1、1Lesson Five The Twelve Angry Men Part One Warm-upI. Listening materials 1.Writer Joseph Heller died of a heart attack when he was 76 years old. Joseph Heller was famous for writing a book called Catch-22. It was about life in the American military during World War II. The book made fun of rules and
2、 officials who make rules that do not make sense. In the United States, the word catch-22 came to mean a stupid rule. Americans love this new idea that Joseph Heller gave to the language.2. Our next scientist of the millennium is the Austrian doctor Sigmund Freud. He changed scientific ideas about t
3、he mind. Doctor Freud was born in 1856 in Moravia. He established the idea that dreams help us understand our unconscious self. He said this is the part of the mind containing wishes, desires or bad experience too frightening to recognize. Sigmund Freuds work on the causes and treatment of mental si
4、ckness helped form the ideas of modern psychiatry. His ideas about sexual development led to the discussion and treatment of sexual problems. Many of Sigmund Freuds ideas are no longer used today, but no one disputes his great influence on the science of mental health.3. The Pentagon is one of the l
5、argest office buildings in the world. It is the headquarters of the United States defense Department. The building is in Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington D.C. It has 5 sides. That is why it is called the Pentagon. The building was designed that way because of 5 roads tha
6、t are the borders of the surrounding land. It covers 12 hectares of land and has more than 340,000 square meters of space. About 24,000 people work in the Pentagon. About half are civilians , the other are part of the military forces. They form part of 4 groups: the Departments of the Army, Navy and
7、 Air Force and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Army engineers began building Pentagon in 1941. It was completed 16 months later. It was built to house the offices of the War Department. Congress created the War Department in 1789 to supervise the military services. 9 years later, Congress cr
8、eated the Department of the Navy to separate the land and naval forces. After World War II, Congress approved the National Security Act, which created the National Military Establishment.It was headed by a Secretary of Defense and had 3 military departments. The Department of War became the Departme
9、nt of the Army. The Army Air Forces became a separated service, the Air Force. The Navy and the Marine Corps continued under the Department of the Navy. The Secretary of Defense became a member of the presidents cabinet and developed policies and programs for the National Military Establishment. In
10、1949, Congress created the Department of Defense to replace the National Military Establishment. Since then all the military departments have been supervised by the Secretary of Defense from his office in the Pentagon. The first Secretary of Defense was James Forrestal. II. About the author: Reginal
11、d Rose: one of the leading writers from televisions “Golden Age” in the 1950s, who was best known for the movie “Twelve Angry Men”. Rose died of complications from heart failure at age 81 in Norwalk, Connecticut. 2Distinguished works:Rose won an Emmy Award in 1954 for writing the Studio One televisi
12、on version of “Twelve Angry Men“, in which one juror painstakingly sways the 11 others debating the fate of a Puerto Rican youth charged with killing his father. Rose received an Academy Award nomination for the screenplay of the 1957 film version, which starred Henry Fonda, who co-produced the movi
13、e with Rose. The film, which also featured Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley Sr., E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Jack Warden and Martin Balsam, was directed by Sidney Lumet and was also nominated for best picture that year. Rose, a native New Yorker whose work was distinguished by his focus on social and politic
14、al issues, won three Emmy Awards and was nominated for six. His focus: A fearless Golden Age of Television writer of the highest caliber, Reginald Roses ability to tackle pressing social issues distinguished him from the pack and, along with such contemporaries as Rod Serling and Paddy Chayefsky, le
15、ft an indelible mark on the history of thought-provoking television drama. III. Do you know?Do you know how the author comes to write this play? Here is what the author said:“Twelve Angry Men” is the only play Ive written which has any relation at all to actual personal experience. A month or so bef
16、ore I began the play I sat on the jury of a manslaughter case in New Yorks General Sessions Court. This was my first experience on a jury, and it left quite an impression on me. When I received my jury notice I wasnt very pleased. There are eight million people in New York, why do they have to choos
17、e me. All the other prospective jurors I met in the waiting room the first day also grumbled and muttered. But, strangely, the moment I walked into the courtroom and found myself facing a strange man whose fate was suddenly more or less in my hands, my entire attitude changed. I as hugely impressed
18、with the almost frightening stillness of the courtroom, the impassive, masklike face of the judge, the brisk, purposeful scurrying of the various officials in the room, and the absolute finality of the decision I and my fellow jurors would have to make at the end of the trial. I doubt whether I have
19、 ever been so impressed in my life with a role I had to play, and I suddenly became so earnest that, in thinking about it later, I probably was unbearable to the eleven other jurors. It occurred to me during the trial that no one anywhere ever knows what goes on inside a jury room but the jurors, an
20、d I thought then that a play taking place entirely within a jury room might be an exciting and possibly moving experience for an audience. Actually, the outline of this play, which I began shortly after the trial ended, took longer to write than the script itself. The movements in the play were so i
21、ntricate that I wanted to have them down on paper to the last detail before I began the construction of the dialogue. I worked on the idea and outline for a week and was stunned by the time I was finished to discover that the outline is twenty-seven pages long. The average outline is perhaps five ga
22、pes long, and many are as short as one or two pages. This detailed setting down of the moves of the play paid off however. The script was written in five days.In writing this play, I attempted to blend four elements which I had seen at work in a jury room during my jury service. These elements are:
23、(1) the evidence as remembered and interpreted by each individual juror (the disparities here were incredible); (2) the relationship of jury and juror in a life-and-death situation; (3) the emotional pattern of 3each individual juror and (4) the physical problems such as the weather, the time, the u
24、ncomfortable room, etc. All of these elements are of vital importance in any jury room, and all of them presented excellent dramatic possibilities.IV. Warming-up questions 1. Suppose the same crime was committed nowadays, what would the court do to find out the truth? (Would there be any DNA testing
25、 or detailed forensic evidence?)2. Do you think it is fair to endow a jury with the full responsibility to decide whether a suspect is guilty or innocent? How do you understand the role of a judge in a court and that of a jury?3. In what way has the jury changed a lot? (Why do you think the jury in
26、this trial consisted of only white men, no women or the Blacks? Was smoking allowed in the jury room?)4. Do you know that language can have power as well? Can you feel the power of language in the text? In what way is language powerful? Give some examples.5. What do you think is the main theme?The i
27、dea, that one person, or a small group of people, can actually make a significant difference. Its easy to become disillusioned by a barrage of facts, supposed facts, obfuscations, and outright lies, whether in a court or in an election. But finding the strength to push all these aside and participat
28、e in the process to the best of your ability is an important part of what Twelve Angry Men is all about. Twelve Angry Men is about one individuals ability to stand up for what he believes, even when others ridicule him. It is also a powerful study not just of the criminal justice system, but also of
29、 the diversity of human experience, the nature of peer pressure, and the difficulty of ever fully knowing the truth.V. Warming-up activities 1.Try to work out a list of words or expressions used in a criminal court.2.Please give a simple character sketch for each of the jurors.3.See the movie to hav
30、e a better understanding of the story.Part Two Background InformationI. American Court SystemThe accused is deemed innocent until and unless proved “guilty beyond a reasonable doubt”;The burden of proof is on the prosecutor;In most cases, the verdict has to be unanimously reached. The majority of a
31、jury is not sufficient to find a defendant guilty of a felony;A trial does not aim at discovering who committed a particular crime, but rather the innocence or guilt of the accused;The system is valuable, but not infallible and can be quite precarious.II. Jury System but they are not to rely on any
32、private source of information. The jurys verdict must be based only on the evidence and on the judges instructions as to the law. 7.How is voting conducted by the jurors?Your final vote should represent your own opinion. When differences of opinion arise between jurors, the jurors should say what th
33、ey think and why they think it. While you should not hesitate to change your viewpoint if your opinions change during deliberation, jurors must not try to force agreement. Jurors should not refuse to listen to the arguments and opinions of others and must not permit any decision to be reached by cha
34、nce or the “toss of a coin”.The number of jurors needed to agree upon a verdict will vary depending upon the number of persons sitting on the panel, whether it is a civil or a criminal case and the jurisdiction of the court. The judge will instruct you about the specific number of jurors that must a
35、gree upon the verdict.8.What should a jury do once it has reached a verdict?Once the jury has reached its verdict, the presiding juror completes and signs the verdict form. The judge will provide instructions explaining the verdict form. Once the verdict form is signed, the presiding juror should in
36、form the bailiff or clerk. The entire jury panel will then re-enter the courtroom and deliver its verdict in open court.IV. Civil Case vs. Criminal CaseA civil case is one in which a person who feels he or she has been wronged brings legal action in order to protect his or her interests and, if appr
37、opriate, to collect damages from the person who has wronged him or her. The case is started by the person whose rights have allegedly been violated. This person is known as the plaintiff. The person being sued is known as the defendant.People usually sue for an amount of money to make up for the inj
38、ury or loss they have suffered. Civil cases do not result in prison terms. In a civil case, the person who feels he or she has been wronged decides whether or not to bring suit against the defendant. The person also decides how much money in damages to seek. Often the people involved in a civil case
39、 come to an agreement to resolve the matter before the matter starts in court. This is called settling out of court. Sometimes the case goes to court. If the people involved are not happy with the decision at the trial, they can lodge an appeal with the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal can chang
40、e the decision if they believe that the Judge made an error in law.The person cannot request that the defendant go to jail except in unusual cases where the defendant may have violated a court order.A criminal case, on the other hand, is one in which the local, State, or Federal Government begins th
41、e action in the name of its citizens. The plaintiff is the government acting on behalf of the people. The case is prosecuted and the plaintiff is represented in court by the State Attorney, Statewide Prosecution, or the U.S. Attorney. The accused, known as the defendant, is charged with a crime agai
42、nst societya violation of the laws regulating our conduct, such as murder, rape, conspiracy, or robbery. In addition, less serious conduct such as driving without a license or 7conducting door to door solicitation without a permit may also violate the criminal laws.The person accused of the crime is
43、 called the accused or the defendant. They might have a barrister or solicitor with them in court, or they may face the court alone.In a criminal case, a prosecutor gives details of the offence to the court. The prosecutor can be a police officer or a lawyer from the Office of the Director of Public
44、 Prosecutions. If the case is being heard in the District or Supreme Court, then the prosecutor will be a lawyer from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. If the case is being heard in the Magistrates Court the prosecutor may be a police officer or a lawyer from the Office of the Direc
45、tor of Public Prosecutions.In a civil case, the person who feels he or she has been wronged decides whether or not to bring suit against the defendant. The person also decides how much money in damages to seek. The person cannot request that the defendant go to jail except in unusual cases where the
46、 defendant may have violated a court order.In a criminal case, the prosecutor or a grand jury decides whether to initiate criminal proceedings, that is, to charge the defendant with violating a law.In a civil case, it is up to the plaintiff, the person who has started the lawsuit, to prove his or he
47、r case with stronger evidence than the defendant hasthat is, by a preponderance of the evidence. In other words, the judge or jury must believe that the weight of the plaintiffs evidence is greater than the weight of the defendants evidence, if the plaintiff is to win.In a criminal case, because a p
48、erson is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty, the prosecution must prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. This does not mean beyond all possible doubt, but it does mean the court or jury must have an abiding conviction to a moral certainty of the truth of the charge. This is a much heavie
49、r burden of proof than there is in a civil case.V. Criminal CourtCriminal Court hears cases ranging from minor offenses (misdemeanors) such as traffic infractions to serious ones like robbery and murder (felonies). The state or prosecutor makes the charge against someone accused of committing a crime because a crime is considered an act against society. The prosecuting attorney presents the charge against the accused person (defendant) on behalf of the state (plaintiff), and must prove to the judge or jury that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.In all
