1999年阅读真题精解(2011-05-30 10:22:15)转载标签： 黄涛考研真题答案教育 分类： 阅读篇
1999 Text 1
It's a rough world out there. Step outside and you could break a leg slipping on your doormat. Light up the stove and you could burn down the house. Luckily, if the doormat or stove failed to warn of coming disaster, a successful lawsuit might compensate you for your troubles. Or so the thinking has gone since the early 1980s, when juries began holding more companies liable for their customers' misfortunes.
外面是一个危险的世界。如果你走出去，可能会滑倒在门垫上，摔伤一条腿。如果你点燃炉灶，可能会把房子烧掉。但是假如门垫或炉灶上没有警示语告诉你可能发生的危害，那么你或许可以就自己所受的伤害通过法律诉讼，成功地获得赔偿。大约自80年代初以来人们就不再（guangxian注：此处“不再”二字应删除！）这样认为了，当时陪审团已开始认为更多的公司应对其顾客所遭受的不幸负责。
Feeling threatened, companies responded by writing ever-longer warning labels, trying to anticipate every possible accident. Today, stepladders carry labels several inches long that warn, among other things, that you might — surprise! — fall off. The label on a child's Batman cape cautions that the toy \
公司因此感到了威胁，便做出了反应，写出越来越长的警示标识语，力图预先标明种种可能发生的事故。现在，梯子上警告标签有几英寸长，除了警告你其他可能发生的意外情况外，还警告你可能会摔下来，简直是莫名其妙！印在儿童蝙蝠侠披风上的标识语竟然也告诫说，本玩具“无法让用户飞行”。
虽然警示语常常是合理而必要的，如对药物副作用而产生的危险的警示语，并且很多是州或联邦法规所要求的，但是当消费者受伤，这些警示语能否真正保护制造商和销售商使之免于责任，这还很难说。被受伤的消费者告上法庭的公司中，大约一半的情况是公司败诉。
现在看来这种趋势正在转变。尽管个人伤害的指控一如既往地继续着，但有些法庭已开始站到被告一方，特别是在处理那些有警示语也无法避免伤害的案件时。五月份，伊利诺斯州的Shutt体育公司总裁朱利·尼蒙斯就成功地打赢了这样一场官司。一名橄榄球队员戴着该公司的头盔在一场比赛中受伤瘫痪，遂将该公司告上法庭。公司总裁朱利·尼蒙斯说：“他成了瘫痪，我们非常难过，但头盔的设计不是为了预防这类伤害的。”陪审团也认为造成该运动员受伤的是这项运动本身的危险性，而不是头盔。与此同时，美国法学会——该学会由一群举足轻重的法官、律师、学者所组成——签署了新的民事侵害法纲要，宣布公司不必警示顾客那些显而易见的危险，或者给顾客列出一份冗长的可能造成的危险的清单。康奈尔大学法学院一位参与起草新纲要的教授说，“重要的信息会淹没在细枝末节的汪洋之中”。如果该法律团体的这一适中的目的能够实现，产品上提供的警示信息实际上是用来保护消费者利益的，而不是为了避免公司承担法律责任的。
While warnings are often appropriate and necessary — the dangers of drug interactions, for example — and many are required by state or federal regulations, it isn't clear that they actually protect the manufacturers and sellers from liability if a customer is injured. About 50 percent of the companies lose when injured customers take them to court.
Now the tide appears to be turning. As personal injury claims continue as before, some courts are beginning to side with defendants, especially in cases where a warning label probably wouldn't have changed anything. In May, Julie Nimmons, president of Schutt Sports in Illinois, successfully fought a lawsuit involving a football player who was paralyzed in a game while wearing a Schutt helmet. \kinds of injuries,\the reason for the athlete's injury. At the same time, the American Law Institute — a group of judges, lawyers, and academics whose recommendations carry substantial weight — issued new guidelines for tort law stating that companies need not warn customers of obvious dangers or bombard them with a lengthy list of possible ones. \of trivialities,\the moderate end of the legal community has its way, the information on products might actually be provided for the benefit of customers and not as protection against legal liability.
51. What were things like in 1980s when accidents happened?
[A] Customers might be relieved of their disasters through lawsuits.
[B] Injured customers could expect protection from the legal system.
[C] Companies would avoid being sued by providing new warnings.
[D] Juries tended to find fault with the compensations companies promised.
52. Manufacturers as mentioned in the passage tend to ________.
[A] satisfy customers by writing long warnings on products
[B] become honest in describing the inadequacies of their products
[C] make the best use of labels to avoid legal liability
[D] feel obliged to view customers' safety as their first concern
53. The case of Schutt helmet demonstrated that ________.
[A] some injury claims were no longer supported by law
[B] helmets were not designed to prevent injuries
[C] product labels would eventually be discarded
[D] some sports games might lose popularity with athletes
54. The author's attitude towards the issue seems to be ________.
[A] biased [B] indifferent
[C] puzzling [D] objective
核心词汇
1. rough 粗糙的，不平坦的；粗野的；tough 艰巨的；艰难的
2. step 走
3. slip 滑到
4. light up 点燃
5. burn down 烧毁
6. fail to 没有
7. lawsuit=suit 起诉；诉讼
8. compensate for 为…作出补偿
9. jury 陪审团
10. hold sb. liable for 让…对…负责
11. misfortune 不幸
12. respond 做出反应
13. warning labels 警告标识
14. caution 警告
15. while 尽管，而，当…时候
16. appropriate 合适的
17. interaction相互作用
18. regulation 规则
19. claim 索赔
20. side with 支持
21. defendant 被告；
22. involving 涉及到
23. paralyze 瘫痪
24. nature 本质；by nature 天性
25. carry substantial weight 具有相当的分量
26. issue 发布了；发行了
27. bombard with 大量提供
28. a sea of 大量的
29. trivialities 琐事
30. end 目的
31. have one’s way 得以实现
32. legal liability 法律责任
33. misfortune
难句精解
①While warnings are often appropriate and necessary — the dangers of drug interactions, for example — and many are required by state or federal regulations, it isn't clear that they actually protect the manufacturers and sellers from liability if a customer is injured.
▲在这个主从复合句中，前一个分句是由while引导的让步从句，这个从句由两个并列
句组成，中间用and连接。破折号之间的部分是举例说明warnings的内容，and后面的many省略了warnings，state与federal共用regulations。主句部分本身也是一个主从复合句，主句用了一个形式主语it，真正的主语是that引导的从句，注意这个从句中有个动词短语protect... from...，后面是一个if引导的条件从句。
△首先要把握这个句子的主旨，那就是主句中所阐明的warnings对manufacturers and sellers的保护作用还很不明朗。注意破折号之间的部分对warnings的解释作用以及it作为形式主语的替代作用。
②As personal injury claims continue as before, some courts are beginning to side with defendants, especially in cases where a warning label probably wouldn't have changed anything.
▲在这个主从复合句中，前一个分句是由as引导的伴随状语从句，注意这里的claims是个名词；主句的时态用的是现在进行时，表示的这种状况正在开始。这个主句有一个较长的状语短语，原因是cases后面跟了一个where引导的定语从句修饰cases，这个定语从句的主干是warning label not change anything，解释的是什么样的cases。
△主句依然是抓住句子大意的关键，该句所要表达的就是some courts beginning to side with defendants，再者要注意cases后面定语从句指出了哪类cases尤为如此。
③In May, Julie Nimmons, president of Schutt Sports in Illinois, successfully fought a lawsuit involving a football player who was paralyzed in a game while wearing a Schutt helmet.
▲这个句子的主干是... president... successfully fought a lawsuit...。句子的主语是Julie Nimmons，后面逗号之间的部分是她的职位，宾语部分a lawsuit有一个较长的动词现在分词involving所引导的短语，involving的宾语是a football player，后面跟了一个who引导的定语从句，这个定语从句中有一个while引导的时间状语，还原成句子就是while he was wearing a Schutt helmet。找出其中的关键部分：... president of Schutt... successfully fought a lawsuit involving a football player... paralyzed... while wearing a Schutt helmet。
④At the same time, the American Law Institute — a group of judges, lawyers, and academics whose recommendations carry substantial weight — issued new guidelines for tort law stating that companies need not warn customers of obvious dangers or bombard them with a lengthy list of possible ones.
▲这个看起来很长的句子其实是一个简单句，主干是... the... Institute... issued new guidelines for tort law...。其中破折号之间的内容说明的是这个Institute的人员构成，并且用一个whose引导的定语从句说明了这些成员的权威。law后面跟的现在分词stating有一个相