华中师范大学08年考博真题.doc

2008年华中师范大学博士研究生 入学考试英语试题（A卷） （注意：答案必须写在答题纸上，写在试卷上无效） Part I Reading Comprehension (40%) Directions: In this part there are four passages followed by questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers marked A, B, C, and D. Choose the one you think is the best answer, and then write your answer on the Answer Sheet. Passage One In America’s fiercely adversarial legal system, a good lawyer is essential. Ask O.J Simpson. In a landmark case 35 years ago, Gideon v. Wainwright, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that indigent defendants must be provided with a lawyer at state expense because there could be no fair trial in a serious criminal case without one. “This seems to us to be an obvious truth,” wrote Justice Hugo Black in his opinion. At the time, the decision was hailed as a triumph for justice, an example of America’s commitment to the ideal of equality before the law. This is the image most Americans still have of their criminal-justice system---the fairest in the world, in which any defendant, no matter how, gets a smart lawyer who, too often, manages to get the culprit off on a technicality. Nothing could be further from the truth. About 80% of people accused of a felony have to depend on a publicly-provided lawyer; but over the past two decades the eagerness of politicians to look harsh on crime, their reluctance to pay for public defenders, and a series of Supreme Court judgments restricting the grounds for appeal have made a mockery of Gideon. Today many indigent defendants, including those facing long terms of imprisonment or even death, are treated to a “meet’em and plead’em” defense --- a brief consultation in which a harried or incompetent lawyer encourages them to plead guilty on if that fail, struggle through a short trial in which the defense is massively outgunned by a more experienced, better-paid and better-prepared prosecutor. “We have a wealth-based system of justice,” says Stephen Bright, the director of the Southern Center for