新GRE阅读理解36套每日讨论--40（群178674184）

普渡哥

   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
5 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. One difficulty, however, was that few of the remaining
10 97 percent recorded their thoughts or had them
   chronicled by contemporaries. Faced with this situation,
   many historians based their investigations on the only
   records that seemed to exist: birth, marriage, and
   death records. As a result, much of the early work on the
15 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. Historians still did not
   know what these people thought or felt.
20 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. These documents have acted as "a
   point of entry into the mental world of the poor". Historians
25 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
30 administered justice. 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. In Anglo-Saxon
   countries hardly any of these benefits obtain, but it has
35 still been possible to glean information from the
   study of legal documents.
   The extraction of case histories is not, however, the
   only use to which court records may be put. Historians
   who study preindustrial Europe have used the records to
40 establish a series of categories of crime and to quantify
   indictments that were issued over a given number of years.
   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
45 nonelite. 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. In
   addition, aggregate population estimates are very
50 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. Given these inadequacies,
   it is clear why the case history use of court records is to be preferred.
(473 words)





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.


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 feel-
ings 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



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


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

bontravail

BECC?

jz20000cn

Abca?

nickmyself

DBCC

普渡哥

楼上做对了，正确答案DBCC。

大家加油！

吸血鬼骑士

推断题怎么快速定位啊？？？总是做不对而且慢。。求指教