Question

A person named Bernard Jackson today is a free man, but he has many bitter memories. He spent five years in prison after a jury (陪審團(tuán))wrongly convicted (判處…有罪) him of raping two women. At Jackson’s trial, although two witnesses testified that Jackson was with them in another location at the time of the crime, he was convicted  anyway. Why? The jury believed the testimony(證詞)of the two victims, who positively identified Jackson as the man who had attacked them. The court eventually freed Jackson after the police found the real criminal.
Many factors influence the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. For instance, witnesses sometimes see photographs of several suspects before they try to identify the person they saw in a group of people. They can become confused by seeing many photographs of similar faces. The number of people in the group, and whether it is a person or a photograph, may also affect a witness’s decision. People sometimes have difficulty identifying people of other races. The questions the police ask witnesses also have an effect on them.
Many people believe that police officers are more reliable than ordinary people. Psychologists decided to test this idea, and they discovered that it is not true. Two psychologists showed a film of crimes to both police officers and civilians. The psychologists found no difference between the police and the civilians in correctly remembering the details of the crimes.
Despite all the possibilities for inaccuracy, courts cannot omit eyewitness testimony from a trial. American courts depend almost completely on eyewitness testimony to resolve(決定)court cases. Sometimes it is the only evidence to a crime, such as rape. Furthermore, eyewitness testimony is often correct. Although people do sometimes make mistakes, and convict innocent people, more importantly, eyewitness testimony has rightly convicted a larger number of guilty people.
American courts depend on the ability of the twelve jurors, and not the judges, to determine the accuracy of the witness’s testimony. It is their responsibility to decide if a certain witness could actually see, hear and remember what happened.
【小題1】Bernard Jackson was found guilty and sentenced 5 years’ prison because________.

A．the victims insisted that he was the attacker

B．he admitted the crime of raping two women

C．the police discovered evidence leading to his guilt

D．the eyewitness proved the victims’ testimony

【小題2】 The following statements may be the reasons for why sometimes the eyewitness’ testimony is not accurate EXCEPT ________.

A．the eyewitness is confused by the police’s questions

B．the eyewitness is shown photos of many similar faces

C．the eyewitness lacks the professional help from police

D．the eyewitness can’t identify people of other races clearly.

【小題3】An inaccurate eyewitness testimony may lead to________.

A．the misunderstanding of the case

B．the disbelief in the court

C．the disrespect for the eyewitness

D．the conviction of an innocent person

【小題4】Eyewitness testimony is important because ___________.

A．it can be relied on to detect criminals in all cases.

B．it is sometimes the only way to resolve court cases.

C．it is sometimes the only clue for police investigation.

D．it is more reliable than physical evidences to a crime.

【小題5】 According to the text, we can infer that ________.

A．eyewitness testimony is valuable, though sometimes incorrect.

B．police identification is more reliable than that of the ordinary people

C．crime victims often fail to give positive identification of the suspects

D．the jury relies on the judge than the eyewitness for a decision

Answer 1

【小題1】A  
【小題1】C
【小題1】D
【小題1】B
【小題1】A

解析試題分析：這篇文章講述了證人有時(shí)候的判斷雖然有錯(cuò)誤，但是證人的證詞還是很重要的。
【小題1】 根據(jù)The jury believed the testimony(證詞)of the two victims, who positively identified Jackson as the man who had attacked them，故選A。
【小題2】根據(jù)第二自然段和第三自然段，可知選C。
【小題3】根據(jù)Although people do sometimes make mistakes, and convict innocent people.故選D。
【小題4】根據(jù)Despite all the possibilities for inaccuracy, courts cannot omit eyewitness testimony from a trial. American courts depend almost completely on eyewitness testimony to resolve(決定)court cases.所以答案為B。
【小題5】根據(jù)最后一個(gè)自然段，所以答案為A。
考點(diǎn)：新聞報(bào)道類短文閱讀理解
點(diǎn)評(píng)：要想答好題目，重在理解全文意思。這篇文章比較難，先看問題，再帶著問題讀短文，找出各段落的主旨句，理解全文內(nèi)容，總結(jié)全文中心，然后再回到問題上來，很容易選出正確答案。