非法法庭

    Kangaroo是“袋鼠”，court是“法庭”。这个短语是什么意思呢？请看对话：

    A: What’re you reading?

    B: Some terrible stuff in the Chinese history. Some rebels set up a kangaroo court and condemned their prisoners to summary execution.

    Note: A kangaroo court refers to an illegal court formed by a group of people to settle a dispute among themselves. The verdict has often been decided before the trial begins. Some sources suggest that the term may have been popularized during the California Gold Rush of 1849, as a description of the hastily carried-out proceedings used to deal with the issue of claim jumping miners. Other sources claim that the term comes from the notion of justice proceeding “by leaps,” like a kangaroo. Some have suggested that the phrase could refer to the pouch of a kangaroo, meaning the court is in someone’s pocket. The term is sometimes used without any negative connotation.

    记住了吗？Kangaroo court就是“非法法庭”。