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新概念英语
85
年上外美音版第四册
第
60
课：
On
Moral Courage
Lesson 60 On Moral Courage
论道德勇气
Although
truth and justice1 may be the most powerful
impulses to show moral courage, there
are others. Compassion
is
one of these. 2Tentatively it can be suggested
that this
is the main influence upon
those who urge the abolition of
capital
punishment. 3It is recognition of compassion's
part that
leads the upholders of
capital punishment to accuse the
abolitionists of sentimentality in
being more sorry for the
murderer than
for his victim. 4This is nonsense but with it
some organs of the popular Press played
upon the emotions of
their readers so
successfully that many candidates for
Parliament were afraid to support
abolition for fear of
losing votes and
the result was the muddle-headed Homicide
Act of 1957 which made murder with
robbery a capital crime
and allowed the
poisoner to escape the gallows. 5That
illogical qualification shows how
flimsy is the argument that
capital
punishment is a deterrent to murder. 6The poisoner
always works on a calculated plan of
action and therefore is
able to
consider whether or not his taking another's life
is
worth the risk of his own; the
violent thief is usually at
the mercy of an
instant emotion. 7The only arguable plea for
capital punishment is the right of
society to retribution in
this world
with the prospect of life in another, but since
what used to seem to the great majority
of civilized humanity
the assurance of
another life beyond the grave has come to
seem to more and more people less
certain, a feeling for the
value of human life has become deeper
and more widespread.
This may seem a
paradoxical claim to make at a time when
mankind is so much preoccupied with
weapons of
destruction.8Nevertheless,
it is a claim that can be sustained
and
if compassion animates those who urge the
abolition of
the death penalty it is
not a sentimental compassion for the
mental agony inflicted upon a condemned
man but a dread of
destroying the
miracle of life.
When in
the eighteenth century offences against the law
that today would no earn a month in
prison were punished
with the death
penalty, the severity of the penal code had no
serious effect on the prevalence of
crime. 10When it made no
difference to
the fate of a highwayman whether he had killed
his victim or merely robbed him of a
few pieces of silver,
there
were no more murders then than there were when men
like Sir Fraricis Burdett succeeded in
lightening the excessive
severity of
the penal laws. 11In those days the sacredness of
life
on earth was not greatly regarded
because a life in the world to
come was
taken for granted except by a comparatively small
minotity of philosophers.
Nor was the long-drawn ordeal of the
condemned cell
inflicted either upon
the condemned man or his gaolers once
upon a time. Those who believe in
capital punishment may
have arguments
for its retention, 13but surely no reasonable
argument can be found for retention of
the sickening mumbo-
jumbo that
accompanies it from the moment that the judge dons
the black cap with what looks like a
pen-wiper balanced on the
top of his
wig, to the reading of the burial service over
the condemned man before he
is dead. Moreover, it was more
merciful
to launch the condemned man into eternity twenty-
four hours
after he was sentenced than to keep him
shivering on the brink of that dread
gulf for nearly three
weeks. 14Hanging
is an atrociously archaic way of killing a
human being and the self-satisfied
modernity of the electric
chair is just
as atrocious. 15The administration of a strong
sleeping draught to the
condemned man every night from which
one night he does hot awake, seems a
more civilized
alternative to our
present barbarous procedure, if capital
punishment through the influence of
backward minds be
retained.
1. impulse n.
推动力
,
冲动
短语：
out of impulse =act on
impulse
出于冲动
同
2.
义词：
impetus /momentum/ drive
; drive
for something
3.
compassion n.
/sympathy for
sth .
tentatively
adv.
smile
勉强的笑
9. abolition
n.
to abolish the slavery
同
4.
情
短语：
compassion for sth.
同
5.
义词：
sympathy
(
不
6.
及
compassion) 7.
尝试性地
常用于文学
短语：
tentatively
study
尝试性研究
tentatively
on clone
刍
8.
以克隆
experiental
study
废除
abolish []v. abolishnist []n.
短语：
10. capital n.
可处死刑的
原意：首的
,
主要的
;
短语：
capital
死刑
decapitate
v.
punishment =death
penalty
斩首
11. upholder
n.
/proponent
支持者
hold up
同
12.
义词：
advocator
13. sentimentality n.
emotional
（一时的）情绪化
多愁善感
(
本质
)
、感情脆弱、感伤
辨义：
14. muddle-
headed adj.
糊涂的
15. homicide
n..
凶
、
人者
构：
homi=
homo
：
the
same
人、
同
16.
cide
：
kill
：
homosexual
同
17.
性恋
homonym
同
18.
音（形）异
、同
19.
名
20.
人
synonym
同
21.
antonym
反
pesticide
虫
suicide
自
autocide
撞
自
uxorious
害怕老婆的、气管炎
filicide
子女
filial
孝
的
22.
gallows n.
刑架（木制的）短
：
gallows bird
受
同
23.
：
guillotine
刑架（
制的）
24.
qualification n.
定、条件
源：
qualify
合格
unqualified
不
25.
合格（常自已本身）
disqualify
取消
格
（被
人）例句：
what qualifications do
you have ?
你有什么特
？
force start
跑（体育用
）
26. flimsy
adj.
站不
27.
住脚的、不
28.
足信的（理
）、脆
弱的
想
：
groundless
理
太薄
/fragile
脆弱的玻璃易碎
/
rickets
骨病
convincing
令人信服
29.
的
unconvincing
不
30.
人信服
31.
的
32. deterrent n.
威
deter v .
：
prevent
短
：
deter him
from smoking
33.
caculated adj.
精心制作的
,
有
划的
短
：
caculated
plan/scheme
精心策划
同
34.
：
deliberate
精心策划
/well
planned /well designed
精心
/well
schemed
35. at the mercy of
受?支配
(
抽象意
)
：
under the control
of
例句：
at the mercy of
emotion(reasonimpulse)
受感情
(
理智
/
冲
)
支配
36. plea
n.
解
例句：
make a plea
for sth
?而
37.
解
make a plea for
wrongdoing(misconduct)
行
(
失
)
而
38.
解
I took leave under the
plea of headache.
以
疼
借口离开
39. retribution n.
，
40.
（宗教）
.
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