2010考研英語(yǔ)閱讀精讀100篇(高分版)TEXT FIFTEEN
　　Boosted by booming international financial markets, the City of London has not had it so good since the end of the dotcom bonanza in the late 1990s. Basking in double-digit growth rates, London's law firms have both contributed to that success and benefited from it. The earnings of top City lawyers can now exceed £2m a year.

　　Having opted to expand and go global ahead of most others, Britain's leading law firms tend to be bigger than their American rivals. Indeed, according to a survey of the world's top 50 law firms, compiled by Legal Business, a British trade paper, five of the world's top six law firms—in terms of turnover—are now British (if DLA Piper, the result of an Anglo-American merger, is included). But they have tended to lag behind in terms of their profitability. That is now changing.

　　The profit margins of the City's five “magic circle” firms—Clifford Chance, Slaughter and May, Allen & Overy, Linklaters and Freshfields—have soared in recent years and are now comparable with, if not higher than, those of New York's “white shoe” elite. Slaughter and May, the only one of the five not to have gone global, has the joint second-highest profit margin among the top 50.

　　Not so long ago, a London surgeon could expect to earn as much as a City lawyer. But even the recent big rises in hospital consultants' earnings pall in comparison with those enjoyed by London lawyers. At Slaughter and May, for example, average profits per equity partner (PEP) jumped by almost a third (in dollar terms) last year to $2.75m—more than at any other of the top 50 law firms bar two in New York where PEP averaged $2.8m and $3.0m respectively. Some senior partners get a lot more of course.

　　Competition for the best lawyers is fierce and poaching frequent. Hence the need to keep headline PEP figures up—even at the cost of getting rid of equity partners, leaving a bigger share of the bounty for the remaining ones. Freshfields is in the process of shedding around 100 of its equity partners. Other leading firms are also undertaking painful restructuring.

　　Newly qualified lawyers' salaries have also been shooting up in the search for the best talent. Both Freshfields and Allen & Overy now pay their first-year associates £65,000, rising to around £90,000 after three years. (First-year associates at America's top law firms get the equivalent of £80,000.)

　　But, as many other top-rank City employers have discovered, big earnings do not necessarily guarantee big satisfaction. According to a YouGov poll, published by the Lawyer earlier this month, a quarter of Britain's lawyers (including a fifth of law-firm partners) would like to leave the profession. The disgruntled complained about cripplingly long hours, intense competition and the impersonality of the biggest firms (some with more than 3,000 lawyers). So why don't they quit? Because, say three-quarters, of the pay.

　　1. Which one of the following is TURE of the status quo of London’s economy?

　　[A] London is enjoying its best time of economic development since 1990s.

　　[B] The growth rate of London is doubled since the beginning of the 1990s.

　　[C] The growth rate started to boost since the end of the dotcom era.

　　[D] The current economy of London is mostly driven by its legal instead of financial market.

　　2. The world’s top 50 law firms are graded according to _____

　　[A] their annual margin.

　　[B] their profitability.

　　[C] their sale volume.

　　[D] their quantity of business.

　　3.The phrase “white shoe” (Line 3, Paragraph 3) most probably means____

　　[A] white collars.

　　[B] first-class law firms.

　　[C] financial agencies.

　　[D] international banks.

　　4. In order to be competitive, the law firms take the following measures except_____.

　　[A] dismissing equity partners.

　　[B] carrying out restructuring.

　　[C] having their best lawyers turn more competitive.

　　[D] raising salaries for recruiting talents.

　　5. From the YouGov poll, it can be inferred that____

　　[A] this profession is far from satisfactory.

　　[B] most lawyers will leave the profession sooner or later.

　　[C] most lawyers are satisfied with the profession because of the fat pay.

　　[D] high salary is always contradictory to big satisfaction.

　　文章剖析：

　　這篇文章介紹英國(guó)倫敦律師事務(wù)所的現(xiàn)狀。第一段講述倫敦因?yàn)榻?jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng)迅速，律師業(yè)也受益匪淺;第二、三段講述倫敦律師事務(wù)所在世界上的排名;第四段講述倫敦事務(wù)所律師的工資待遇;第五、六段講述律師事務(wù)所的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)手段;第七段講述對(duì)該行業(yè)的滿意度。

　　詞匯注釋?zhuān)?/p>

　　bonanza n. 富礦帶, 帶來(lái)好運(yùn)之事, 幸運(yùn)

　　bask v. 曬太陽(yáng)(享受溫暖), 感到溫暖, 愉快或舒適

　　turnover n. 營(yíng)業(yè)額

　　pall v.覆蓋, 使平淡無(wú)味

　　bounty n. 獎(jiǎng)金，補(bǔ)助金

　　disgruntled adj. 不高興的，不滿意的

　　cipplingly adv. 臨界地，極限地

　　難句突破：

　　(1) Indeed, according to a survey of the world's top 50 law firms, compiled by Legal Business, a British trade paper, five of the world's top six law firms—in terms of turnover—are now British (if DLA Piper, the result of an Anglo-American merger, is included).

　　[主體句式] Five of the world’s top six law firms are now British.

　　[結(jié)構(gòu)分析] 這是一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單句。前面according to引導(dǎo)的是狀語(yǔ)，狀語(yǔ)中compile by …做前面a survey的定語(yǔ)，而a British trade paper是Legal Business的同位語(yǔ)。

　　[句子譯文]實(shí)際上，根據(jù)英國(guó)商業(yè)報(bào)紙《法律商業(yè)》的一項(xiàng)世界領(lǐng)先50家律師事務(wù)所的調(diào)查，世界領(lǐng)先的六家律師事務(wù)所(按營(yíng)業(yè)額計(jì)算)有五家是英國(guó)事務(wù)所(算上英美合資的DLA Piper事務(wù)所)。

　　(2) At Slaughter and May, for example, average profits per equity partner (PEP) jumped by almost a third (in dollar terms) last year to $2.75m—more than at any other of the top 50 law firms bar two in New York where PEP averaged $2.8m and $3.0m respectively.

　　[主體句式] Average profits per equity partner jumped by almost a third.

　　[結(jié)構(gòu)分析] 這是一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單句，破折號(hào)后面的是前面$2.75m的定語(yǔ)。

　　[句子譯文] 比如在Slaughter and May,去年P(guān)EP平均收入以275萬(wàn)美元為基數(shù)漲了1/3(以美元計(jì)算)，這要比任何全球前50名律師事務(wù)所或美國(guó)的律師界工資都高，其PEP平均為280萬(wàn)美元和300萬(wàn)美元。

　　題目分析：

　　[答案]A

　　[難度系數(shù)] ☆☆☆☆

　　[分析]細(xì)節(jié)題。這題關(guān)鍵要看對(duì)于文章第一句話的理解，Boosted by booming international financial markets, the City of London has not had it so good since the end of the dotcom bonanza in the late 1990s. “have it good”是一個(gè)詞組，意思為“過(guò)得優(yōu)�！保�那么這句話意思就是倫敦在20世紀(jì)90年代末享受過(guò)經(jīng)濟(jì)很好的一段時(shí)間后，一直到現(xiàn)在才又開(kāi)始經(jīng)濟(jì)很好。選項(xiàng)A最為符合該句意思，是正確答案。C選項(xiàng)的時(shí)間概念不正確，而D選項(xiàng)則是無(wú)中生有。

　　[答案]C

　　[難度系數(shù)] ☆☆☆

　　[分析] 細(xì)節(jié)題。文章第二段提到five of the world's top six law firms—in terms of turnover，可以看出是以turnover(營(yíng)業(yè)額)來(lái)評(píng)定的。如果不知道turnover的意思，也可以用排除法來(lái)選擇。因?yàn)榈诙�段提到，要是用收益率�?lái)衡量，那么它們排名就不會(huì)那么前了，因此A和B可以排除。D的業(yè)務(wù)數(shù)量又從來(lái)沒(méi)有提及�？梢圆鲁鯟可能是正確選項(xiàng)。

　　[答案] B

　　[難度系數(shù)] ☆☆☆

　　[分析] 猜詞題。根據(jù)上下文，主要談?wù)摰亩际锹蓭熓聞?wù)所，并沒(méi)有涉及到其他的行業(yè)，因此可以推測(cè)這里應(yīng)該指的是美國(guó)相應(yīng)業(yè)界的同行，這樣才有可比性，那么選項(xiàng)中B最為符合題意。

　　[答案]C

　　[難度系數(shù)] ☆☆☆

　　[分析] 細(xì)節(jié)題。題干相關(guān)的內(nèi)容在文章第五、第六段有提及。第五段提到，各律師事務(wù)所為了爭(zhēng)奪最優(yōu)秀的律師采取了許多措施，不得已都要解雇股東合作人，這樣就可以將比較大的利潤(rùn)給剩下有限的人分配，從而保證頂尖律師的利潤(rùn)，有的還進(jìn)行重組。而第六段提到為了找到最好的人才，還不惜提高新律師的工資。因此，選項(xiàng)中C是沒(méi)有提到的。

　　[答案]A

　　[難度系數(shù)] ☆☆☆

　　[分析] 推理題。從文章最后一段可以看出，該民意調(diào)查中有1/4的律師表明想要離開(kāi)這個(gè)行業(yè)，因?yàn)榉N種不滿意的地方，但還有3/4不會(huì)離開(kāi)就是因?yàn)楦吖べY原因。因此，可以看出，律師這個(gè)行業(yè)并不讓人滿意，吸引人的只是高收入而已。A反映了這一點(diǎn)。B選項(xiàng)不符合文章最后一段，因?yàn)榇蠖鄶?shù)律師表示都不會(huì)離開(kāi);D單單從律師行業(yè)的這個(gè)調(diào)查不能反映所有行業(yè)的情況、表述過(guò)于絕對(duì)。因此，答案為A。

　　參考譯文：

　　雖然受到快速發(fā)展的國(guó)際金融市場(chǎng)的推動(dòng)，倫敦自20世紀(jì)90年代末網(wǎng)絡(luò)富源之后再也沒(méi)有享受過(guò)原來(lái)的好日子。倫敦的律師行業(yè)一直享受著雙位數(shù)的業(yè)績(jī)?cè)鲩L(zhǎng)速度，既對(duì)經(jīng)濟(jì)的成功貢獻(xiàn)了自己的力量，又受益于經(jīng)濟(jì)成長(zhǎng)。目前倫敦市一流律師的年薪超過(guò)了200萬(wàn)英鎊。

　　英國(guó)的頂尖律師事務(wù)所選擇了不斷擴(kuò)張，走在世界前列，目前規(guī)模大于美國(guó)同類(lèi)的事務(wù)所。實(shí)際上，根據(jù)英國(guó)商業(yè)報(bào)紙《法律商業(yè)》一項(xiàng)世界50家領(lǐng)先律師事務(wù)所的調(diào)查，世界排名前六家律師事務(wù)所(按營(yíng)業(yè)額計(jì)算)有五家是英國(guó)事務(wù)所(算上英美合資的DLA Piper事務(wù)所)。但是就盈利能力來(lái)講，他們卻落后了。不過(guò)目前這種情況正在改變。

　　倫敦五家“魔力圈”事務(wù)所(Clifford Chance, Slaughter and May, Allen & Overy, Linklaters and Freshfields)的利潤(rùn)近年來(lái)飛速上升，現(xiàn)在雖然不能說(shuō)超過(guò)，但也可以說(shuō)已經(jīng)與紐約“白鞋子”精英相抗衡了。Slaughter and May是五家中唯一沒(méi)有走向世界的事務(wù)所，目前已經(jīng)成為全球50家第二高利潤(rùn)事務(wù)所。

　　不久前，倫敦的外科醫(yī)生還有望與市律師收入相當(dāng)。但是盡管最近醫(yī)院會(huì)診醫(yī)生的收入有了大幅增長(zhǎng)，但與倫敦律師的工資漲幅比起來(lái)還是相形見(jiàn)拙。比如在Slaughter and May,去年P(guān)EP平均收入以275萬(wàn)美元為基數(shù)漲了1/3(以美元計(jì)算)，這要比任何全球前50名律師事務(wù)所或美國(guó)的律師界工資都高，其PEP平均為280萬(wàn)美元和300萬(wàn)美元。當(dāng)然一些資深律師的收入更高。

　　爭(zhēng)取最好律師的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)是激烈的，挖墻角時(shí)有發(fā)生。因此，有必要保持名人的PEP數(shù)字上升，有時(shí)甚至以犧牲股東為代價(jià)，從而將獎(jiǎng)金的更大一部分留給剩下的人。Freshfields目前就正在裁減大約100名股東。其他領(lǐng)先的事務(wù)所也同樣經(jīng)歷重組的痛苦。

　　因?yàn)闃I(yè)界在不斷尋找最好的人才，因此剛獲得資格的新律師起薪也大幅增長(zhǎng)。Freshfields 和 Allen & Overy支付給律師的第一年工資為6萬(wàn)5千英鎊，三年后升至9萬(wàn)英鎊。(在美國(guó)頂尖律師事務(wù)所律師的第一年工資為8萬(wàn)英鎊。)

　　但是，正如倫敦其他許多頂尖的雇主所發(fā)現(xiàn)的，高工資并不意味著高滿意度。根據(jù)本月初刊登在《律師》上的一項(xiàng)YouGov民意調(diào)查，英國(guó)律師有1/4(包括1/5的律師搭檔)都想要離開(kāi)這個(gè)行業(yè)。那些不滿意的人抱怨幾近極限的工作時(shí)間、激烈的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)和最大事務(wù)所(擁有3000名以上雇工)的非人性化。那么他們?yōu)槭裁床环艞夁@個(gè)工作呢? 因?yàn)槭杖耄?/4的人這樣回答。