Listen&Learn: The Code of Hammurabi
Posted by: Jaksyn PeacockPre-listening vocabulary
- reign: a period of time when a ruler has power
- civil: relating to ordinary people
- dispute: a disagreement
- enforce: to make sure that people obey something
- retribution: punishment that equals the crime
- perpetrator: a person who commits a crime
- legal: relating to laws
Listening activity
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Gapfill exercise
Comprehension questions
[wp_quiz id=”20893″]Discussion/essay questions
- Do you think that retribution is a good way to enforce laws? Why or why not?
Transcript
The Code of Hammurabi is a stone slab that contains 282 ancient laws. It was created around 1750 B.C., during the reign of Babylonian ruler Hammurabi, who claimed that the laws had come from the gods. The code was written in Akkadian, an ancient Babylonian language. Some of the laws dealt with crimes such as murder, theft, or assault, while others focused on civil disputes. The slab was displayed in public so that everyone could know the law. Hammurabi enforced laws through retribution, which meant that a perpetrator would often be punished with the same crime they had committed. Although laws today are very different, many legal systems have been influenced by the Code of Hammurabi.
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8 comments
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English Club Indonesia says:
Retribution can’t be applied to enforce the laws entirely. Punishing people who commit crimes is a must, but not all crimes are equal. There are some crimes that could be pardoned after the perpetrator serves time in jail for some time, and there is no necessity for them to be retributed.
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The King Of Love From IRAN says:
It can be so interesting for you that The Code of Hammurabi had been discovered in IRAN in 1901 at the site of Susa.
Please, for more information refer to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_HammurabiThank ❤️ YOU ❤️ so much for sharing it with us,
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David Martín says:
Yes, retribution is a good way to enforce laws because people behave themselves by means of punishment, via fines or prison.
Anyway, the punishment has to be proportional to the crime.
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MAURO says:
Very interesting and multidisciplinary. I like it.Thanks.
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Virginia says:
These short stories are wonderful because we learn English at the same time we are being amazed with real facts of ancient history. Thank you!
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Noemia Levy says:
Your histories are fantastic and we can learn incredible contents. I love it!
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Kerlin Milien says:
I’ve learned a lot here
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Bea C says:
👍