Task 6. Render the article “Come and lay down the law” in Russian

 

 

Variant II.

Task 1. Now look at this extract from a politician's speech and complete the gaps with one of the words or expressions given below. In some cases, more than one answer may be possible. You may need to change the form of some of the words

judge barrister solicitor jury court plead guilty sentence misdeeds law-abiding innocent retribution rehabilitate reform release deterrent commit arrest charge parole victim offender community service fine corporal punishment capital punishment

Are you worried about crime? I am. We read it every day in the papers. A terrible crime has been (1) ………, the police have (2) ……… someone, he has appeared in front of a jury in (3) ………, he has (4) ……… his innocence but has been found (5) ……… of his crime and he has been (6) ……… to ten years in prison. We are all very relieved that the criminal is being punished for his (7) ……… and (8) ……… citizens like you and me can sleep more safely at night.

 

But what happens next? We all hope, don't we, that the prisoner will benefit from society's

(9) ………, that a spell in prison will (10) ……… him and make him a better person. We all hope that he will (11) …….. and become like us. We all hope that when he is eventually (12) ……… and let loose on the streets, he will be a good character, the threat of another spell in jail being a suitable (13) ……… which will stop him from breaking the law again. Oh yes.

 

But let's face it. The reality is usually very different. The prisoner may be released on (14) ………, before the end of his sentence. He will try to re-enter society. But then he often becomes a (15) ……… himself, unable to find work and rejected by society. It isn't long before he's back in prison again.

 

So what alternatives are there, I hear you say. What can we do to the (16) ……… to make sure he doesn't commit another crime? There are alternatives to prison, of course, such as (17) ……… in which he will provide a service to those around him. Or he can pay a large (18) ………. Alternatively, we could establish a more severe system of punishment, including (19) ……… and (20) ……… but we like to consider ourselves civilized, and the idea of beating or executing someone is repellent to us. Oh yes.

 

The answer, of course, is far simpler. We need to be tough not on the criminal, but on the cause of the crime. We should spend less of the taxpayer's money funding the (21) ……… and (22) ……… and all the other people who work for the legal system, and put the money instead into supporting deprived areas which are the breeding grounds for crime. We in the ConLab Party believe that everybody needs a good chance in life, and this is a good step forward. Vote for us now!

Task 2. Write a clear and well-structured memorandum (60-80 words) to the extract from a politician's speech in Russian

Меморандум представляет собой сжатое изложение взглядов эксперта по определенному вопросу. При написании меморандума следует акцентировать следующие содержательные моменты: представление и раскрытие аргументов, выражение и обоснование точки зрения, оценка понятий, описание сущностей.

Task 3. You will read an article about a day in a London magistrates court where minor offences are dealt with. Which of the following offences do you expect the court to deal with?

assault traffic fine attempted murder mugging shoplifting driving whilst uninsured domestic violence illegal gambling manslaughter

Task 4. Read the article. Six paragraphs have been removed. Choose which of the paragraphs (A-G) fit into the gaps (1-6). There is one paragraph you do not need to use.

Underline the parts of the article which helped you decide on the missing paragraphs

Judgement Day

Magistrates courts hear more than 95% of criminal cases in Britain. Blake Morrison spends a day in the public gallery to witness a continuous flow of traffic offences and petty theft.

 

A Tuesday morning in south London. Out past Sainsbury’s and up some steps, there’s a squat brick building that looks as though it means business. Half a dozen young men are lingering by the door. With their trainers, sweatshirts, track-suit bottoms and gleaming heads, they might have turned up for a game of five-a-side. But this is Bexley magistrates court, not a leisure centre, and the sporty young men have come to plead their guilt or innocence.

The lad with “One Nation” on his jacket is ushered into the dock. His crime, it turns out, is failing to pay a traffic fine of £250. Asked if there is anything he’d like to say in mitigation, he shrugs and mumbles, “ I lost my job”. He shuffles his feet and sighs, wanting this to be over. The magistrates, having conferred, order him to pay off the fine at the rate of £10 a week. He steps down. One-third of fines in Britain are never paid. This will probably be one of them.

But it’s all traffic: driving without due care and attention, driving a vehicle with faulty brakes or bald tyres, driving without a tax disc or MOT certificate or insurance. Especially the last. On the evidence of this court, no one in south London bothers with insurance. And though they plead guilty as charged, not one of them intended to get behind the wheel while uninsured, but did so only to help out a sick friend or an ancient relative or a woman in labour…

Courtroom drama? I’d find more drama in the multi-storey where my car is parked. But the last case before lunch is oddly gripping: a man who went through a red light. At 7.30 on a Sunday morning he's on his way to work when the car stalls as he is crossing a dual carriageway. This is highly dangerous, so when he manages to start the engine again he moves off to be safe: by this time, however, the lights ahead have turned red, and when he goes through them a policeman pulls him up. He thinks it was all a bit unfair: " I’m a train operator. My mind is totally red signals. I wouldn't jump them."

In the shopping centre, during the lunch break, I pass the woman magistrate. I’m tempted to stop her so we can review the morning's cases together. But I decide that there's probably a law against it - some ancient statute about interfering with a magistrate in the course of his or her duty - and let her buy her sandwiches in peace.

Back in court one, as the afternoon wears on, the traffic is more than traffic. The first female defendant of the day- appears, charged with the theft of £60 worth of goods from Morrisons, a tricky case because the items were found about her person but she hadn't left the store. A little later, a man is charged with brandishing a "bladed article" (a kitchen knife) in the street, though he says he used it only to clear the ice from his windscreen.

By 4.30, everything's done. I wander out, relieved to climb off the conveyor belt of human weakness and misery. And yet there's something addictive about it, too. You find yourself caring about the fate of people you've never seen before and will never see again. The English magistrates court is the ultimate unedited soap, put out for free in every large town and with the same stock types - the thief, the drunk, the brawler, the roadhog - coming round time and again.

 

A

Back at the courthouse I head for court three, where a district judge is sitting. I feel intrusive because the court is tiny: the public gallery is a single row of chairs behind the two solicitors. It seems a trial should be under way soon – yippee! – but the defendant, disappointingly isn’t there. Even worse, the offences to which, in absentia, he’s pleading not guilty, are traffic offences.

B

Articulate and polite, he plays it perfectly. The magistrates are sympathetic, and one of them thinks he knows the road where the incident happened – “That’s right, beyond the roundabout near McDonald’s”. They dock him the mandatory three points, but give him an absolute discharge. I feel like cheering and follow him out as though acquitted myself, my faith in British justice miraculously restored.

C

My last image is of a barber from south London in his early twenties. He drove a car without insurance and doesn’t have a licence. Along with his guilty plea, he has written a letter of apology to the court: a relative urgently needed his help, so he got behind the wheel, but he now deeply regrets it. A case-hardened professional judge would see him off in 30 seconds, but the three magistrates enjoy a wonderful performance and let him go with a modest fine. This is what people’s justice is all about.

D

At first, a few things are baffling to a fly on the wall like me. Why are defence solicitors usually young and Celtic in origin? Where did all those young female clerks of the court learn to be so bossy? Why are so many surnames misspelt and birthdates wrongly recorded? Where have all those missing documents got to? And when a man gives his address as a pub, is it sensible to remand him there?

E

The wonder of courts like these is that anybody, for whatever motive, can drop in. I take my seat in the public gallery – three rows of wooden benches at the rear. The magistrates come in, two flush-faced chaps in their 50s and stern-looking Asian women of 35 or so. No robes or wigs: these are laymen dressed much like the rest of us.

F

An early guilty plea is taken as a sign of “good character” and usually rewarded with a lighter penalty. In fact, to judge by their solicitors’ mitigatory eulogies, the men I’m seeing this morning are all pillars of the community. I look back on my own record – nicking those traffic cones as a teenager, exceeding speed limits – and I feel like a hardened criminal in comparison.

G

I settle down for the next case, hoping for more action. Magistrates don’t deal with rape and murder, of course: anything serious or complex is referred upward, for trial by judge and jury. Still, 96% to 98% of criminal cases in Britain are heard in courts like this one. Surely a mugging wouldn’t be too much to ask.