A magistrate is someone who sits as a judge in a local court and deals with smaller crimes — fighting in the street, driving too fast, taking something not worth a lot of money.

A magistrate is someone who sits as a judge in a local court and deals with smaller crimesmagistrate是在地方法院擔任法官、處理比較輕微案件的人——fighting in the street, driving too fast, taking something not worth a lot of money像在街上打架、開車超速、拿走不太值錢的東西。

In Britain, many magistrates are not full lawyers. They are often ordinary people from the town who get training and sit in court a few days a month. They can make someone pay a fine, send them to prison for a short time, or let them go with a warning.

In Britain, many magistrates are not full lawyers在英國，很多magistrate並不是正式的律師。They are often ordinary people from the town who get training and sit in court a few days a month他們通常是當地的一般民眾，接受訓練之後，一個月會有幾天到法庭執勤。They can make someone pay a fine, send them to prison for a short time, or let them go with a warning他們可以判人罰款、送去坐短期的牢，或是給個警告就放人走。

A much more serious crime, such as murder, goes to a higher court and a different kind of judge. The tidy picture is “local judge for small cases,” and that is fair — though actually the job is not the same everywhere.

A much more serious crime, such as murder, goes to a higher court and a different kind of judge更嚴重的罪行，像是謀殺，會交給更高層級的法院和另一種法官。The tidy picture is "local judge for small cases," and that is fair「地方小案件的法官」是個整齊的印象，而且大致沒錯——though actually the job is not the same everywhere不過實際上，這份工作在不同地方並不完全一樣。

In the United States a magistrate judge is a real federal judge who handles some of the smaller pieces of a bigger case.

In the United States a magistrate judge is a real federal judge who handles some of the smaller pieces of a bigger case在美國，magistrate judge是真正的聯邦法官，負責處理一個大案子裡比較小的部分。

The word feels official. You meet it in news about courts, not at the dinner table. People sometimes say “the magistrates” to mean that local court as a whole.

The word feels official這個字聽起來很正式。You meet it in news about courts, not at the dinner table你會在法庭相關的新聞裡看到它，不會出現在餐桌對話裡。People sometimes say "the magistrates" to mean that local court as a whole人們有時候會說「the magistrates」，泛指整個地方法院。