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 Its 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. 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 childs Batman cape cautions that the toy does not enable user to fly. While warnings are often appropriate and necessary the dangers of drug interactions, for example and many are required by state or federal regulations, it isnt 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 wouldnt 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. Were really sorry he has become paralyzed, but helmets arent designed to prevent those kinds of injuries, says Nimmons. The jury agreed that the nature of the game, not the helmet, was the reason for the athletes 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. Important information can get buried in a sea of trivialities, says a law professor at Cornell Law School who helped draft the new guidelines. If 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 concern53. 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 athletes54. The authors 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 ones way 得以实现32. legal liability 法律责任33. misfortune 难句精解While warnings are often appropriate and necessary the dangers of drug interactions, for example and many are required by state or federal regulations, it isnt 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。