Our Unfortunate Convicts

1、Our Unfortunate ConvictsCONTENTSGeorge Bernard Shaw1The Crime of Imprisonment23NotesGeorge Bernard ShawGeorge Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 2 November 1950) was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism

2、, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays. George Bernard ShawHe was also an essayist, novelist and short story writer. Nearly all his writings address prevailing social problems, but have a vein of comedy

3、 which makes their stark themes more palatable. Issues which engaged Shaws attention included education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege.He is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938), for his contributions to l

4、iterature and for his work on the film Pygmalion (adaptation of his play of the same name), respectively.AchievementsPygmalion (1913) a play by George Bernard Shaw in which Professor Henry Higgins teaches a poor Cockney woman, Eliza Doolittle, how to speak and behave like an upper class lady. The pl

5、ay was made into a musical (=a play that uses singing and dancing to tell a story) in 1956 and a successful film musical in 1964, both called My Fair Lady.Pygmalion (賣花女)Other Works by George Bernard ShawThe crime of Imprisonment The essay Our Unfortunate Convicts is an exerpt from the book The crim

6、e of Imprisonment. It was written as a preface of a British Labor Research Office Study in 1922. However, this book was republished in 1945 as a seperate volume in New York. The main idea of the book is criticizing the prison system of Britain at that time, and Shaws main purpose is to argue that th

7、e traditional penological theory is contradictory.NOTES retributory (LL. 5 6) = retributive adj. happening or inflicted as retribution報應(yīng)的，懲罰的retributive justice 因果報應(yīng).retribution n. U punishment that someone deserves because they have done something very bad 報應(yīng)；應(yīng)得的懲罰jailed in retribution for his crim

8、es 因犯罪而受監(jiān)禁 the day, hour, moment, etc of retribution 報應(yīng)的日子 時刻 瞬間等NOTESvindictive (L. 6)adj. having or showing a desire for revenge; unforgiving 懷有或顯示報復(fù)心的; 不寬恕的 vindictive people, acts, urges, comments 企圖報復(fù)的人們行為心情評語.NOTESdeterrent (L. 7)adj. making people decide not to do something by making them rea

9、lize that something unpleasant could happen to them 起制止作用的; 遏止的; 威懾的 deterrent weapons, measures 具威懾性的武器遏制性的手段. deter vt. to stop someone from doing something, by making them realize it will be difficult or have bad resultsdeter sb from (doing) sthThe security camera was installed to deter people from stealing. NOTESImbecile1.N-COUNT 蠢人;傻瓜 If you call someone an imbecile, you are showing that you think they are stupid or have done something stupid. 語用信息：disapprovalI dont want to deal with these imbeciles any longer.我再也不想和這些笨蛋打交道了。2.ADJ 十分愚蠢的;低能的 Imbecile means stupid.It was an i