RJ6周婉婷

English Reading Journal 6 The Burden of Proof Author：Scott Turow Retold by：Annette Barnes Illustrator：Rowan Clifford Publishing company：Penguin Books Ltd Year of publishing：First published 1990 Word Level：intermediate (1700 words) Number of pages：57 pages Sandy Stern was a lawyer. One day when he returned home as usual, there was no body in his house. He eventually found that his wife, Clara, was in the garage but she had been dead. Sandy only found a note that Clara had left. There were only four words on it, "Can you forgive me?" Sandy was confused about it. At the same time, the bank manager told Sandy that Clara's money had been transfered out of the bank. Sandy wanted to find out some clues to solve the problem. However, he had to defense for his sister's husband, Dixon Hartneel, whose company was investigated by the FBI. During the time that Sandy learnd about what situation the company was, he found out that Dixon told a lie that he didn't cheat the market to get the profit. After they went to the court many times, Sandy discovered that this case included many people, even his wife and his son-in-law, John, who was Dixon's employee. John was ordered by Dixon to transfer money from the company to the account that Dixon designated. In order to protect John from being prosecuted, Clara sent money to Dixon. This solved the problem that where Clara's money had gone. The reason why Clara killed herself was revealed by a bill coming from the hospital. It was a bill about a examination. Sandy took it to the hospital and found out the doctor who asked Clara to do the test. The doctor told Sandy that Clara had herpes years ago. Herpes was a virus that transfered through having sex with a person. This shocked Sandy. He didn't know who would be that person. One day、when he visited his sister, Silvia、who was Dixon's wife, to get some more information about Dixon's company, he found a safe near the couch. There were some papers about Dixon's health examination, and much to Sandy's surprise, there was a word that he had heard from the doctor, "herpes". Dixon was just the man he wanted to know. That night, the sound of an ambulance woke Sandy up. The man who was sent to the hospital was Dixon, and the next day, the doctor told Silvia and Sandy that Dixon was died from heart attack. Hearing this, Sandy felt relaxed because there would be a new start after FBI's investigation stopped. His family would be happy again with the whole family members' help. After reading this book, I think this time I choose the right book. When the clues seemed to be disclosed, I felt excited and nervous. Reading this book makes me feel that I am one of the rule in the story. I think next time I can choose a book like this and I think I will enjoy reading books more. [JeT] 49777045 周婉婷