新概念英语85年上外美音版第四册第60课：OnMoralCourage.doc

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）

.