考研英语一历年真题、解析及答案
1999年考研英语一阅读理解真题text1
P1
英文原文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.
中文翻译外面的世界危机四伏。踏出家门，你可能会因踩滑门垫而摔断腿；点燃炉灶，你说不定会把房子付之一炬。所幸的是，如果门垫或炉灶没有就潜在的危险发出警示，一场胜诉的官司或许能为你遭受的损失提供赔偿。自 20 世纪 80 年代初起，人们便一直是这么想的 —— 当时陪审团开始判定越来越多的公司要对其顾客遭遇的不幸承担法律责任。
单词短语讲解
- rough
- 例句：Life is rough for the homeless in winter.
- break a leg
- slip on
- 例句：She slipped on the wet floor and hurt her back.
- light up
- 例句：He lit up the candle to brighten the dark room.
- burn down
- 例句：The old factory was burned down in a fire last night.
- fail to
- 例句：He failed to finish the task on time.
- lawsuit
- 例句：They filed a lawsuit against the company for unfair treatment.
- compensate
- 词根：com-（加强） + pens（称重） + -ate（动词后缀）
- 例句：The company compensated him for his work-related injury.
- jury
- 例句：The jury reached a unanimous verdict of guilty.
- hold sb. liable for
- 词根：liable 来自拉丁语 ligare（捆绑），表示 “有责任的”
- 例句：The court held the driver liable for the accident.
- misfortune
- 词根：mis-（否定） + fortune（运气）
- 例句：Her misfortune began when she lost her job.
P2
英文原文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 "does not enable user to fly."
中文翻译面对这种威胁，企业采取的应对措施是撰写愈发冗长的警示标签，力求预判每一种可能发生的意外。如今，折叠梯上的标签足有好几英寸长，上面除了其他提醒事项外，还警告你 —— 是不是很意外 —— 可能会摔下来。儿童蝙蝠侠披风的标签上则告诫家长，该玩具 “无法让使用者飞行”。
单词短语讲解
- respond by
- 例句：The government responded by introducing new environmental laws.
- ever-longer
- 词根：ever-（日益） + longer（更长的）
- 例句：The movie has an ever-longer list of characters.
- warning label
- 例句：Cigarette packages must have a warning label about health risks.
- anticipate
- 词根：anti-（先） + cip（拿） + -ate（动词后缀）
- 例句：We anticipated the arrival of the guests with warm preparations.
- stepladder
- 例句：He used a stepladder to reach the high shelf.
- among other things
- 例句：The new policy will, among other things, reduce taxes for small businesses.
- caution
- 例句：The sign cautions visitors not to touch the exhibits.
- enable
- 例句：This software enables users to edit videos easily.
P3
英文原文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.
中文翻译尽管警示语往往合情合理且十分必要 —— 比如药物相互作用可能产生的危害 —— 而且许多警示语是州政府或联邦法规强制要求标注的，但我们却无法确定，当顾客受伤时，这些警示语是否真能让生产商和销售商免除法律责任。当受伤的顾客将企业告上法庭时，大约有 50% 的企业会败诉。
单词短语讲解
- appropriate
- 词根：ap-（加强） + propri（自己的） + -ate（形容词后缀）
- 例句：She gave a speech appropriate for the formal occasion.
- drug interaction
- 例句：Doctors must consider potential drug interactions when prescribing medicine.
- federal
- 例句：The federal government is responsible for national defense.
- regulation
- 词根：regul（规则） + -ation（名词后缀）
- 例句：The company complies with all safety regulations.
- protect sb. from
- 例句：Wearing sunscreen can protect you from harmful UV rays.
- take sb. to court
- 例句：The customer took the restaurant to court for food poisoning.
P4
英文原文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. "We're really sorry he has become paralyzed, but helmets aren't 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 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. "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.
中文翻译如今，这种趋势似乎正在扭转。人身伤害索赔案件的数量虽一如既往，但部分法院开始站在被告一方，尤其是在那些即便标注了警示标签也无法避免意外发生的案件中。今年 5 月，伊利诺伊州舒特体育公司总裁朱莉・尼蒙斯就打赢了一场官司 —— 案件中一名橄榄球运动员戴着舒特头盔参赛时不幸瘫痪。尼蒙斯表示：“对于他的瘫痪，我们深感惋惜，但头盔的设计初衷本就不是为了预防这类伤害。” 陪审团也一致认为，是橄榄球运动本身的对抗性质，而非头盔，造成了这位运动员的受伤。与此同时，美国法学会 —— 一个由法官、律师和学者组成的团体，其提出的建议具有相当大的分量 —— 发布了新的侵权法指导原则，指出企业无需就显而易见的危险向顾客发出警示，也不必用一长串可能存在的风险来轰炸顾客。康奈尔大学法学院一位参与起草新指导原则的法学教授称：“重要信息可能会淹没在琐碎信息的海洋中。” 如果法律界的温和派能够如愿以偿，那么产品上的信息或许就能真正为顾客的利益服务，而非沦为企业规避法律责任的工具。
单词短语讲解
- tide
- 例句：The tide of public opinion is turning against the policy.
- personal injury claim
- 例句：He filed a personal injury claim after the car accident.
- side with
- 例句：The teacher sided with the student who was treated unfairly.
- defendant
- 词根：de-（向下） + fend（打击） + -ant（表人）
- 例句：The defendant was found not guilty in the trial.
- paralyze
- 词根：para-（旁边） + lyz（松开） + -e（动词后缀）
- 例句：The stroke paralyzed the left side of his body.
- nature of the game
- 例句：Injury is part of the nature of the game in rugby.
- academic
- 词根：academ（学院） + -ic（表人 / 形容词）
- 例句：The conference was attended by academics from around the world.
- substantial
- 词根：sub-（下） + stant（站立） + -ial（形容词后缀）
- 例句：The project received substantial funding from the government.
- carry weight
- 例句：Her opinion carries a lot of weight in the company.
- issue
- 例句：The government issued a statement about the new policy.
- tort law
- 词根：tort 来自拉丁语，意为 “扭曲”，引申为 “侵权”
- 例句：Tort law deals with civil wrongs that cause harm to others.
- bombard sb. with
- 词根：bombard 源自意大利语 bombarda（大炮）
- 例句：The company bombarded customers with advertising emails.
- bury in a sea of
- 例句：His desk is buried in a sea of paperwork.
- triviality
- 词根：triv（三） + -ial（形容词后缀） + -ity（名词后缀），原指 “三条路的交汇处”，引申为 “平常的事”
- 例句：The meeting was filled with trivialities instead of important decisions.
- moderate end
- 例句：The moderate end of the party supports compromise.
- have one’s way
- 例句：The children finally had their way and went to the amusement park.
- for the benefit of
- 例句：The charity event was held for the benefit of homeless children.
