Listen to English - Christopher, his son, the neighbour and the football | Текст песни

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Christopher, his son, the neighbour and the football
Nov 28, 2006

Sometimes things happen that make you think that the world has gone mad. Christopher works in a bank. In fact, he has a senior job in the bank and is very well paid. He lives in a posh part of London called Kensington. The people who live in his street have a shared garden. If you have visited London, you may have seen shared gardens in some parts of the city. Often they are in the middle of a square of houses, and have iron railings round them. You can get into the garden only if you have a key.

Well, Christopher is well paid, important and busy. But he still finds time to play with his little boy, who is 5 years old. One day Christopher and his son took a ball into the garden. They kicked it backwards and forwards. How nice.

Father and son enjoying an innocent game of football in the garden. Football? Did someone say football? A neighbour saw what was going on. She complained that it was forbidden to play football in the shared garden. It was a breach of an Act of Parliament of 1863. She brought a court action against Christopher. She lost because the magistrates said that a father and a small boy kicking a ball was not, legally, a game of football. But the neighbour was not satisfied. She appealed to a higher court. So the High Court, with two senior judges and lots of expensive lawyers, listened to the arguments again. They decided that, yes, Christopher and his son had been playing football, but, no, they did not think that it was right to take any action against them. The neighbour is still very cross. She told the newspapers that “citizens of this country will be appalled by the court’s оudgement.” Well, I’m not appalled. Are you?

Grammar and vocabulary note

Christopher is well paid. That means he earns a lot of money. He has a high salary. The neighbour brought a court action against Christopher. She went to the court of law and began a legal case against Christopher.

She said that playing football in the garden was a breach of an Act of Parliament. An Act of Parliament is a law made by Parliament. So the neighbour said that playing football in the garden was against the law.

“Magistrates” are the people who make decisions in the lowest level of Courts in England. Often they are ordinary people, with a normal job to do or a family to look after. They have had special training to be magistrates. Each magistrate will come to the court for a few days each month. Traditionally, the magistrates sat on a long seat or bench at the front of the court room. To this day, the magistrates are often known as “the bench”. (eg “The man said that he had not stolen the money, but the
bench found him guilty”.

If you do not accept the decision of the magistrates court, sometimes it is possible to appeal to a higher court ie to ask a higher court to look at the matter again. In the High Court, decisions are taken by full-time judges who have a full legal training and lots of experience of the law. The decision of a court is called a judgement or a verdict.