2010考研英語閱讀精讀100篇(高分版)TEXT  ELEVEN
　　As Americas digest the news of another gun atrocity, a mall shooting in Nebraska on December 5th, they cannot be blamed for thinking that guns are in too ready supply. But an article in the latest Economic Journa suggests that the demand for illegal guns, at least, is not met as easily as people might fear. Sudhir Venkatesh, now of Columbia University, has talked to 132 gang-members, 77 prostitutes, 116 gun-owning youths, 23 gun-dealers and numerous other denizens of Chicago's Grand Boulevard and Washington Park neighbourhoods. He did not find many satisfied customers.

　　Chicago has unusually tough restrictions on legal handguns. Even so the black market is surprisingly “thin”, attracting relatively few buyers and sellers. The authors reckon that the 48,000 residents of the two neighbourhoods buy perhaps 1,400 guns a year, compared with at least 200,000 cocaine purchases. Underground brokers sell guns for $150-350, a mark-up of perhaps 200% over the legal price. They also demand a fee of $30-50 for orchestrating the deal. Even then, 30-40% of the transactions fall through because the seller cannot secure a gun, gets cold feet or cannot agree on a location for the deal.

　　Buyers also find it hard to verify the quality of the merchandise. They often know little about the weapons they covet. “Tony”, who owns a .38 calibre handgun, learnt how to use his weapon by fiddling with it. He even put a stone in it. “Did it fire?” Mr Venkatesh asked. “I'm not sure. I think it did,” Tony said.

　　Fortunately for Tony and his peers, their rivals and the victims of crime cannot tell if their guns work any better than they can. Often, showing the “bulge” is enough to gain the respect of rival gangs. In robberies brandishing the weapon will usually do. Storekeepers do not wait for proof that it works.

　　Markets can overcome thinness, the paper says; they can also overcome illegality. But they cannot overcome both. A thin market must rely on advertising or a centralised exchange: eBay, for example, has dedicated pages matching sellers of imitation pearl pins or Annette Funicello bears to the few, scattered buyers that can be found. But such solutions are too cumbersome and conspicuous for an underground market. The drugs market, by contrast, slips through the law's fingers because of the natural density of drug transactions. Dealers can always find customers on their doorstep, and buyers can reassure themselves about suppliers through repeated custom. There are no fixed and formal institutions that the police could easily throttle.

　　Indeed, the authors argue that the gun market may be threadbare partly because the drug market is so plump. Gang-leaders are wary of gun-dealing because the extra police scrutiny that guns attract would jeopardise their earnings from coke and dope. Even Chicago's gang-leaders have to worry about the effect of crime on commerce.

　　1. Some of the gun transactins are unsuccessful mainly because_____

　　[A] it is not profitable as the underground price of gun far exceeds legal price.

　　[B] Chicago has surprisingly tough restrictions on the ownership and business of guns.

　　[C] the dealers are unable to guarntee whether the deal is really going to happen or not.

　　[D] it is hard to testify the quality of the guns in actual situations.

　　2.Compared with the gun market, the drug market can be “fat” mainly because_____

　　[A] it hardly attracts the police’s attention due to the flexibility of the business.

　　[B] the drug dealings are taking place in higher frequency.

　　[C] there are no fixed and formal spots for drug dealing.

　　[D] drug is affordable to a larger number of people.

　　3. The word “cumbersome” (Line 4, Pargraph 5) most probably means_____

　　[A] transparent.

　　[B] troubling.

　　[C] horrible.

　　[D] stupid.

　　4. The reason why the authors argue that the gun market may be threadbare partly because the drug market is so plump is _____

　　[A] that the drug transaction is more prefitable thatn gun-dealing.

　　[B] that the police are more dedicated to the gun-dealing than to the drug-dealing.

　　[C] that the gang-leaders are suppressing the gun-dealing in order to maintain their profit from drug

　　[D] that the gang-leaders are worried about the effect of crime on commerce.

　　5. Towards the future of gun-dealing, the author’s attitude is _____

　　[A] pessimistic.

　　[B] optimistic.

　　[C] desperate.

　　[D] sorrowful.

　　文章剖析：

　　這篇文章主要介紹了目前美國槍支黑市的情況。第一段通過美國人將槍殺案多的原因歸于槍支比較容易獲得這個觀點引出Sudhir經(jīng)調(diào)查后的駁論;第二段講述強制黑市交易量情況;第三段、第四段講述買槍支人員的情況;第五段、第六段比較了槍支和毒品交易，得出目前槍支交易慘淡的另一方面原因。

　　詞匯注釋：

　　denizen n. 居民

　　 mark-up n. (價格中)標高的金額; 漲價幅度

　　fall through v. 失敗

　　cold feet. 臨陣退縮

　　covet v. 覬覦，垂涎

　　calibre n. 口徑

　　bulge n. 突起

　　brandish v. 揮舞

　　cubersome adj. 討厭的, 麻煩的, 笨重的

　　throttle v. 壓制，扼殺

　　threadbare adj. 破舊的，磨薄的

　　難句突破：

　　(1) Fortunately for Tony and his peers, their rivals and the victims of crime cannot tell if their guns work any better than they can.

　　[主體句式] Their rivals and the victims cannot tell…

　　[結(jié)構(gòu)分析] 這是一個簡單句，前面的介詞短語做句子的狀語, any better than they can后面省略了tell，也做句子的狀語。

　　[句子譯文] 幸運的是，對于Tony這樣的人，他們的敵人以及那些受害人也比他們強不了多少，并不能辨別出一支搶是否好用。

　　(2) A thin market must rely on advertising or a centralised exchange: eBay, for example, has dedicated pages matching sellers of imitation pearl pins or Annette Funicello bears to the few, scattered buyers that can be found.

　　[主體句式] A thin market must rely on…: eBay has dedicated…

　　[結(jié)構(gòu)分析]這是一個簡單句，后面用來解釋整個句子的從句中，matching…組成的現(xiàn)在分詞短語做前面pages的定語，而后面有一個that引導的定語從句修飾buyers。

　　[句子譯文] 一個狹窄的市場要依賴于廣告或是集中的交易。比如易趣專門設出幾頁讓那些賣假珍珠針飾的商家或Annette Funicello熊的商家與所能找到的極少的、分布在各地的買家進行配對。

　　題目分析：

　　[答案]C

　　[難度系數(shù)] ☆☆☆

　　[分析] 細節(jié)題。文章第二段提到，30%到40%的交易最后失敗是因為賣家或是沒有拿到槍支，

　　或者臨陣脫逃，或者沒有就交易地點達成一致。因此，交易失敗的主要原因是賣家不能保證交易，

　　選項C符合題意。A選項在該段中有所涉及，但卻不是交易不成功的直接原因。B與選項無關(guān)，

　　而D則涉及到了第三段，且所談及的是槍支的質(zhì)量問題，而不是交易是否成功的問題。

　　[答案]B

　　[難度系數(shù)] ☆☆☆☆

　　[分析] 細節(jié)題。文章第五段提到槍支交易因為其復雜性很難改變其慘淡的現(xiàn)狀，而相反地，毒品交易因為其本身density of drug transactions(毒品交易密度)的原因可以逃避法律，接著下面就具體作了解釋，比如交易很容易達成，而且其交易地點不固定，警察不能輕易壓制。主要原因就是由于其交易量本身比較大，因此B為正確選項，其中選項中的frequency可以視為density的統(tǒng)一詞。A和C選項都是導致了毒品交易頻繁的原因，但是B選項卻是題干的直接原因。D選項在原文中沒有根據(jù)。

　　[答案]B

　　[難度系數(shù)] ☆☆☆

　　[分析]猜詞題。該詞所在的句子意思是“但是，對于一個地下市場來說，這樣的解決辦法又麻煩又顯眼”。前文中提到“一個狹窄的市場要依賴于廣告或是統(tǒng)一的交易。比如易趣專門設出幾頁讓那些賣假珍珠針飾的商家或Annette Funicello熊的商家和所能找到的極少的、分布在各地的買家進行配對”，顯然這是很麻煩的�？忌�可以將四個選項分別代入原文，其余三個選項都不能符合題意。答案為B。

　　[答案]C

　　[難度系數(shù)] ☆

　　[分析]推理題。文章最后一段指出，研究者認為槍支市場慘淡的部分原因在于毒品市場交易的興旺，接著下面就具體作了解釋。匪徒頭子對于槍支交易非常警覺，因為他們害怕槍支會使得警察增加調(diào)查，這樣就會危及其毒品交易的收入。那么可以看出，研究者這樣認為就是看到不法分子的舉措，因此，答案C最為符合題意。

　　[答案]A

　　[難度系數(shù)] ☆☆☆

　　[分析]態(tài)度題。這篇文章主要分析了目前美國槍支交易的情況，因為種種原因處于比較慘淡的狀態(tài)，而從作者分析來看，對于未來的情況也不是很看好，尤其和毒品交易相比較。因此，作者對其未來持悲觀態(tài)度。因此正確答案為A選項。C和D選項的表述語氣過于強烈，不符合原文的含義。

　　參考譯文：

　　美國尚在因為一則新的槍殺案——12月5日內(nèi)部達斯加州一家商場的槍擊案——而余悸未消，因此不能責怪他們將此歸咎于槍支太容易得到。但是在最新的《經(jīng)濟期刊》上發(fā)表的一篇文章認為至少非法槍支需求并不像人們想象得那么容易得到滿足。Sudhir Venkatesh目前在哥倫比亞大學供職，他和132名歹徒、77名妓女、116名擁有槍支的年輕人、23名槍支經(jīng)銷商以及許多在芝加哥大林蔭大道及華盛頓公園附近的居民交談過，但他并未發(fā)現(xiàn)有多少滿意的顧客。

　　芝加哥在合法手槍方面有著嚴格的規(guī)定，即便如此，黑市還是異常慘淡,只有很少數(shù)的買賣雙方在交易。研究者認為這兩個區(qū)的48000個居民中間只購買1400支槍，而可卡因的交易卻至少有20萬宗。地下代理人銷售槍支的價格為150美元到350美元，這要比合法價格高出200%。而且，他們還要多要30到50美元的協(xié)調(diào)費用。即便如此，30%到40%的交易還是流產(chǎn)了，因為銷售者或是沒能拿到槍，或是臨陣畏縮，或是不能就交易地點達成一致。

　　買槍的人發(fā)現(xiàn)要證實商品的質(zhì)量也比較困難。他們對自己想要的槍支的情況知之甚少�！癟ony”有一把口徑為38的槍，他只能是自己把玩才能弄清楚怎么使用。他甚至還把一顆石頭放在里面�！八�能開火嗎?” Venkatesh問他�！拔也恢���。我想應該是的。”Tony回答說。

　　幸運的是，對于Tony這樣的人，他們的敵人以及那些受害人也比他們強不了多少，并不能辨別出一支搶是否好用。一般地，只要露出“凸起”的部分就可以贏得敵人的尊重，在搶劫中只要揮舞一下武器就夠了。店主不會等著去證明搶知否有效。

　　文章提到，市場可以克服慘淡經(jīng)營, 也可以克服非法問題。但是不能同時克服兩個問題。一個狹窄的市場要依賴于廣告或是集中的交易。比如易趣專門設出幾頁讓那些賣假珍珠針飾的商家或Annette Funicello熊的商家與所能找到的極少的、分布在各地的買家進行配對。但是，對于一個地下市場來說，這樣的解決辦法又麻煩又顯眼。而毒品市場可以鉆法律的空子，因為毒品交易是非常頻繁的。賣主在他們門口就能找到顧客，而買家作為老主顧也能相信供應商。而且因為沒有固定、正式的地方，警察要對此進行打擊也比較困難。

　　實際上，研究者認為槍支市場如此慘淡的部分原因就在于毒品市場過于興旺。匪徒頭子對槍支交易十分警惕，因為槍支會引起警察額外的審查，從而危及他們從毒品上獲得的收入，甚至連芝加哥的匪徒頭子也得擔憂經(jīng)濟犯罪的影響。