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 hou. 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 veral inches long that warn, among other things, that you might — surpri! — fall off. The label on a child's Batman cape cautions that the toy "does not enable ur to fly."
While warnings are often appropriate and necessary — the dangers of drug interactions, f
or example — and many are required by state or federal regulations, it isn't clear that they actually protect the manufacturers and llers from liability if a customer is injured. About 50 percent of the companies lo 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 cas 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. "We're really sorry he has become paralyzed, but helmets aren't designed to prevent tho kinds of injuries," says Nimmons. The jury agreed that the nature of the game, not the helmet, was the reason for the athlete's injury. At the same time, the American Law Institute — a group of judges, lawyers, and academics who 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 a 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 promid.
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 u of labels to avoid legal liability
社团宣传海报 [D] feel obliged to view customers' safety as their first concern
53. The ca 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 lo popularity with athletes
54. The author's attitude towards the issue ems to be ________.
[A] biad [B] indifferent
[C] puzzling [D] objective
核心词汇
时间有关的名言
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
大气球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
莫忘初心15. while 尽管，而，当…时候
16. appropriate 合适的
17. interaction相互作用
雷锋精神伴我行18. regulation 规则
驱蚊露19. claim 索赔
20. side with 支持
21. defendant 被告；
64年
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 a of 大量的
雪莉电影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 llers 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 ，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 llers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 cas where a warning label probably wouldn't have changed anything.
