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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Noun Phrase 94. The noun phrase today is

  • kangaroo court. You know, kangaroo just like the the

  • Australian animal kangaroo. All right. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone

  • calls a court or group that is judging another person or another group a

  • kangaroo court, it shows that one does not believe or trust this authority

  • because it is unofficial or clearly unfair, clearly biased or or possibly

  • even paid off. Somebody paid them to make sure that they find this person guilty.

  • Kangaroo courts are often set up to find someone guilty..

  • no matter what the evidence may show. Okay good.

  • Let's give some examples here example. Number one , they really didn't judge the

  • evidence of the case, they simply set up a kangaroo court just for appearances.

  • You know just to look good with every intention of finding him guilty. So this

  • is exactly how we may hear it used. Or number two.It doesn't matter if you

  • believe you are right or not. They will set up a kangaroo court to find you

  • guilty no matter whether you have evidence to prove your innocence or not.

  • Okay, and then we have a third example. In a third world communist country you may

  • end up being judged by a kangaroo court. So again they'll have a court.Again just

  • for appearances, just to look good. But they have every intention no matter what

  • the evidence shows to find you guilty. Okay.

  • So let's let's take a look at the origin of this. The origin of this term comes

  • from the US. frontier, when they had travelling judges. Yeah I guess at one time

  • you know, because in the West people were so far spread out, you know, in the 1800's

  • the judges actually used to have to travel looking for work. So the

  • travelling judges were paid on the basis of how many trials they conducted and

  • the number of fines they imposed or they collected. So this is not really good

  • because clearly the judge may be biased to find people guilty because the more

  • people he finds guilty and the more fines he gets the more money he makes. So

  • in this sense, you feel like well you know, can you really trust this judge ?You

  • know, he's not impartial because he benefits if he finds more people guilty

  • and he benefits even more by giving them fines. So is he really being fair ? Is

  • he really doing justice or is he just trying to make money ? Okay. So let's, let's

  • continue. So the term comes from the image, the image the picture in one's

  • mind, of them meaning the judges. Of judges hopping from place to place. So

  • they were hopping around, So you know and of course kangaroos hop a lot. So that's

  • where the term kangaroo court came from. Anyway I hope you got it. I hope it's

  • clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Noun Phrase 94. The noun phrase today is

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