阅读理解

　　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(陪审团)wrongly convicted(判处……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(证词)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(决定)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．

阅读理解

　　If you have been joining in chat room conversations, or trading email with web pals(网友), you have become one of the millions who write in a peculiarly short form of English．

　　And you’ve got a sense of humor about short forms like SOHF(＝sense of humor failure)to describe Internet newcomers who don’t understand you．

　　Across the globe, every night teenagers and their elders are “talking online”, many of them all talking at the same time．

　　It’s fast：try talking to six people at once．It’s brief：three or four words per exchange．It takes wit, concentration, and quick fingers．

　　And it requires tremendous linguistic economy(语言省略)．There’s neither time nor space for explanations．Why consume precious key-strokes(键盘敲击)telling six friends you have to leave for a moment to take care of your little brother when BRB(＝be right back)will do?

　　Want to enter a conversation? Just type PMFJI(＝pardon me for jumping in)．

　　Interested in whom you are talking to? Type A/S/L, the nearly universal request to know your pal’s age, sex and location．You may get 15/M/NY as a response from your pal．

　　If something makes you laugh, say you are OTF(＝on the floor), or LOL(＝laughing out loud), or combing the two into ROTFL(＝rolling on the floor laughing)．

　　And when it is time to get back to work or go to bed, you type GTG(＝got to go)or TTYL(＝talk to you later)．

　　People want to write as fast as possible, and they want to get their ideas across as quickly as they can．Capital letters are left in the dust, except when expressing emotion, as it takes, more time to hold down the “shift” key and capitals．Punctuation(标点)is going, too．