All around the world, lawyers generate more hostility than the members of any other profession---with the possible exception of journalism. But there are few places where clients have more grounds for complaint than America.
During the decade before the economic crisis, spending on legal services in America grew twice as fast as inflation. The best lawyers made skyscrapers-full of money, tempting ever more students to pile into law schools. But most law graduates never get a big-firm job. Many of them instead become the kind of nuisance-lawsuit filer that makes the tort system a costly nightmare.
There are many reasons for this. One is the excessive costs of a legal education. There is just one path for a lawyer in most American states: a four-year undergraduate degree at one of 200 law schools authorized by the American Bar Association and an expensive preparation for the bar exam. This leaves today’s average law-school graduate with $100,000 of debt on top of undergraduate debts. Law-school debt means that they have to work fearsomely hard.
Reforming the system would help both lawyers and their customers. Sensible ideas have been around for a long time, but the state-level bodies that govern the profession have been too conservative to implement them. One idea is to allow people to study law as an undergraduate degree. Another is to let students sit for the bar after only two years of law school. If the bar exam is truly a stern enough test for a would-be lawyer, those who can sit it earlier should be allowed to do so.Students who do not need the extra training could cut their debt mountain by a third.The other reason why costs are so high is the restrictive guild-like ownership structure of the business. Except in the District of Columbia, non-lawyers may not own any share of a law firm. This keeps fees high and innovation slow. There is pressure for change from within the profession, but opponents of change among the regulators insist that keeping outsiders out of a law firm isolates lawyers from the pressure to make money rather than serve clients ethically.
In fact,allowing non-lawyers to own shares in law firms would reduce costs and improve services to customers, by encouraging law firms to use technology and to
employ professional managers to focus on improving firms’ efficiency. After all, other countries, such as Australia and Britain, have started liberalizing their legal professions. America should follow.
26.a lot of students take up law as their profession due to [A]the growing demand from clients. [B]the increasing pressure of inflation. [C]the prospect of working in big firms. [D]the attraction of financial rewards.
答案：D。该题是因果细节题，考察细节。首先，根据段落定位原则模糊定位，定位到前几段。其次，再精确定位，题干中有关键词
“students”“law”“profession”，回到原文寻找相关信息。第一段未发现相关信息，然后到第二段看到“The best lawyers made skyscrapers-full of money, tempting ever more students to pile into law schools.”与题干有重合之处，选项D是该句的同义替换。A、B、C三个选项根据原文个别词汇“clients”“inflation”“big-firm”等进行干扰。注意，第一段的But是个假转折词，并非答案处。
27.Which of the following adds to the costs of legal education in most American states?
[A]Higher tuition fees for undergraduate studies. [B]Admissions approval from the bar association. [C]Pursuing a bachelor’s degree in another major. [D]Receiving training by professional associations.
答案：C。该题是细节题，考察细节。首先根据段落定位原则定位到第三段。其次，根据题干关键词“the costs of legal education”精确定位到第三段第二句话“One is the excessive costs of a legal education.”问题是“which of the following adds to the costs of legal education”，因此定位句的下一句就是答案，即“There is just one path for a lawyer in most American states: a four-year undergraduate degree
in some unrelated subject, then a three-year law degree at one of 200 law schools accredited by the American Bar Association and an expensive preparation for the bar exam.”分析选项可知，选项C恰当概况了该句子的涵义。A选项利用三段末尾的“This leaves today’s average law-school graduate with $100,000 of debt on top of undergraduate debts.”进行干扰。B选项无中生有。D选项根据四段最后一句出现的“training”个别词汇进行干扰。
28.Hindrance to the reform of the legal system originates from [A]lawyers’ and clients’ strong resistance. [B]the rigid bodies governing the profession. [C]the stem exam for would-be lawyers. [D]non-professionals’ sharp criticism.
答案：B。该题是原因细节题，问来源。首先段落定位原则定位到第四段。其次，根据题干关键词“the reform of the legal system”定位到第二句“Sensible ideas have been around for a long time, but the state-level bodies that govern the profession have been too conservative to implement them.”选项B即为该句的同义替换。
29.The guild-like ownership structure is considered “restrictive” partly because it
[A]bans outsiders’ involvement in the profession. [B]keeps lawyers from holding law-firm shares. [C]aggravates the ethical situation in the trade. [D]prevents lawyers from gaining due profits.
答案：A。该题为因果细节题，问原因。根据段落定位原则定位至倒数第二段。其次，题干中出现“the guild-like ownership structure”，精确定位到第二句“Except in the District of Columbia, non-lawyers may not own any share of a law firm. This keeps fees high and innovation slow.”此外，在该段最后一句提到
“…keeping outsiders out of a law firm isolates lawyers from the pressure to make money rather than serve clients ethically.”从而可以得出答案选A。
30.In this text, the author mainly discusses
[A]flawed ownership of America’s law firms and its causes. [B]the factors that help make a successful lawyer in America. [C]a problem in America’s legal profession and solutions to it. [D]the role of undergraduate studies in America’s legal education.
答案：C。该题为文章主旨题，考察文章中心。该篇文章属于问题解决型文章，前5段均在说美国法律职业存在的问题，最后一段提出了解决措施“allowing non-lawyers to own shares in law firms would reduce costs and improve services to customers, by encouraging law firms to use technology and to employ professional managers to focus on improving firms’ efficiency.”。因此，该篇属于问题解决型文章，选C。其他几个选项均为文中的个别细节，以偏概全。
Text 3
The US$3-million Fundamental physics prize is indeed an interesting experiment, as Alexander Polyakov said when he accepted this year’s award in March. And it is far from the only one of its type. As a News Feature article in Nature discusses, a string of lucrative awards for researchers have joined the Nobel Prizes in recent years. Many, like the Fundamental Physics Prize, are funded from the telephone-number-sized bank accounts of Internet entrepreneurs. These benefactors have succeeded in their chosen fields, they say, and they want to use their wealth to draw attention to those who have succeeded in science.
What’s not to like? Quite a lot, according to a handful of scientists quoted in the News Feature. You cannot buy class, as the old saying goes, and these upstart entrepreneurs cannot buy their prizes the prestige of the Nobels, The new awards are an exercise in self-promotion for those behind them, say scientists. They could distort the achievement-based system of peer-review-led research. They could
cement the status quo of peer-reviewed research. They do not fund peer-reviewed research. They perpetuate the myth of the lone genius.
The goals of the prize-givers seem as scattered as the criticism.Some want to shock, others to draw people into science, or to better reward those who have made their careers in research.
As Nature has pointed out before, there are some legitimate concerns about how science prizes—both new and old—are distributed. The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, launched this year, takes an unrepresentative view of what the life sciences include.But the Nobel Foundation’s limit of three recipients per prize, each of whom must still be living, has long been outgrown by the collaborative nature of modern research—as will be demonstrated by the inevitable row over who is ignored when it comes to acknowledging the discovery of the Higgs boson. The Nobels were, of course,themselves set up by a very rich individual who had decided what he wanted to do with his own money. Time, rather than intention, has given them legitimacy.
As much as some scientists may complain about the new awards, two things seem clear. First, most researchers would accept such a prize if they were offered one. Second, it is surely a good thing that the money and attention come to science rather than go elsewhere, It is fair to criticize and question the mechanism—that is the culture of research, after all—but it is the prize-givers’ money to do with as they please. It is wise to take such gifts with gratitude and grace.
真题解析：
文章主题及背景知识：此篇阅读的主题内容为“基础物理学奖”，如果对于这一背景信息有所了解，这篇文章便可轻松看懂，做题更是十拿九稳！与2013年相比，2014考研阅读文章同样注重时效性，Text3便是反应了2013年3月份的一次实时事件：基础物理学基金会于3月20日晚在瑞士日内瓦揭晓了2013年基础物理学奖！所以2015考研的同学们一定要多多关注社会热点话题，拓展视野，丰富自己的文化背景知识，这样才能取得事半功倍的效果！
2014考研英语真题及答案解析（详细）
