2014高考英语阅读理解精英训练二轮精品题（36）及答案

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.