You Cant Do It Because It Hurts Nobody

Have great pleasure in doing sth.   Criminal   Commit a crime   Drink—drank—drunk1   Admission   prison   Jailbird   Resident   Citify   Deadly—destructive   Bear—stand—endure—tolerance   Restriction—boundary   limited   celebration—celebrity   champion   illegal   anonym—anonymize   purse   deceive   cheat sb. out of sth.   Rob sb. of sth.   Honest—an honest boy   Be honest with   In the case   Get used to           LESSoN TWENTY                                                                 TEXT  A                        You Cant3 Do It Because It Hurts Nobody   Who do you think breaks the law in our society? If you believe that only tough guys commit crimes, you may have to think again. Answer the following questions honestly. Has anyone you know ever driven drunk?  Can you think of a friend who has used drugs? Are you aware that your parents may not always tell the truth when they go through customs?  Wont4 some of your friends admit that they have stolen an item from a store?  Have any of your friends ever copied a CD onto a tape for someone else?           In case you did not know, all of these acts are against the law. Now, among the people you know, how many have never broken the law?  Does that mean that most members of our society should go to jail2?  Unlike in the movies, we cant divide the world into bad guys and model citizens. Real life is much more complex. In the same way that diseases5 range from the common cold to fatal6 forms of cancer, crimes vary7 in degree. For example, smoking in an elevator will inconvenience people, but much less than threatening them with a gun.   In addition to breaking the law themselves, people tolerate8 various levels of crime. Why are we tolerant9 of some crimes? It may be that, by seeing others do something, we accept it more easily.   We may even start committing that crime ourselves. For instance10, most people will find it easier to speed on a highway when everybody else is driving over the speed limit. When people celebrate a sports championship, if they see someone breaking store windows, they might start breaking windows themselves or even steal from the store. So the people around us influence how much law-breaking we can tolerate.       We must also wonder whether seeing violence on television or reading about it in the newspapers every day makes us tolerate crime more than we should. We become used to seeing blood on the news on television, or in full color in newspapers and magazines. Because we see thousands of dead people on TV, maybe we just try to ignore of the situation behind the violence.       If so many citizens tolerate violence and crime, or even commit crimes themselves, it may simply be because of the human mind. our minds may not care about specific laws. Instead, our minds may have a system of values that usually prevents us from hurting other people to improve our own lives. Yet, when it comes to respecting the rights of a mass of anonymous11 individuals, we might not be so responsible. While most people would not steal a wallet containing $50, they may not mind cheating on taxes, because cheating on taxes does not hurt any one person. It hurts society, but society remains12 an abstract13 idea that is not as real as a neighbor or a friends friend. perhaps this is why someone who robs a few dollars by force from a corner store will often end up with a longer jail term than a fraud14 artist who swindles thousands of dollars: threatening the life of an individual is not acceptable15 in our society.   When we look at the questions in the first paragraph and realize that many people have misconceptions about law-breaking, we could think it is surprising that only about 10% of Canadians have a criminal record. How could we improve the level of honesty in our society? Would a larger police force keep everyone honest? Would severe laws help make our society better? probably not. The police would never be able to keep an eye on everyone, and people would still find ways to bend new laws. Honesty will have to come from social pressure: in the family, at school, on the job, each and every one of us can encourage honesty by showing which behaviors are unacceptable. Teaching16 respect should become responsibility.   I prefer tea to coffee.   Mind avoid practice give up

1 drunk   

adj.醉酒的；(喻)陶醉的；n.酗酒者，醉汉

参考例句：

• People who drives when they are drunk should be heavily penalised.醉酒驾车的人应受重罚。
• She found him drunk when she came home at night.她晚上回家时，经常发现他醉醺醺的。

2 jail   

n.监狱，看守所；vt.监禁，拘留

参考例句：

• The castle had been used as a jail.这城堡曾用作监狱。
• If she carries on shoplifting,she'll end up in jail.她如果还在店铺里偷东西，最终会被抓进监狱的。

3 cant   

n.斜穿，黑话，猛扔

参考例句：

• The ship took on a dangerous cant to port.船只出现向左舷危险倾斜。
• He knows thieves'cant.他懂盗贼的黑话。

4 wont   

adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯

参考例句：

• He was wont to say that children are lazy.他常常说小孩子们懒惰。
• It is his wont to get up early.早起是他的习惯。

5 diseases   

n.疾病( disease的名词复数 )；弊端；恶疾；痼疾

参考例句：

• Smoking is a causative factor in several major diseases. 抽烟是引起几种严重疾病的病因。
• The illness frequently coexists with other chronic diseases. 这种病往往与其他慢性病同时存在。

6 fatal   

adj.致命的，灾难性的；重大的，决定性的

参考例句：

• The enemy got a fatal blow in the battle.敌人在战斗中受到致命的打击。
• I made the fatal mistake of letting her talk.我让她讲话是犯了严重的错误。

7 vary   

vi.变化，有不同；vt.改变，使不同

参考例句：

• Cherries vary in colour from almost black to yellow.樱桃的颜色由近乎黑到黄各不相同。
• Old people don't like to vary their habits.老年人不喜欢改变他们的习惯。

8 tolerate   

v.忍受，容忍，容许，宽恕；vt.容忍，忍受，容许

参考例句：

• She can tolerate that rude fellow.她能容忍那个粗鲁的家伙。
• The teacher cannot tolerate eating on the class.老师不容许在课堂上吃东西。

9 tolerant   

adj.容忍的，有耐力的

参考例句：

• She's tolerant toward those impudent colleagues.她对那些无礼的同事采取容忍的态度。
• A tolerant person usually has breadth of mind.有宽容精神的人通常胸襟开阔。

10 instance   

n.例，例证，实例

参考例句：

• Can you quote me a recent instance?你能给我举一个最近的例子吗？
• He's a greedy boy,yesterday,for instance,he ate all our biscuits!他是个贪吃的孩子――比如，他昨天把我们的饼干都吃了！

11 anonymous   

adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的

参考例句：

• Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
• The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。

12 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

13 abstract   

adj.抽象的；n.摘要，梗概；vt.提取；摘录要点

参考例句：

• He is an abstract painter.他是一个抽象派画家。
• He made an abstract of a long article.他对一篇长文章做了摘要。

14 fraud   

n.骗子，欺骗，欺诈，诡计

参考例句：

• We will introduce legal safeguards against fraud.我们将推行防止欺诈的法律条款。
• The prosecutor accused the defendant of fraud.原告控告被告犯有欺诈罪。

15 acceptable   

adj.可接受的，合意的，受欢迎的

参考例句：

• The terms of the contract are acceptable to us.我们认为这个合同的条件可以接受。
• Air pollution in the city had reached four times the acceptable levels.这座城市的空气污染程度曾高达可接受标准的四倍。

16 teaching   

n.教学，执教，任教，讲授；(复数)教诲

参考例句：

• We all agree in adopting the new teaching method. 我们一致同意采取新的教学方法。
• He created a new system of teaching foreign languages.他创造了一种新的外语教学体系。