The word justice is usually associated with courts of law. We might say that justice has been done when a man's innocence or guilt has been proved beyond doubt. Justice is part of the complex machinery of the law. Those who seek it undertake an arduous journey and can never be sure that they will find it. Judges, however wise or eminent, 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 firemen 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 18 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 生詞與短語

justice

n. 正義，公正;司法

court

n. 法院

law

n. 法律

innocence

n. 無辜

undertake

v. 承擔;著手做

arduous

adj. 艱苦的，艱難的

abstract

adj. 抽象的

concept

n. 概念，觀念

mete out

給予，處置

interference

n. 干涉

accord

n. 一致

premises

n. 房屋

convert

v. 轉(zhuǎn)變，改變

disused

adj. 不再用的，廢棄的

fireplace

n. 壁爐

muffle

v. 捂住，厭抑

chip

v. 砍，削，鑿

blacken

v. 使變黑

emerge

v. (從某處)出現(xiàn)

本文參考譯文

“正義”這個詞常常是同法庭連在一起的。當某人被證據(jù)確鑿地證明無罪的時候，我們也許會說正義得到了伸張。正義是復雜的法律機器組成部分。那些尋求正義的人走的是一條崎嶇的道路，從來沒有把握他們最終將到正義。法官無論如何聰明與有名，畢竟也是人，也會出差錯的。

在個別情況下，正義不再是一種抽象概念。獎懲的實施是不受人意志支配的。在這種時候，正義像一種有生命的力量行使其職能。當我們說“他罪有應得”這句話的時候，我們部分承認了某種特定的環(huán)境使得正義自動地起了作用。

一天上午，當一個小偷在一家大型珠寶店里被人抓住的時候，店員一定會忍不住說：“他罪有應得。”那是一座老式的、經(jīng)過改造的房子，店里有許多廢置不用的大壁爐和又高又窄的煙囪。快到中午的時候，一個女售貨員聽見從一堵墻里傳出一種悶聲悶氣的叫聲。由于這種喊叫聲重復了幾次，她跑去報告經(jīng)理，經(jīng)理當即給消防隊掛了電話。喊叫聲肯定是從煙囪里傳出來的，然而，因為煙囪太多，消防隊員無法確定到底是哪一個。他們通過叫擊煙囪傾叫聲而確定傳出聲音的那個煙囪。他們鑿透了18英寸厚的墻壁，發(fā)現(xiàn)有個人卡在煙囪里。由于煙囪太窄，那人無法動彈。消防隊員在墻上挖了個大洞，才終于把他解救出來。那個看來滿臉沮喪、渾身漆黑的家伙從煙囪里一出來，就承認頭天夜里他企圖到店里行竅，但讓煙囪卡住了。他已經(jīng)在煙囪里被困了將近10個小時。甚至在那人還沒被送交給警察之前，正義就已得到了伸張。

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