题目内容
In recent years, there has been an increasing awareness of the inadequacies of the judicial system in the United States. Costs are staggering both for the taxpayers and the litigants--and the litigants, or parties, have to wait sometimes many years before having their day in court. Many suggestions have been made concerning methods of improving the situation, but as in most branches of government, changes come slowly.
One suggestion that has been made in order to maximize the efficiency of the system is to allow districts that have an overabundance of pending cases to borrow judges from other districts that do not have such a workload. Another suggestion is to use pretrial conferences, in which the judge meets in his chambers with the litigants and their lawyers in order to narrow the issues, limit the witnesses, and provide for a more orderly trial. The theory behind pretrial conferences is that judges will spend less time on each case and parties will more readily settle before trial when they realize the adequacy of their claims and their opponents' evidence. Unfortunately, at least one study has shown that pretrial conferences actually use more judicial time than they save, rarely result in pretrial settlements, and actually result in higher damage settlements.
Many states have now established another method, small-claims courts, in which cases over small sums of money can be disposed of with considerable dispatch. Such proceedings cost the litigants almost nothing. In California, for example, the parties must appear before the judge without the assistance of counsel. The proceedings are quite informal and there is no pleading--the litigants need to make only a one-sentence statement of their claim. By going to this type of court, the plaintiff(原告) gives up any right to a jury trial and the right to appeal the decision.
In coming years, we can expect to see more and more innovations in the continuing effort to correct a situation which must be corrected if the citizens who have valid claims are going to be able to have their day in court.
The pretrial conference, in theory, is supposed to do all of the following EXCEPT ______.
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听力原文： In America, where labor costs are so high, "do it yourself" is a way of life. Many people repair their own cars, build their own garages, even rebuild their own houses. Soon many of them will also be writing their own books. In Hollywood there is a company that publishes children's books with the help of computers. Although other book companies also publish that way, this company is not like the others. It allows the reader to become the leading character in the stories with the help of computers. Here is how they do it. Let us suppose the child is named Jenny. She lives in New York, and has a dog named Hody. The computer uses this information to make up a story with pictures. The story is then printed up. A child who receives such a book might say, "This book is about me." So the company calls itself the "Me-Books Publishing Company".
Children like the me-books because they like to see in print their own names and the names of their friends and their pets. But more important, in this way, readers are much more interested in reading the stories. Me-books are helping children to learn how to read.
(33)
听力原文： Many egg-laying animals merely lay their eggs and leave. Turtles, for instance, and horseshoe crabs, the eggs hatched and the little ones are their own. The current theory about birds is the earliest birds did just that when they were cold-blooded creatures living in warm places. However, when they became warm-blooded creatures living in cold places, they had to remain on the eggs to keep them warm. For this, they needed a place--a nest. Very likely, the first nest was just a primitive hole scraped in the ground. Even now many species still lay eggs in this sort of crude nest. Primitive nests found on the ground were fine for some birds, but others began to elevate their nests in branches, perhaps to avoid predators. These early elevated nests were probably loose platforms of sticks and dried leaves. The type is still built by some birds today. The latest development in nest, the most recent vision, so to speak, is the cup-shaped nest. This is the one we regard today as the typical bird's nest, you know, like a robin's nest.
(36)
A．Three times.B．Four times.C．Six times.D．Seven times.
Section B
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice.
In the United States, the need to protect plant and animal species has become a highly controversial and sharply political issue since the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973. The act, designed to protect species' living areas, and policies that preserve land and forests compete with economic interests. In the 1990's, for example, the woodcutters in the Western United States were challenged legally in their attempt to cut trees for timber in the Cascade Mountains. The challenge was mounted to protect the endangered spotted owl(猫头鹰), whose remaining population occupies these forests and requires the intact, ancient forest for survival. The problematic situation set the interests of environmentalists against those of corporations and of individuals who stood to lose jobs. After months of debate and legal battles, the fate of the woodcutters--and the owls--was still undecided in mid-1992. Similar tensions exist between the developed and the developing nations. Many people in industrialized nations, for example, believe that developing nations in tropical regions should do more to protect their rainforests and other natural areas. But the developing countries may be impoverished(使穷困), with populations growing so rapidly that using the land is a means to temporarily avoid worsening poverty and starvation.
Many of the changes to Earth that concern scientists 'have the potential to rob the planet of its biological richness. Global warming, for example, could wipe out species unable to quickly adapt to changing climates. Clearly, protecting Earth's biological diversity is a complex problem. But solutions to humanity's current problems will come only through coordinated international efforts to control human population, stabilize the composition of the atmosphere, and preserve intact Earth's complex web of life.
Why does the author say that the protection of endangered species is a highly controversial issue？
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