Lesson Five: Twelve Angry Men ( Part Two ) About the author

background / works / note About the text

figures of speech / word study / sentence paraphrase / exercise

In-class discussion Homework

Background Reginald Rose (1920- ) is a native

New Yorker, best known as a writer for television. The Twelve Angry Men was written in 1954 based on his experience as a juror. The play was turned into a movie, with much abridgement. What distinguished Rose’s teleplays was their direct preoccupation with social and political issues.

Rose is one of the outstanding television playwrights to emerge from the "Golden Age" of television drama anthology series. Rose takes a place in history at the top of the craft of television writing.

In addition to other accolades, Rose was nominated for six Emmy awards during his career, and won three.

Works TELEVISION SERIES (variou

s episodes) 1951 Out There

1954-57 Studio One 1955 Elgin Hour 1955 Philco Television Playhouse-Goodyear Playhouse 1956 Alcoa Hour-Goodyear Playhouse 1959 Playhouse 90 1960 Sunday Showcase 1961-65 The Defenders (creator and writer) 1967 CBS Playhouse 1975 The Zoo Gang (creator and writer)1977 The Four of Us (pilot

TELEVISION MINISERIES

1979 Studs Lonigan1987 Escape From Sobibor

MADE-FOR-TELEVISION MOVIES

1982 The Rules of Marriage1986 My Two Loves (with Rita Mae Brown

Note In writing this play, the author attempted to blend four

elements which he had seen at work in a jury room

during his jury service. These elements are:

1. The evidence as remembered and interpreted by each individual juror (the disparities here were incredible )

2. The relationship of jury and juror in a life-and-death situation

3. The emotional pattern of each individual juror and

4. The physical problems such as the weather,the time, etc.

Figures of Speech Grammar in context: observe the use of the modal +

have done construction and point out the concept each conveys.

1) I think we proved that the old man couldn’t have heard the boy yell, “I’m going to kill you.”

2) I don’t remember what he said, but I don’t see how he could have run to the door.

3) It may have been two too many.4) The old man would have had to hear the boy say, “I’m

going to kill you,” while the train was roaring by the old man’s window.

The perfect infinitive denotes a past action or condition. When it is used with modals, the concept it expresses depends on the modal.

improbability of a past action probability of a past action possibility of a past condition / state probability of a past action

Word Study I’m going to pace off 12 feet.

to pace off (out ): to measure out 12 feet by taking steps of equal length

I’ve seen all kinds of dishonesty in my day, but this little display takes the cake.

to take the cake: (AmE) spoken to be worse than anything else you can imagine

I’ve seen all kinks of cheating, lying and other dirty tricks in my life, but this little demonstration is the worst I can imagine.

You bet I would.

You bet: Of course; Certainly; You can be sure He comes here running for his life. And now, before he

can take a deep breath, he’s telling how to run the show. The arrogance of this guy.

running for his life: to leave quickly because your life is in danger

to run the show: to be in charge of the whole thing

arrogance: the quality of thinking that you are very important and therefore behaving very rudely

.

It takes too much time to switch your hand.

to switch: to change one thing to another quickly Now the vote is 9 to 3 in favor of acquittal.

9 to 3 in favor of acquittal: 9 people for acquittal and 3 against

favor n. something that you do to help others or just out of

kindness

I’m doing that as a special favor or you.

Can you do me a favor? Could you get me a taxi? support or approval for an idea, plan or system

As the mainland economy develops more and more rapidly, unification will gain more and more favor with the Taiwanese people.

Most people are in favor of family control.

unpopular support

Favoritism is still widespread in some countries. Those in power often show special favors to their relatives and friends.

State-owned enterprises can longer rely on government favors.

liked or not liked

It is an open secret that he is now thinking of giving his power to his second son. His first son seems to be out of favor.

advantage A new tax law was passed in favor of the richest top 15%. The vote was 5 to 4 in our favor. to favor: to prefer favorable adj.: good, suitable, agreeable as in “favorable

impression”, “favorable conditions”, “favorable response” etc.

favorite adj. & n. : what you like best

risk n.: the responsibility of bad result (used oftenin such collocations and phrases as “to run a risk”; “to take a risk”; to put sb. Or sth a risk”; “at risk” )

We know that WTO membership also involves a lot of risks.

You are running unnecessary risks. I don’t want to take the risk of ruining my health. We are putting the future of humanity at great risk by

encouraging human cloning. If we go on like this, we will be at the risk of losing our

market.

to risk v. : to put something at risk

to risk something

He risked his own life to save her. to risk doing something

I don’t want to risk losing my job.

Every day when I go out in the street, I risk being run over by a car.

to stick ( stuck, stuck ) to push

He said that he saw the boy sticking a knife into his own father’s chest.

to fix; to be or become fixed

Stick these pictures on the wall. to cling to; to hold on to ( to stick fast to a belief or idea)

Hitler stuck fast to his belief that falsehood would be taken as the truth when repeated a thousand times.

to bear: to take, to carry, to give birth to, to put up with

I can’t bear that kind of political hypocrite. Many people can’t bear living in complete

idleness. From now on they will have to bear their

own costs. Today our environmental policy is

beginning to bear fruits.

to remind: to cause somebody to remember; to bring into somebody’s mind

Mr. Yang is very disorganized. I’m afraid you’ll have to remind him again and again.

She often gets very absorbed in her work, and her husband has to remind her to take her medicine.

She reminded me of my grandma: very kind, generous and understanding.

Sentence Paraphrase The kid yelled it out at the top of his lungs.

Anybody says a thing like that, the way he did, he means it!

The boy shouted it out at the top of his voice (very loudly). If anybody says a thing like that, he means it.

He is much too bright for that.

He is too clear to do that. The would have been really dumb to let everybody know that he is going to kill his own father. Therefore it is ridiculous to use as evidence to the crime the fact that he had shouted “I’m going to kill you.”

He’s a common ignorant slob. He don’t even speak good English.

He is a common lazy, dirty, and rude boy.

Notice the irony in the statement “He don’t even speak good English.”

Wouldn’t he be afraid of being caught?

This is a rhetorical question in the subjunctive mood, involving a passive gerund used as the object of the adjective phrase “afraid of”.

More examples of passive gerund used as object of adjective phrase:

He was afraid of being seen by his mother. She was fond of being looked at.

No.12: It wasn’t very nice to have it sticking out of some people’s chests.

No. 7: Especially relatives. No. 4: I don’t see anything funny about it.

No. 12 and No. 7 were joking about this murder. No. 4 finds this distasteful. That’s why he says he doenn’t see anything funny about it. Sometimes people will say “That’s not funny!” to show that they don’t think it’s a joking matter.

No. 3 : He was an old man. Half the time, he was confused. How could he be positive about anything?

No. 3 suddenly realized that he was contradicting himself, because if the old man could not be positive about anything, how could they use his testimony as strong evidence? It was too late however to cover his blunder.

Well, let’s see if the details bear him out. Well, let’s find out whether the details of his

descriptions support his statement or prove what he said was true.

He’s got to burn and you let him slip through our fingers!

He’s got to be sent to the chair or to be executed, and you let him escape the punishment by the law.

I feel sorry for you. What if must feel like to want to pull the switch. You are a sadist.

I can’t understand what kind of feeling it is that will make you want to pull the switch. The only possible answer is that you are a sadist. You enjoy inflicting pain. You enjoy watching people suffer.

Notice that No. 8 is deliberately trying to provoke No. 3 into losing his temper, and No. 3 fell right into the trap.

No. 8: (calmly) You don’t really mean you’d kill me, do you?

Now we know why No. 8 deliberately made No. 3 mad. He did that in order to make the point that yelling out “I’ll kill you” does not necessarily mean you are really going kill somebody. The ironical thing is that No. 3 helped No. 8 make this point without knowing it.

Don’t give me that! I’m sick and tired of facts. Don’t give me that kind of argument. I don’t need

it. I go for that too. Let the kid take his chances with

twelve other guys. I also agree. Let the kid try his luck with twelve

other jurors. According to the law of the United States, in case of a hung jury, another jury will be formed and the whole legal procedure will be repeated.

He comes here running for his life. And now, before he can take a deep breath, he’s telling us how to run the show. The arrogance of this guy.

No. 11 is a new immigrant, or even a political refugee. He came to America to “run for his life”, that is, to escape persecution, but now before he can take a deep breath, almost immediately, he is telling us Americans how to do everything. The arrogance of this guy is really something. I’m really amazed at this guy’s arrogance.

It was a very inexpensive feature… It was a cheap movie.

Notice that No. 4 is not responding to the question put to him. He is saying this to gain time while trying to recall the name of the movie. Another reason may be that he is trying to find an excuse for not remembering the name of this movie; he doesn’t recall because it dosen’t give him a deep impression.

No. 9: I think the point is made.

No. 10: Big point!

No. 9 thinks that this demonstration has proved No. 8’s point, but No. 10 doesn’t think it is so important a point. Notice that “Big point” is ironical.

Don’t tell me we’re going to start with that again?

Do you mean that we have to go over that thing again?

But I don’t go along with it.

But I don’t accept that view.

Exercise 1. Translate.

1). From Chinese into English.

冒挨批评的危险摆出证据抓住老虎歪曲事实掩盖失误

to risk being criticized

to present the evidence

to capture the tiger to twist the fact to cover one’s

blunder

2). From English into Chinese.

unshakable testimony reasonable doubt heavy makeup emotional streets a criminal court

铁证 合理的怀疑 浓妆艳抹 精神压力 刑事法庭

Fill in the blanks.1) It’s terribly impolite to

keep cutting ____ when other people are talking.

2) They were completely cut ____ from the outside world for a whole month because of the heavy snow.

3) If you want to lose weight, cut ___ animal fat and starchy food.

in

off

down; on

In- class Discussion

What is the question raised by No. 11? How do those still voting guilty try to explain why the boy risked being caught and came back 3 hours after he had killed his father? Do you agree with them?

Homework

1. Give character sketches of 12 jurors according to the text.

2. Act out the play.