Read the following text and put each of the words below into its correct place. Discuss the problem raised in the article

Passing, jury, bailed, sentenced, law, prosecutor, verdicts, guilty, convictions, crime, record, court, appeal, parole.

Tony Martin, the Norfolk farmer, who shot a teenage boy in the back as he tried to burgle his isolated farmhouse, was found [1] of murder and [2] for life at the end of a case that touched a raw nerve across rural Britain. Martin was convicted by a [3] of six men and six women who had earlier returned not guilty [4] on charges of attempting to murder another man, the burglar Brendon Feargon, and of possession of a firearm and ammunition with the intent to injure life.

Barras, the killed teenager, had a long criminal [5]: a number of previous [6] and it was not his first attempt to burgle Martin’s house. Norwich crown [7] heard that Martin had been repeatedly burgled. Nevertheless, Peter Tidey, the chief crown [8] said: “Actions such as that taken by Tony Martin cannot be tolerated in a civilized society. When people break the [9] it is for the law to punish them.” [10] the life sentence Mr. Justice Owen said: “The law is that every citizen is entitled to use reasonable force to prevent [11]. However, a householder in his own home may not be reasonable and that can have tragic consequences.”

The verdict was accepted with horror by the farmer’s many supporters across the country who believed that he had done the right thing. A close friend of Martin, M.Starr, said: “If criminals were not [12] out or released on [13] they would have been in prison and wouldn’t have been shot.”

Martin’s lawyer, Nick Makin, said he would [14].

8. Study the articleCRIME IN AMERICA: IT IS GOING TO GET WORSE (Reader) and do the following assignments.

Make up a list of words and expressions related to the subject of crime and punishment to add to your active vocabulary (B).

Discuss the points below using the material of the article.

1. What recent criminal tendencies in the US does Professor DiIulio’s research reveal?

2. What does the author mean by “a new breed of felon”? What kind of offences is on the increase nowadays? Expand on this point.

3. How does he explain the soaring crime rates among the young? What recent tendencies in juvenile delinquency arouse the author’s concern most of all? Comment on the changes in the character of today’s teenage offenders. Why do the hardened veteran felons call them “stone-cold predators”?

4. How does it happen that the US criminal-justice system fails to stop the on-going escalation of crime? Why do habitual felons escape punishment or receive a penalty that doesn’t fit their crime?

5. What does Professor DiIulio call for?

6. Express your personal opinion of the problem tackled in the article.

FINAL DISCUSSION

Bring out the meaning of the following proverbs and comment on them in connection with the problems discussed in the unit.

13) A misery father makes a prodigal son.

14) Children are poor men’s riches.

15) Every mother thinks her own gosling a swan.

16) Love is blind, as well as hatred.

17) Like father, like son. Like mother, like daughter.

Like parents, like children.

18) Spare the rod and spoil the child.

19) As the tree, so the fruit.

20) Blood is thicker than water.

Think of a good translation of the following quotations and give your comment on them

1) Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to (John Ed Pearce).

2) Life affords no greater responsibility and no greater privilege, than the raising of the next generation (C. Everett Koop, M.D.)

3) An only child is a miserable, pitiable creature, born of selfish parents, unlikely to play the game (S. Spender).

4) The greatest legacy we can leave our children is happy memories: those precious moments like pebbles on the beach that are plucked from the white sand and placed on tiny boxes that lie undisturbed on tall shelves until one day they spill out and time repeats itself, with joy and sweet sadness (Ogdan Mandino).

5) Heredity is what sets the parents of a teenager wondering about each other (Laurence J. Peter).

6) There’s nothing like having grandchildren to restore your faith in heredity (Douglas Larson).

7) Youth is bound hand and foot with the shackles of public opinion. Middle age enjoys freedom. (W.S. Maugham)

8) Children aren’t happy with nothing to ignore,

And that’s what parents were created for (Ogdan Nash).

9) The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible – and achieve it, generation after generation (Pearl S. Buck).

10) A loud voice cannot compete with a clear voice, even if it’s a whisper (Barry Neil Kaufman).

11) The word no carries a lot more meaning when spoken by a parent who also knows how to say yes (Joyce Maynard).

12) We are morally bankrupt if we cannot stand in front of our children and say that safe sex is abstinence. It’s our obligation at all times to impress a moral standard on our young, in spite of what’s popular (Buster Soaries).

13) All across this country, the undermining and destruction of the values that children were taught at home is going on in schools. One of the first things a family tries to teach its children is the difference between right and wrong. One of the first things our schools try to destroy is that distinction (Thomas Sowell).