Task 1. Read and translate the text below.
The trial of Leonard Vole for the murder of Emily French aroused widespread interest. In the first place the prisoner was young and good-looking, then he was accused of a particularly dastardly crime, and there was the further interest of Romaine Heilger the principal witness for the prosecution. There had been pictures of her in many papers, and several fictitious stories as to her origin and history.
The proceedings opened quietly enough. Various technical evidence came first. Then Janet Mackenzie was called. She told substantially the same story as before. In cross-examination counsel for the defence succeeded in getting her to contradict herself once or twice over her account of Vole's association with Miss French; he emphasised the fact that though she had heard a man's voice in the sitting-room that night, there was nothing to show that it was Vole who was there, and he managed to drive home a feeling that jealousy and dislike of the prisoner were at the bottom of a good deal of her evidence.
Then the next witness was called.
"Your name is Romaine Heilger?"
"Yes."
"You are an Austrian subject?"
"Yes."
"For the last three years you have lived with the prisoner and passed yourself off as his wife?"
Just for a moment Romaine Heilger's eyes met those of the man in the dock.
"Yes."
The questions went on. Word by word the damning fact came out. On the night in question the prisoner had taken out a crowbar with him. He had returned at twenty minutes past ten, and had confessed to having killed the old lady. His cuffs had been stained with blood, and he had burned them in the kitchen stove. He had terrorised her into silence by means of threats.
As the story proceeded, the feeling of the court which had been slightly favourable to the prisoner, now set dead against him.
Formidable and ponderous, counsel for the defence arose. He put it to her that her story was a malicious fabrication from start to finish, that she had not even been in her own house at the time in question - that she was in love with another man and was deliberately seeking to send Vole to his death for a crime he did not commit.
Romaine denied these allegations with superb insolence. Then came the production of the letter. It was read aloud in court in the midst of a breathless stillness.
"Max, beloved, the Fates have delivered him into our hands! He has been arrested for murder - but, yes, the murder of an old lady! Leonard, who would not hurt a fly! At last I shall have my revenge. The poor chicken! I shall say that he came in that night with blood upon him - that he confessed to me. I shall hang him, Max - and when he hangs he will know and realize that it was Romaine who sent him to his death. And then - happiness, beloved! Happiness at last!"
There were experts present ready to swear that the handwriting was that of Romaine Heilger, but they were not needed. Confronted with the letter, Romaine broke down utterly and confessed everything. Leonard Vole had returned to his house at the time he said, twenty past nine. She had invented the whole story to ruin him.
Sir Charles called his few witnesses, the prisoner himself went into the box and told his story in a manly straight - forward manner, unshaken by cross-examination.
The prosecution endeavoured to rally, but without great success. The judge's summing up was not wholly favourable to the prisoner, but a reaction had set in and the jury needed little time to consider their verdict.
"We find the prisoner not guilty."
Leonard Vole was free!
Little Mr. Mayherne hurried from his seat. He must congratulate his client.
He found himself polishing his pince-nez vigorously, and checked himself. His wife had told him only the night before that he was getting a habit of it. Curious things, habits. People themselves never knew they had them.
An interesting case — a very interesting case. That woman, now, Romaine Heilger.
If he closed his eyes he could see her now, tall and vehement, her right hand clenching and unclenching itself unconsciously all the time. Curious things, habits. That gesture of hers with the hand was her habit, he supposes. Yet he had seen someone else do it quite lately. Who was it now? Quite lately —
The woman in Shaw's Rents —
It was impossible — Yet, Romaine Heilger was an actress.
He wanted one thing only — to see Romaine Heilger face to face.
He did not see her until some time later, and the place of their meeting is not relevant.
"So you guessed," she said. 'The face? Oh that was easy enough, and the light of that gas jet was too bad for you to see the make-up."
"But why — why —"
"Why did I play a lone hand?" She smiled a little, remembering the last time she had used the words. "My friend — I had to save him. The evidence of a woman devoted to him would not have been enough — you hinted yourself. But I know something of the psychology of crowds. Let my evidence be wrung from me, as an admission, damning me in the eyes of the law, and a reaction in favour of the prisoner would immediately set in."
"And the bundle of letters?"
"One alone, the vital one, might have seemed like a — what do you call it? — put-up job."
"Then the man called Max?"
"Never existed, my friend."
"1 still think," said little Mr. Mayherne, "that we could have got him off by the — er — normal procedure."
"I dare not risk it. You see you thought he was innocent -"
"But you knew it? I see," said little Mr. Mayherne.
"My dear Mr. Mayherne," said Romaine, "you do not see at all. I knew - he was guilty!"
Answer the following questions:
1. Did Janet Mackenzie succeed in cross examination?
2. What testimony did Ms Heilger bear?
3. What was her purpose?
4. What was the verdict?
Task 2. Match the following English expressions with their Russian equivalents:
| 1. trial 2. prisoner 3. dastardly crime 4. counsel for the defence 5. to confess 6. to commit a murder 7. verdict 8. to find the prisoner not guilty 9. to send to death | a) отправить на смерть b) судебное разбирательство c) признаться d) совершить убийство e) вердикт, решение f) признать обвиняемого невиновным g) заключенный, обвиняемый h) подлое преступление i) защитник |
Task 3. Translate the following sentences into English using the words and word combinations from the text above:
1) Судебный процесс над Леонардом Воулом, обвиняемым в убийстве, вызвал общественный интерес. 2) Его обвинили в совершении подлого, трусливого убийства. 3) В зал суда был вызван следующий свидетель. 4) Он признался в убийстве пожилой женщины. 5) Она была главным свидетелем обвинения. 6) Во время перекрестного допроса адвокат добился того, что свидетель начал противоречить сам себе. 7) Адвокат заявил, что свидетель умышленно пытается отправить подсудимого на смерть за убийство, которого он не совершал. 8) Мы считаем, что подсудимый невиновен.
Task 4. Complete the sentences with the words and word combinations from the table.
| accused of a particularly dastardly crime; innocent; guilty; confessed to having killed; cross-examination; trial; arrested for murder. |
1) The ________of Leonard Vole for the murder of Emily French aroused widespread interest.
2) In the first place the prisoner was young and good-looking, then he was____________________________.
3) In _____________counsel for the defence succeeded in getting her to contradict herself once or twice.
4) He had returned at twenty minutes past ten, and had _______________the old lady.
5) He has been _______________.
6) We find the prisoner not______________.
7) You thought he was______________.
UNIT 4
If tomorrow comes
(after Sidney Sheldon)
Дата: 2019-02-02, просмотров: 364.
