Court Case for the 2025 Palisades Fire
2025年 Palisades 火災法庭案件
Introduction
A man named Jonathan Rinderknecht is in court in Los Angeles. The government says he started the big Palisades Fire in 2025.
一名叫 Jonathan Rinderknecht 的男子正在洛杉磯出庭。政府指稱他引起了 2025 年那場巨大的 Palisades 火災。
Main Body
Jonathan was an Uber driver. The government says he started a small fire on January 1. This fire stayed in the ground for a few days. Then, it became a huge fire on January 7. This fire killed 12 people and destroyed 7,000 buildings.
Jonathan 曾是一名 Uber 司機。政府指稱他在 1 月 1 日引起了一場小火。這場火在地下潛伏了幾天，隨後在 1 月 7 日演變成一場大火。這次火災導致 12 人死亡，並摧毀了 7,000 棟建築物。
Police found a lighter in Jonathan's car. They also have his phone location. Some people say Jonathan was angry at rich people. But his lawyer, Steve Haney, says Jonathan is not guilty. He says the fire department did not put out the first fire correctly.
警方在 Jonathan 的車內發現了一個打火機。他們還掌握了他的手機定位。有些人說 Jonathan 對富人感到憤怒。但他的律師 Steve Haney 表示 Jonathan 是無辜的。他稱消防部門當時未能正確撲滅第一場火災。
This fire changed the city's politics. Mayor Karen Bass is in trouble because the city is slow to help. Many people still cannot live in their homes. Only 17 houses are ready for people to move back in.
這場火災改變了該市的政治。市長 Karen Bass 陷入困境，因為市政府的救援速度太慢。許多人至今仍無法回到家中居住。目前僅有 17 棟房屋已準備好讓居民搬回。
Conclusion
The trial will last two weeks. If Jonathan is guilty, he may go to prison for 5 to 45 years.
審理將持續兩週。如果 Jonathan 被判有罪，他可能會被判處 5 到 45 年監禁。
Vocabulary Learning
🕒 Time & Change
Look at how the story moves from a small start to a big result. This is how we describe events in A2 English.
The Pattern: Small → Big
- Small fire Huge fire
- January 1 January 7
Words for 'Size' and 'Amount' In this story, we see words that describe how many or how big something is. Use these to give more detail:
- Small (not big): A small fire.
- Huge (very, very big): A huge fire.
- Many (a lot of): Many people.
The 'Past' Simple To tell a story, we change the action word (verb) to show it already happened.
| Now | Then (Past) |
|---|---|
| Is | Was |
| Say | Said |
| Find | Found |
| Become | Became |
Example: Jonathan was an Uber driver. He is not a driver now; it happened before.