Question

A British judge ruled recently that swearing (咒罵) at the police is not a crime (犯罪), setting off a heated debate（辯論） across the nation.

Denzel Cassiues Harvey , 19 ,was stopped outside his home in Hackney , East London , by police officers who thought he was carrying drugs. He was fined ￡50 by a count for repeatedly （重復）swearing at the police who were searching him for drugs.

But judge David Bean overturned(推翻) the decision of the previous（以前的） court . He said that police officers hear foul language too frequently to be offended （冒犯）. Judge David Bean said the foul language used by Harvey was unlikely to cause the police officers harm , alarm or distress（苦惱）, because it was so “common”.

The judge may have been right to cancel（取消） the fine in this individual case . But there are massive problems with what he said when making the ruling .

Foul language is frequently directed at police officers, but this doesn’t mean that it should be accepted as part of their working life.

How can we justify（證明） this ? There are the people who devote their lives to protecting us.

What does it say about our respect for the police , if we see them as people who can be spoken to abusively (粗暴地) without a second thought?

There are many times that police officers do not penalize member of the public for swearing at them and it would be impractical（不切實際的） to punish every person that abuses(辱罵) them with foul language .

But if officers feel that someone has crossed the line , they should not be criticized for reacting（反應） to this . They are there to make these judgement and we need to allow them to do so.

The question is not what is said, but how the language is used. If a person swears with genuine（真實的） aggression （進攻，侵犯）and aims to cause fear they should be penalized.

The police are enforcers （實施者）of the law, not mute（無聲的） punch bags.(沙袋)

1 Why was  Denzel Cassiues Harvey stopped by police officers?

   A  Because he was carrying drugs in his pocket.

   B  Because the police suspected that he was carrying drugs

   C  Because he swore at police officers on duty.

   D  Because he was a wanted criminal.

2 What do you know about David Bean ?

   A  He is 19 years old                  B He offended police officers

   B  He canceled the ￡ 50 fine          D He was a police officer

3 What does the writer think of  Judge David Bean’s ruling ?

   A  He disapproves of David Bean’s ruling

   B  He thinks it right for Judge David Bean to cancel the fine.

   C  He thinks Judge David Bean’s ruling sounded reasonable.

   D  He thinks highly of David Bean’s ruling.

4 What does the underlined word “penalize” mean ?

   A Offend        B Abuse          C Criticize       D Punish

5  Which of the following is the best title ?

   A  Law needs to protect the police, too

B  Swearing at the police should be banned

   C  Denzel Cassiues Harvey’s case set off a heated debate

   D  Judges are supposed to support the police

Answer 1

 1B  2C   3A  4D   5A