GRE阅读题目解析:前工业化欧洲

　　P2

　　1

　　In the early 1950‘s, historians who studied preindustrial Europe (which we may define here as Europe in the period from roughly 1300 to 1800) began , for the first time in large numbers , to investigate more of the preindustrial European population than the 2 or 3 percent who comprised the political and social elite: the kings, generals, judges, nobles, bishops, and local magnates who had hitherto usually filled history books.

　　1950 年代早期，研究前工业化欧洲(可大约定义为 1300 - 1800 年的欧洲)的历史学者，第一次开始大量地调查前工业化时期的欧洲大众，而不是 2% 或 3% 的社会政治精英阶层：国王，将军，法官，贵族，主教和迄今为止一直充斥历史书籍的地方巨头。

　　2

　　One difficulty, however, was that few of the remaining 97 percent recorded their thoughts or had them chronicled by contemporaries.

　　然而，一个难题是，其余 97% 中没什么人记录了自己或其他人的想法。

　　(chronicle (名词)编年史，记事，叙述，(动词)记录、记载)

　　3

　　Faced with this situation, many historians based their investigations on the only records that seemed to exist: birth, marriage, and death records.

　　基于这种条件，很多学者的研究建立在几乎仅存的记录之上：出生，婚姻和死亡记录。

　　4

　　As a result, much of the early work on the nonelite was aridly statistical in nature; reducing the vast majority of the population to a set of numbers was hardly more enlightening than ignoring them altogether.

　　结果，研究平民的大量早期工作是枯燥的数据统计：把大量民众简化为一系列数字并不比忽略他们强多少。

　　(arid 干旱的，枯燥的)

　　5

　　Historians still did not know what these people thought or felt.

　　学者们仍然不了解这些人的想法和感受。

　　6

　　One way out of this dilemma was to turn to the records of legal courts, for here the voices of the nonelite can most often be heard, as witnesses, plaintiffs, and defendants.

　　摆脱这种两难处境的一种方法，是转而研究法庭记录，在这里经常可以听到大众的声音，作为证人，起诉人和辩护人。

　　7

　　These documents have acted as "a point of entry into the mental world of the poor."

　　这些记录使我们“得以进入穷人的精神世界”。

　　8

　　Historians such as Le Roy Ladurie have used the documents to extract case histories, which have illuminated the attitudes of different social groups (these attitudes include, but are not confined to, attitudes toward crime and the law) and have revealed how the authorities administered justice.

　　历史学者比如 LRL 从这些记录中提取了讼案故事，展示了不同社会群体的态度(包括且不仅限于对法律和犯罪的态度)，也揭示了权力机构如何执行正义。

　　(case histories 中的 history，更接近故事 story / tale，而不是历史或史料，从文段结尾处可以看出作者的这种态度)

　　9

　　It has been societies that have had a developed police system and practiced Roman law, with its written depositions, whose court records have yielded the most data to historians.

　　从手写的宣誓证词可以看出，那是一个实行罗马法，且已具备较发达的警察系统的社会，其法庭记录最大程度上向学者提供了研究材料。

　　(yield somebody / something to sombody 向某人提供 …，向某人泄露、暴露、透露 …)

　　10

　　In Anglo-Saxon countries hardly any of these benefits obtain, but it has still been possible to glean information from the study of legal documents.

　　在盎格鲁-萨克逊国家已经少有这些便利，但我们仍可以从对法律档案的研究中窥得一二。

　　(glean 原指收割后在田间拾取遗落的零星谷物，引申为一点一滴地收集)

　　11

　　The extraction of case histories is not, however, the only use to which court records may be put.

　　然而，提取讼案故事并非法庭记录的唯一用途。

　　12

　　Historians who study preindustrial Europe have used the records to establish a series of categories of crime and to quantify indictments that were issued over a given number of years.

　　研究前工业化时期欧洲的学者们用这些记录建立起一系列犯罪的类别，又统计出一定年限内的起诉数量。

　　(indictment 起诉，起诉书，受起诉的状态【in-'dīt-mənt】)

　　13

　　This use of the records does yield some information about the nonelite, but this information gives us little insight into the mental lives of the nonelite.

　　如此使用这些记录，确实获取了关于平民的一些信息，但这不能使我们了解他们的精神世界。

　　14

　　We also know that the number of indictments in preindustrial Europe bears little relation to the number of actual criminal acts, and we strongly suspect that the relationship has varied widely over time.

　　我们也知道，前工业化时期欧洲，起诉数量与实际犯罪行为的数量没什么关系，而且我们怀疑，两者的关系在不同时期起伏很大。

　　15

　　In addition, aggregate population estimates are very shaky, which makes it difficult for historians to compare rates of crime per thousand in one decade of the preindustrial period with rates in another decade.

　　另外，总人口数量的估计也非常不可靠，导致学者们很难比较前工业化时期的欧洲，不同的十年间每千人犯罪率。

　　(shaky 颤抖的，不可靠的，可疑的，不稳固的，动摇的)

　　16

　　Given these inadequacies, it is clear why the case history use of court records is to be preferred. (473 words)

　　鉴于这些不足，为何法庭记录更多被用来写讼案故事，也就不难理解了。

　　4. The author suggests that, before the early 1950‘s, most historians who studied preindustrial Europe did which of the following?

　　(A) Failed to make distinctions among members of the preindustrial European political and social elite.

　　(B) Used investigatory methods that were almost exclusively statistical in nature.

　　(C) Inaccurately estimated the influence of the preindustrial European political and social elite.

　　(D) Confined their work to a narrow range of the preindustrial European population.

　　(E) Tended to rely heavily on birth, marriage, and death records.

　　选 D

　　句 1：

　　In the early 1950‘s, historians who studied preindustrial Europe (which we may define here as Europe in the period from roughly 1300 to 1800) began , for the first time in large numbers , to investigate more of the preindustrial European population than the 2 or 3 percent who comprised the political and social elite: the kings, generals, judges, nobles, bishops, and local magnates who had hitherto usually filled history books.

　　学者将他们的研究工作局限于一小部分精英。

　　5. According to the passage, the case histories extracted by historians have

　　(A) scarcely illuminated the attitudes of the political and social elite

　　(B) indicated the manner in which those in power apportioned justice

　　(C) focused almost entirely on the thoughts and feelings of different social groups toward crime and the law

　　(D) been considered the first kind of historical writing that utilized the records of legal courts

　　(E) been based for the most part on the trial testimony of police and other legal authorities

　　选 B

　　句 8 ，… have revealed how the authorities administered justice，即暗示了当政者如何分配正义。

　　6. It can be inferred from the passage that much of the early work by historians on the European nonelite of the preindustrial period might have been more illuminating if these historians had

　　(A) used different methods of statistical analysis to investigate the nonelite

　　(B) been more successful in identifying the attitudes of civil authorities, especially those who administered justice, toward the nonelite

　　(C) been able to draw on more accounts, written by contemporaries of the nonelite, that described what this nonelite thought

　　(D) relied more heavily on the personal records left by members of the European political and social elite who lived during the period in question

　　(E) been more willing to base their research on the birth, marriage, and death records of the nonelite

　　选 C

　　句 2：

　　… few of the remaining 97 percent recorded their thoughts or had them chronicled by contemporaries 。

　　7. It can be inferred from the passage that a historian who wished to compare crime rates per thousand in a European city in one decade of the fifteenth century with crime rates in another decade of that century would probably be most aided by better information about which of the following?

　　(A) The causes of unrest in the city during the two decades

　　(B) The aggregate number of indictments in the city nearest to the city under investigation during the two decades

　　(C) The number of people who lived in the city during each of the decades under investigation

　　(D) The mental attitudes of criminals in the city, including their feelings about authority, during each of the decades under investigation

　　(E) The possibilities for a member of the city‘s nonelite to become a member of the political and social elite during the two decades

　　选 C

　　一个想比较犯罪率的学者，最可能被那种更精确的信息帮助。

　　句 15：

　　aggregate population estimates are very shaky, which makes it difficult for historians to compare rates of crime 。

　　C 提供了实际的数据，不需要再靠不准的估值。

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