The word 'justice' is given two different meanings in the text. What is thedistinction between them?

The word justice is usually associated with courts of law. We might saythat justice has been done when a man's innocence or guilt has been provedbeyond doubt. Justice is part of the complex machinery of the law. Those whoseek it undertake an arduous journey and can never be sure that they will findit. Judges, however wise or eminent, are human and can make mistakes.

There are rare instances when justice almost ceases to be an abstractconcept. Reward or punishment are meted out quite independent of humaninterference. At such times, justice acts like a living force. When we use aphrase like 'it serves him right', we are, in part, admitting that a certain setof circumstances has enabled justice to act of its own accord.

When a thief was caught on the premises of a large jewellery store onemorning, the shop assistants must have found it impossible to resist thetemptation to say 'it serves him right.' The shop was an old converted housewith many large, disused fireplaces and tall, narrow chimneys. Towards midday, agirl heard a muffled cry coming from behind one of the walls. As the cry wasrepeated several times, she ran to tell the manager who promptly rang up thefire brigade. The cry had certainly come from one of the chimneys, but as therewere so many of them, the firemen could not be certain which one it was. Theylocated the right chimney by tapping at the walls and listening for the man'scries. After chipping through a wall which was 18 inches thick, they found thata man had been trapped in the chimney. As it was extremely narrow, the man wasunable to move, but the fire fighters were eventually able to free him bycutting a huge hole in the wall. The sorry-looking, blackened figure thatemerged, admitted at once that he had tried to break into the shop during thenight but had got stuck in the chimney. He had been there for nearly ten hours.Justice had been done even before the man was handed over to the police.

New words and expressions 生词与短语

justice

n. 正义，公正;司法

court

n. 法院

law

n. 法律

innocence

n. 无辜

undertake

v. 承担;着手做新概念英语3

arduous

adj. 艰苦的，艰难的

abstract

adj. 抽象的

concept

n. 概念，观念

mete out

给予，处置

interference

n. 干涉

accord

n. 一致

premises

n. 房屋

convert

v. 转变，改变

disused

adj. 不再用的，废弃的

fireplace

n. 壁炉

muffle

v. 捂住，厌抑

chip

v. 砍，削，凿

blacken

v. 使变黑

emerge

v. (从某处)出现

本文参考译文

“正义”这个词常常是同法庭连在一起的。当某人被证据确凿地证明无罪的时候，我们也许会说正义得到了伸张。正义是复杂的法律机器组成部分。那些寻求正义的人走的是一条崎岖的道路，从来没有把握他们最终将到正义。法官无论如何聪明与有名，毕竟也是人，也会出差错的。

在个别情况下，正义不再是一种抽象概念。奖惩的实施是不受人意志支配的。在这种时候，正义像一种有生命的力量行使其职能。当我们说“他罪有应得”这句话的时候，我们部分承认了某种特定的环境使得正义自动地起了作用。

一天上午，当一个小偷在一家大型珠宝店里被人抓住的时候，店员一定会忍不住说：“他罪有应得。”那是一座老式的、经过改造的房子，店里有许多废置不用的大壁炉和又高又窄的烟囱。快到中午的时候，一个女售货员听见从一堵墙里传出一种闷声闷气的叫声。由于这种喊叫声重复了几次，她跑去报告经理，经理当即给消防队挂了电话。喊叫声肯定是从烟囱里传出来的，然而，因为烟囱太多，消防队员无法确定到底是哪一个。他们通过叫击烟囱倾叫声而确定传出声音的那个烟囱。他们凿透了18英寸厚的墙壁，发现有个人卡在烟囱里。由于烟囱太窄，那人无法动弹。消防队员在墙上挖了个大洞，才终于把他解救出来。那个看来满脸沮丧、浑身漆黑的家伙从烟囱里一出来，就承认头天夜里他企图到店里行窍，但让烟囱卡住了。他已经在烟囱里被困了将近10个小时。甚至在那人还没被送交给警察之前，正义就已得到了伸张。

(兼职编辑：张博)