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2010考研英语二 · 阅读理解 Text 4
本页为 2010考研英语二 阅读理解 Text 4的完整原文、正确答案与逐题解析（原文约 405 词，共 5 题）。建议先自己作答，再逐题核对解析里的原文定位与干扰项说明。
2010考研英语二阅读理解 Text 4 原文
Many Americans regard the jury system as a concrete expression of crucial democratic values, including the principles that all citizens who meet minimal qualifications of age and literacy are equally competent to serve on juries; that jurors should be selected randomly from a representative cross section of the community; that no citizen should be denied the right to serve on a jury on account of race, religion, sex, or national origin; that defendants are entitled to trial by their peers; and that verdicts should represent the conscience of the community and not just the letter of the law. The jury is also said to be the best surviving example of direct rather than representative democracy. In a direct democracy, citizens take turns governing themselves, rather than electing representatives to govern for them.
But as recently as in 1968, jury selection procedures conflicted with these democratic ideals. In some states, for example, jury duty was limited to persons of supposedly superior intelligence, education, and moral character. Although the Supreme Court of the United States had prohibited intentional racial discrimination in jury selection as early as the 1880 case of Strauder v. West Virginia, the practice of selecting so-called elite or blue-ribbon juries provided a convenient way around this and other antidiscrimination laws.
The system also failed to regularly include women on juries until the mid-20th century. Although women first served on state juries in Utah in 1898, it was not until the 1940s that a majority of states made women eligible for jury duty. Even then several states automatically exempted women from jury duty unless they personally asked to have their names included on the jury list. This practice was justified by the claim that women were needed at home, and it kept juries unrepresentative of women through the 1960s.
In 1968, the Congress of the United States passed the Jury Selection and Service Act, ushering in a new era of democratic reforms for the jury. This law abolished special educational requirements for federal jurors and required them to be selected at random from a cross section of the entire community. In the landmark 1975 decision Taylor v. Louisiana, the Supreme Court extended the requirement that juries be representative of all parts of the community to the state level. The Taylor decision also declared sex discrimination in jury selection to be unconstitutional and ordered states to use the same procedures for selecting male and female jurors.
答案与逐题解析
答案速查
36D
37A
38C
39B
40D
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36From the principles of the US jury system, we learn that ______.
答案D
解析原文首段写明陪审原则包括“verdicts should represent the conscience of the community and not just the letter of the law”，即裁决应体现社区良知而非仅依法条，故D正确。A与“meet minimal qualifications of age and literacy”不符，文盲不具备资格。B与“defendants are entitled to trial by their peers”相反。C忽视“minimal qualifications of age”，并非无年龄限制。
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37The practice of selecting so-called elite jurors prior to 1968 showed ______.
答案A
解析第二段指出1968年前挑选所谓精英陪审员“provided a convenient way around this and other antidiscrimination laws”，说明反歧视法律存在漏洞、未能真正落实，故A正确。B把问题窄化为种族歧视，原文强调绕过各类反歧视法。C说的是整体程序与理想冲突，并非该做法本身所“表明”。D于文中无据。
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38Even in the 1960s, women were seldom on the jury list in some states because ______.
答案C
解析第三段写到即便多数州已允许女性陪审，若干州仍自动豁免，除非本人申请列入名单；“justified by the claim that women were needed at home”，故C正确。A错在并非一律禁止，仍可主动申请。B未提资格不足。D“逃避公共事务”属无中生有。
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39After the Jury Selection and Service Act was passed, ______.
答案B
解析1968年《陪审员选拔与服务法》“abolished special educational requirements for federal jurors”，联邦陪审员的教育门槛被取消，即变得不那么严格，故B正确。A、C对应的是1975年Taylor案对州级及性别歧视的裁定，时间与层级均不符。D“各州须向联邦法院看齐”原文未述。
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40In discussing the US jury system, the text centers on ______.
答案D
解析全文先述陪审制所体现的民主原则与传统，再写1968年前选拔与理想冲突及对女性的排斥，最后写国会立法与Taylor案推动改革，主线是传统及其演进，故D正确。A偏“性质”、B缺发展、C忽略开篇对传统理念的铺陈，均不全面。
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