UNIT 1 A Brush with the Law 【一次与法律的小冲突】.docVIP

UNIT 1 TEXT A young man finds that strolling【闲逛】 along the streets without an obvious purpose can lead to trouble with the law. One misunderstanding leads to another until eventually【最后】 he must appear in court【法庭】 for trial【审判】. A Brush【小冲突】 with the Law I have only once been in trouble with the law. The whole process of being arrested and taken to court was a rather unpleasant experience at the time, but it makes a good story now. What makes it rather disturbing【麻烦】 was the arbitrary【混乱的】 circumstances【情况】 both of my arrest and my subsequent【随后的】 fate in court. It happened in February about twelve years ago. I had left school a couple of months before that and was not due【到期，到时间】 to go to university until the following October. I was still living at home at the time. One morning I was in Richmond, a suburb【郊区】 of London near where I lived. I was looking for a temporary【临时的】 job so that I could save up【攒下，存】 some money to go traveling. As it was a fine day and I was in no hurry【be in no hurry 一点都不着急】, I was taking my time, looking in shop windows, strolling in the park, and sometimes just stopping and looking around me. It must have been this obvious aimlessness【漫无目的】 that led to my downfall【衰落】. It was about half past eleven when it happened. I was just walking out of the local library, having unsuccessfully sought【sink 的过去式，寻找】 employment there, when I saw a man walking across the road with the obvious intention【意图】 of talking to me.【with the intention of doing sth.】 I thought he was going to ask me the time. Instead, he said he was a police officer and he was arresting me. At first I thought it was some kind of joke. But them another policeman appeared, this time in uniform, and I was left in no doubt.【我确信无疑了】 But what for? I asked. Wandering with intent to commit an arrestable【可逮捕的】 offence, he said. What offence? I asked. Theft, he said. Theft of what? I asked. Milk bottles, he said, and with a perfectly straight face too! Oh, I said. It turned out there had b