1999年历年考研英语真题

while wearing a Schutt helmet."We're really sorry he has become paralyzed,but helmets aren't designed to prevent thosekinds of injuries,"says Nimmons.The jury agreed that the nature of the game,not the helmet,was the reason for theathlete's injury.At the same time,the American Law Institute-a group of judges,lawyers,and academics whoserecommendations carry substantial weight-issued new guidelines for tort law stating that companies need not wamcustomers of obvious dangers or bombard them with a lengthy list of possible ones."Important information can get buried ina sea of trivialities,"says a law professor at Cornell Law School who helped draft the new guidelines.If the moderate end ofthe legal community has its way,the information on products might actually be provided for the benefit of customers and notas protection against legal liability.11.What were things like in 1980s when accidents happened?[A]Customers might be relieved of their disasters through lawsuits.[B]Injured customers could expect protection from the legal system.[C]Companies would avoid being sued by providing new wamings.[D]Juries tended to find fault with the compensations companies promised.12.Manufacturers as mentioned in the passage tend to.[A]satisfy customers by writing long wamings on products[B]become honest in describing the inadequacies of their products[C]make the best use of labels to avoid legal liability[D]feel obliged to view customers'safety as their first concem13.The case of Schutt helmet demonstrated that.[A]some injury claims were no longer supported by law[B]helmets were not designed to prevent injuries[C]product labels would eventually be discarded[D]some sports games might lose popularity with athletes14.The author's attitude towards the issue seems to be.[A]biased[B]indifferent[C]puzzling[D]objectivePassage 2In the first year or so of Web business,most of the action has revolved around efforts to tap the consumer market.Morerecently,as the Web proved to be more than a fashion,companies have started to buy and sell products and services with oneanother.Such business to business sales make sense because business people typically know what product they'relooking for.Nonetheless,many companies still hesitate to use the Web because of doubts about its reliability."Businesses need tofeel they can trust the pathway between them and the supplier,"says senior analyst Blane Erwin of Forrester Research.Somecompanies are limiting the risk by conducting online transactions only with established business partners who are givenaccess to the company's private intranet.Another major shift in the model for Internet commerce concerns the technology available for marketing.Until recently,Internet marketing activities have focused on strategies to "pull"customers into sites.In the past year,however,softwarecompanies have developed tools that allow companies to "push"information directly out to consumers,transmittingmarketing messages directly to targeted customers.Most nota