(考研英语1999阅读及翻译.docxVIP

1999 Passage 1 Its 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. 外面是一个危险的世界。如果你走出去，可能会滑倒在门垫上，摔伤一条腿。如果你点燃炉灶，可能会把房子烧掉。但是假如门垫或炉灶上没有警示语告诉你可能发生的危害，那么你或许可以就自己所受的伤害通过法律诉讼，成功地获得赔偿。大约自80年代初以来人们就这样认为了，当时陪审团已开始认为更多的公司应对其顾客所遭受的不幸负责。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 — surprised! — fall off. The label on a childs Batman cape cautions that the toy does not enable user to fly. 公司因此感到了威胁，便做出了反应，写出越来越长的警示标识语，力图预料种种可能发生的事故。现在，梯子上警告标签有几英寸长，除了警告你其他可能发生的意外情况外，还警告你可能会摔下来，简直是莫名其妙！印在儿童蝙蝠侠披风上的标识语竟然也告诫说，本玩具“无法让用户飞行”。1. 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. 虽然警示语常常是合理而必要的，如对药物副作用而产生的危险的警示语，并且很多是州或联邦法规所要求的，但是当消费者受伤，这些警示语能否真正保护制造商和销售商使之免于责任，这还很难说。被受伤的消费者告上法庭的公司中，大约一半的情况是公司败诉。Now the tide appears to be turning. 2. As personal injury claims continue as before, some courts are beginning to side with defendants, especially in cases where a warning label probably wouldnt have changed anything. 3. 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. Were really sorry he has become paralyzed, but helmets arent designed to prevent tho