the victim of a crime? Is justice for him truly swift and fair?

Courts are supposed to be or­derly, dignified, deliberate, and im­partial. But if, for example, the hapless first-time victim of a burglary — an intruder has been caught in his living room at mid­night — shows up at magistrate court for a preliminary hearing, he may experience a big shock. Generally, the place is crowded, noisy, dirty and chaotic. No one seems to be in charge, and it's difficult for the victim to verify that he is in the right place. The judge is of necessity brief, if not curt, in the disposition of business. In many jurisdictions, if the case proceeds as most do, it is bound over to a grand jury, and bond is set for the defendant, who is soon out of jail, back on the streets. The victim cannot understand how the intruder can be released, inas­much as he is plainly guilty.

After some time has passed, the victim may receive a notice to ap­pear before the grand jury. Dutifully he goes and recounts what he knows about the case — all of which he has already told the investigat­ing officer and possibly the committing magistrate. Nonetheless, he tells it again.

Let’s say the grand jury returns a true bill of indictment. Weeks later the victim receives notice to appear on a certain date for trial. The victim makes the necessary ar­rangements to go to court on the trial date, including all the details of laying aside routine. On the morning of the trial he is in the courtroom scanning the crowd for the defendant, and there he is — neat and clean as a Bible salesman, looking like anything but a burglar.

Finally the judge calls the name of the burglar, and someone stands up and says something to the judge. The prosecutor responds. The judge says something and calls an­other name.

"What happened to my case?" the victim asks. "Oh, the case was put off. The lawyer [for the defend­ant] is arguing a case before another court this week. You will be noti­fied when to come back."

That's all. Case postponed. The victim goes home.

This scene can go on an incredi­ble number of times, sometimes inadvertently and sometimes by de­sign of a defendant who, least of all, desires a speedy trial.