Basically, it refers to  a serious crime like murder that was not planned. Instead, someone commits the crime based on a quick, irrational decision rather than planning it out. For example, say a husband catches his wife sleeping with someone else, he may not think properly and do something violent towards one or both of them, before thinking about what they have done and the possible consequences. Any sort of violent crime in situations like this can be called a "crime of passion", as long as no planning was done.

Can be used as a defense in court against murder charges, for example, since murder requires planning and intent (also called premeditation).

There to be

Hi,

'there' in this case is used as what is called an 'expletive', it is basically a placeholder for a noun that goes with a verb (in this case, an infinitive 'to be'). When you look at sentences like:

'It is time to go',

'It is true that I cry after watching that movie',

and 'It is a shame that I didn't see her last night',

'it' is also an expletive, because there's no obvious subject to go with the verb 'is'. Instead, you substitute it with 'it' as a placeholder.

Looking at other examples using 'there':

'There is a man behind the wall',

'There was a fly in my soup',

and 'There is no way that will happen',

There doesn't refer to a location, but is just a placeholder for the verb 'is', as every verb needs a subject to refer back to.

If you said 'Germany is too big for to be an easy balance-of-power in Europe, but too small to dominate the continent', there would be no subject that refers back to 'to be' in the new clause. So we substitute 'there' in this case as an expletive.

Hopefully my answer made sense, I haven't talked about expletives in a while. 

Thanks,

Shane

[154 Questions of Siem Reap 1.]

Besides these small things, that was very well done, nice job.