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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Noun Phrase 131. The noun phrase today is

  • smoking gun. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone says that

  • something is a smoking gun, it is believed to be undeniable or

  • irrefutable evidence. So no doubt about it. It's definitely true. It's you know

  • very good proof. It's great evidence. It is supposed to prove that a crime exists

  • or that somebody is guilty of a crime. Okay. Let's continue. When a gun is shot

  • you know, when you shoot the gun. When a is shot the force of the bullet does

  • create a great amount of heat and if the weather is cold enough or cool enough

  • perhaps smoke would be visible. So that's the idea of where the smoking gun comes

  • from. The idea alludes to the fact that if a suspect was found holding such a

  • gun that would be strong evidence or very strong evidence that he or she is

  • the guilty party or the guilty person. Okay.

  • Well. Let's continue. The term started to become popular during the Watergate

  • investigation of the 1970s. Yeah. This is when Richard Nixon was president. In this

  • case there was a famous tape nicknamed "The Smoking Gun tape." So that's how it

  • really took off. It revealed Nixon, you know Richard Nixon, the president at the time,

  • telling Halderman to order the CIA and the FBI to stop investigating the

  • Watergate break-in. Okay. So he really shouldn't have been doing that. But

  • anyway that's with the tape revealed. The term was also used a lot in the media in

  • regard to the evidence that was supposed to justify the Iraq war. We often heard

  • the term smoking gun a lot around that time. You know, many, many years later.

  • Anytime there is a big investigation. We often hear the media

  • report some evidence you know is or could be a smoking gun or is not a

  • smoking gun. All right. Let's continue. Let's just give three examples to cover

  • this here. Example number one. These recently discovered documents are a

  • smoking gun. It proves it without a doubt. You know,

  • maybe that somebody's guilty or whatever it is. Okay or number two here. We might

  • call this circumstantial evidence, but it is no smoking gun. Yeah. This is just some

  • evidence that may refer that something is a certain way but it doesn't really

  • prove it. Not a hundred percent. So we can only say that it's circumstantial

  • evidence. Circumstantial evidence would never be a smoking gun. A smoking gun has

  • to be very strong definite evidence. All right number three here. The fact that

  • the murder weapon was found with his fingerprints on it is a smoking gun. Now

  • something like that. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope it was clear. I hope you found it

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

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Noun Phrase 131. The noun phrase today is

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