考研英语词汇精讲配套讲义(3)(考研英语词汇精讲电子版)

考研英语词汇精讲配套讲义（3）政治、法律类?
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text?one?
???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.
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 wouldns 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.
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??????exercise?
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task 1：quiz at class
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task 2：choose the most suitable answer for each question and then listen to explanations.
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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.
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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
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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
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54.?the authors attitude towards the issue seems?to?be .

[a]?biased [?b]?indifferent [c]?puzzling [d]?objective

文艺、教育类?
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text?one?
an invisible border divides those arguing for computers in the classroom on the behalf of students’ career prospects and those arguing for computers in the classroom for broader reasons of radical educational reform. very few writers on the subject have explored this distinction — indeed, contradiction — which goes to the heart of what is wrong with the campaign to put computers in the classroom.
an education that aims at getting a student a certain kind of job is a technical education, justified for reasons radically different from why education is universally required by law. it is not simply to raise everyone’s job prospects that all children are legally required to attend school into their teens. rather, we have a certain conception of the american citize

n, a character who is incomplete if he cannot competently assess how his livelihood and happiness are affected by things outside of himself. but this was not always the case; before it was legally required for all children to attend school until a certain age, it was widely accepted that some were just not equipped by nature to pursue this kind of education. with optimism characteristic of all industrialized countries, we came to accept that everyone is fit to be educated. computer-education advocates forsake this optimistic notion for a pessimism that betrays their otherwise cheery outlook. banking on the confusion between educational and vocational reasons for bringing computers into schools, computered advocates often emphasize the job prospects of graduates over their educational?achievement.
there are some good arguments for a technical education given the right kind of student. many european schools introduce the concept of professional training early on in order to make sure children are properly equipped for the professions they want to join. it is, however, presumptuous to insist that there will only be so many jobs for so many scientists, so many businessmen, so many accountants. besides, this is unlikely to produce the needed number of every kind of professional in a country as large as ours and where the economy is spread over so many states and involves so many international corporations.
but, for a small group of students, professional training might be the way to go since well-developed skills, all other factors being equal , can be the difference between having a job and not. of course, the basics of using any computer these days are very simple. it does not take a lifelong acquaintance to pick up various software programs. if one wanted to become a computer engineer, that is, of course, an entirely different story. basic computer skills take — at the very longest — a couple of months to learn. in any case, basic computer skills are only complementary to the host of real skills that are necessary to becoming any kind of professional. it should be observed, of course, that no school, vocational or not, is helped by a confusion over its?purpose.
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????exercises?
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task 1：quiz at class
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task 2：choose the most suitable answer for each question and then listen to explanations.
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59.?the author thinks the present rush to put computers in the?classroom?is? ._
[a]?far-reaching [b] dubiously?oriented
[c]?self-contradictory [d] radically?reformatory
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60.?the belief that education is indispensable to?all?children? .
[a]?is indicative of a pessimism in?disguise
[b]?came into being along with the arrival of?computers
[c]?is deeply rooted in the minds of computered?advocates
[d]?originated from the optimistic attitude of industrialized?countries
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61.?it could be inferred from the passage that in the author s country the european model of professional?training?is? .
[a]?dependent upon the starting age of?candidates
[b]?worth trying in various social?sections
[c]?of little practical?value
[d]?attractive to every kind of?professional
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62 . according to the author, basic computer skills?should?be? .
[a]?included as an auxiliary course in?school
[b]?highlighted in acquisition of professional?qualifications
[c]?mastered through a life-long?course
[d]?equally emphasized by any school , vocational or?otherwise
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??text?two?
why do so many americans distrust what they read in their newspapers? the american society of newspaper editors is trying to answer this painful question. the organization is deep into a long self-analysis known as the journalism credibility project.
sad to say, this project has turned out to be mostly low-level findings about factual errors and spelling and grammar mistakes, combined with lots of head-scratching puzzlement about what in the world those readers really want.
but the sources of distrust go way deeper. most journalists learn to see the world through a set of standard templates (patterns) into which they plug each days events. in other words, there is a conventional story line in the newsroom culture that provides a backbone and a ready-made narrative structure for otherwise confusing?news.
there exists a social and cultural disconnect between journalists and their readers, which helps explain why the “standard templates” of the newsroom seem alien to many readers. in a recent survey, questionnaires were sent to reporters in five middle-size cities around the country, plus one large metropolitan area. then residents in these communities were phoned at random and asked the same questions.
replies show that compared with other americans, journalists are more likely to live in upscale neighborhoods, have maids, own mercedeses, and trade stocks, and theyre less likely to go to church, do volunteer work, or put down roots in a?community.
reporters tend to be part of a broadly defined social and cultural elite, so their work tends to reflect the conventional values of this elite. the astonishing distrust of the news media isnt rooted in inaccuracy or poor reportorial skills but in the daily clash of world views between reporters and their readers.
this is an explosive situation for any industry, particularly a declining one. here is a troubled business that keeps hiring employees whose attitudes vastly annoy the customers. then it sponsors lots of symposiums and a credibility project dedicated to wondering why customers are annoyed and fleeing in large numbers. but it never seems to get around to noticing the cultural and class biases that so many former buyers are complaining about. if it did, it would open up its diversity program, now focused narrowly on race and gender, and look for reporters who differ broadly by outlook, values, education, and class.
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??exercises?
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task 1：quiz at class
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task 2：choose the most suitable answer for each question and then listen to explanations.
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59.?what is the passage mainly?about?
［a］needs of the readers all over the world
［b］causes of the public disappointment about newspapers
［c］origins of the declining newspaper industry
［d］aims of a journalism credibility project
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60.?the results of the journalism credibility project turned out?to be? .
［a］quite?trustworthy ［b］somewhat?contradictory
［c］very?illuminating ［d］rather?superficial
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61.?the basic problem of journalists as pointed out by the writer lies?in their? .
［a］working?attitude ［b］conventional?lifestyle
［c］world?outlook ［d］educational?background
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62.?despite its efforts, the newspaper industry still cannot satisfy the readers owing?to?its? .
［a］failure to realize its?real?problem ［b］tendency to hire annoying?reporters
［c］likeliness to do?inaccurate?reporting ［d］prejudice in matters of race and?gender
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??text?three?
specialization can be seen as a response to the problem of an increasing accumulation of scientific knowledge. by splitting up the subject matter into smaller units, one man could continue to handle the information and use it as the basis for further research. but specialization was only one of a series of related developments in science affecting the process of communication. another was the growing professionalization of scientific?activity.
no clear-cut distinction can be drawn between professionals and amateurs in science: exceptions can be found to any rule. nevertheless, the word “amateur” does carry a connotation that the person concerned is not fully integrated into the scientific community and, in particular, may not fully share its values. the growth of specialization in the nineteenth century, with its consequent requirement of a longer, more complex training, implied greater problems for amateur participation in science. the trend was naturally most obvious in those areas of science based especially on a mathematical or laboratory training, and can be illustrated in terms of the development of geology in the united?kingdom.
a comparison of british geological publications over the last century and a half reveals not simply an increasing emphasis on the primacy of research, but also a changing definition of what constitutes an acceptable research paper. thus, in the nineteenth century, local geological studies represented worthwhile research in their own right; but, in the twentieth century, local studies ?have increasingly become acceptable to professionals only if they incorporate, and reflect on, the wider geological picture. amateurs, on the other hand, have continued to pursue local studies in the old way. the overall result has been to make entrance to professional geological journals harder for amateurs, a result that has been reinforced by the widespread introduction of refereeing, first by national journals in the nineteenth century and then by several local geological journals in the twentieth century. as a logical consequence of this development, separate journals have now appeared aimed mainly towards either professional or amateur readership. a rather similar process of differentiation has led to professional geologists coming together nationally within one or two specific societies, whereas the amateurs have tended either to remain in local societies or to come together nationally in a different?way.
although the process of professionalization and specialization was already well under way in british geology during the nineteenth century, its full consequences were thus delayed until the twentieth century. in science generally, however, the nineteenth century must be reckoned as the crucial period for this change in the structure of science.
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?exercises?
task 1：quiz at class
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task 2：choose the most suitable answer for each question and then listen to explanations.
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51.?the growth of specialization in the 19th century might be more clearly seen in sciences such as? .
［a］sociology?and chemistry ［b］physics and?psychology
［c］sociology?and psychology ［d］physics and?chemistry
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52.?we can infer from the?passage that? .
［a］there is little distinction between specialization and professionalization
［b］amateurs can compete with professionals in some areas of science
［c］professionals tend to welcome amateurs into the scientific community
［d］amateurs have national academic societies but no local ones
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53.?the author writes of the development of geology?to?demonstrate? .
［a］the process of specialization and professionalization
［b］the hardship of amateurs in scientific study
［c］the change of policies in scientific publications
［d］the discrimination of professionals against amateurs
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54.?the direct reason for?specialization?is? .
［a］the development in communication
［b］the growth of professionalization
［c］the expansion of scientific knowledge
［d］the splitting up of academic societies