新GRE逻辑阅读 每日一练20

　　编辑点评： GRE阅读考试的材料，非常强调逻辑的关系，所以逻辑要点是大家在解GRE阅读题的时候的关键，本文就为大家例举了这样一篇逻辑短文，供大家参考和练习。

　　随着GRE阅读考试的难度日益增加，大家需要有针对性地进行练习，本文为大家例举的就是逻辑短文的练习，文末还附有答案，供大家更好地练习。

　　In the early 1950 s, historians who studied preindustrial Europe 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 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.

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

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

　　Used investigatory methods that were almost exclusively statistical in nature.

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

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

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

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

　　scarcely illuminated the attitudes of the political and social elite

　　indicated the manner in which those in power apportioned justice

　　focused almost entirely on the thoughts and feel-ings of different social groups toward crime and the law

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

　　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

　　used different methods of statistical analysis to investigate the nonelite

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

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

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

　　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?

　　The causes of unrest in the city during the two decades

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

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

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

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

　　答案：D/B/C/C

　　上文的题目大家答对了几题?大家不仅要多做题，更要善于总结，这样才会有针对性地提高。