In recent years, there has been an increasing awareness of the inadequacies of the judicial system in the United States. Costs are staggering both for the taxpayers and the litigants—and the litigants, or parties, have to wait sometimes many years before having their day in court. Many suggestions have been made concerning methods of ameliorating the situation, but as in most branches of government, changes come slowly.
One suggestion that has been made in order to maximize the efficiency of the system is to allow districts that have an overabundance of pending cases to borrow judges from other districts that do not have such a backlog. Another suggestion is to use pretrial conferences, in which the
judge meets in his chambers with the litigants and their attorneys in order to narrow the issues, limit the witnesses, and provide for a more orderly trial. The theory behind pretrial conferences is that judges will spend leas time on each case and parties will more readily settle before trial when they realize the adequacy of their claims and their opponents’ evidence. Unfortunately, at least one study has shown that pretrial conferences actually use more judicial time than they save, rarely result in pretrial settlements, and actually result in higher damage settlements.
Many states have now established another method, small-claims courts, in which cases over small sums of money can be disposed of with considerable dispatch. Such proceedings cost the litigants almost nothing. In California, for example, the parties must appear before the judge without the assistance of counsel. The proceedings are quite informal and there is no pleading—the litigants need to make only a one-sentence statement of their claim. By going to this type of court, the plaintiff waives any right to a jury trial and the right to appeal the decision.
In coming years, we can expect to see more and more innovations in the continuing effort to remedy a situation which must be remedied if the citizens who have valid claims are going to be able to have their day in court.
The pretrial conference, in theory, is supposed to do all of the following EXCEPT ______.

A:narrow the issues B:cause early settlements C:save judicial time D:increase settlement costs

Text 4

A:narrow the issues B:cause early settlements C:save judicial time D:increase settlement costs

Passage Two
Perhaps there is only the moon to compare with it. Of all the achievements of American engineering, only the landing on the moon and the planting there of a wrinkled flag can rival the construction of Panama Canal as an epoch-making accomplishment. The Suez Canal, the trans-Siberian Railroad and the Taj Mahal all pale beside it. The canal’s construction is more closely akin to the pyramids of Egypt in its scope and difficulty of execution, but in the modern era, there is only the moon.
Like the landing on the moon, the construction of a canal across the narrow Isthmus of Panama was a dream long before it became reality. As early as 1534, Charles I of Spain proposed a canal at Panama, but it would take nearly 400 years for builders to catch up with his imagination.
When the canal finally was proposed required all the creativity the twentieth century could muster. It was the largest public work ever attempted. Its engineers had to control a wild river, cut the continental divide, construct the largest dam and man made lake known to that date and swing the largest locks ever constructed from the biggest cement structures then poured. Along the way, two of the world’s most devastating diseases had to be wiped out in one of their greatest strongholds. And all of this was to be done without the airplane or the automobile: Kitty Hawk rose into the head-lines in 1903 the same year the U. S. signed a treaty with Panama——and there was no road across the isthmus until the World War Ⅱ.
If Panama has had an unusual role in bygone dreams, it most certainly has a startling relationship to the hard facts of geography. The country is farther east than most people imagine——the canal and about half of Panama actually lie east of Miami. Because of the country’s shallow "S" shape and east-west orientation, it has places where the sun rises in the Pacific and sets in the Atlantic. More significantly, Panama is squeezed into the narrowest portion of Central. At the canal, just 43 miles of land separate Atlantic and Pacific shores. Perhaps even more important, Panama offers the lowest point in the North American continental divide—— originally 312 feet above sea level at the canal’s Culebra Cut. By comparison, the lowest pass in the United States is nearly 5,000 feet.

A:canal B:narrow strip of hand C:kind of crocodile D:man who once ruled Panama

Some people think they have an answer to the problem of car crowding and pollution in large cities. Their (21) is the bicycle, or bike. In a great (22) cities, hundreds of people ride bicycles to work every day. In New York City, some bike riders have been formed a group (23) Bike for a Better City. They claim that if more people rode bicycles to work, there (24) be fewer cars in the downtown section (闹市区) of the city and (25) less dirty air from car engines. For several years this (26) has been trying to get the city government (27) bicycle riders. For (28) , they want the city to paint special lanes ( narrow, often winding roads or ways) for bicycle only on some of the main streets, because when bicycle riders must use the (29) lanes as cars, there may be (30) Bike for a Better City feels that if there were (31) lanes, more people would use bikes. But no bicycle lanes have been (32) yet. (33) thinks they are a good idea. Taxi drivers don’t like the idea--they say it will slow transport. Some store owners on file main streets don’t like the idea--they say that if there is less traffic, they will have less (34) . And most people live (35) far from downtown to travel by bike.

A:very B:broad C:same D:narrow

Water
The second most important constituent(构成成份)of the biosphere(生物圈)is liquid water. This can only exist in a very narrow range of temperatures, since water freezes at 0℃ and boils at 100℃. Life as we know it would only be possible on the surface of a planet which had temperatures somewhere within this narrow range.
The earth’s supply of water probably remains fairly constant in quantity. The total quantity of water is not known very accurately,but it is about enough to cover the surface of the globe to a depth of about two and three-quarter kilometers. Most of it is in the form of the salt water of the oceans -- about 97 percent. The rest is fresh,but three-quarters of this is in the form of ice at the Poles and on mountains, and cannot be used by living systems until melted. Of the remaining fraction, which is somewhat less than one percent of the whole,there is 10～20 times as much stored underground water as there is actually on the surface. There is also a tiny, but extremely important fraction of the water supply which is present as waer vapour in the atmosphere.
Water vapour in the atmosphere is the channel through which the whole water circulation(循环)of the biosphere has to pass. Water evaporated(蒸发)from the surface of the oceans,from lakes and rivers and from moist(潮湿的)earth is added to it. From it the water comes out again as rain or snow,falling on either the sea or the land. There is,as might be expected,a more intensive evaporation per unit area over the sea and oceans than over the land, but there is more rainfall over the land than over the oceans and the balance is restored by the runoff from the land in the form of rivers.
Liquid water only exists

A:in the center of the earth. B:on the surface of our planet. C:in a very narrow range of temperatures. D:in the coastal areas of the earth.

第三篇 　　 Water 　　The second most important constituent (构成成份) of the biosphere (生物圈) is liquid water. This can only exist in a very narrow range of temperatures, since water freezes at 0℃ and boils at 100℃. Life as we know it would only be possible on the surface of a planet which had temperatures somewhere within this narrow range. 　　The earth’s supply of water probably remains fairly constant in quantity. The total quantity of water is not known very accurately, but it is about enough to cover the surface of the globe to a depth of about two and three-quarter kilometers. Most of it is in the form of the salt water of the oceans about 97 percent. The rest is fresh, but three quarters of this is in the form of ice at the Poles and on mountains, and cannot be used by living systems until melted. Of the remaining fractional which is somewhat less than one per cent of the whole, there is 10—20 times as much stored underground water as there is actually on the surface. There is also a tiny, but extremely important fraction of the water supply which is present as water vapor in the atmosphere. 　　Water vapor in the atmosphere is the channel through which the whole water circulation (循环) of the biosphere has to pass. Water evaporated (蒸发) from the surface of the oceans, from lakes and rivers and from moist (潮湿的) earth is added to it. From it the water comes out again as rain or snow, falling on either the sea or the land. There is, as might be expected, a more intensive evaporation per unit area over the sea and oceans than over the land, but there is more rainfall over the land than over the oceans, and the balance is restored by the runoff from the land in the form of rivers. Liquid water only exists

A:in the center of the earth. B:on the surface of our planet. C:in a very narrow range of temperatures. D:in the coastal areas of the earth.

第一篇 　　 Water 　　The second most important constituent (构成成份) of the biosphere (生物圈) is liquid water. This can only exist in a very narrow range of temperatures, since water freezes at 0℃ and boils at 100℃. Life as we know it would only be possible on the surface of a planet which had temperatures somewhere within this narrow range. 　　The earth’s supply of water probably remains fairly constant in quantity. The total quantity of water is not known very accurately, but it is about enough to cover the surface of the globe to a depth of about two and three-quarter kilometers. Most of it is in the form of the salt water of the oceans about 97 percent. The rest is fresh, but three quarters of this is in the form of ice at the Poles and on mountains, and cannot be used by living systems until melted. Of the remaining fractional which is somewhat less than one per cent of the whole, there is 10—20 times as much stored underground water as there is actually on the surface. There is also a tiny, but extremely important fraction of the water supply which is present as water vapor in the atmosphere. 　　Water vapor in the atmosphere is the channel through which the whole water circulation (循环) of the biosphere has to pass. Water evaporated (蒸发) from the surface of the oceans, from lakes and rivers and from moist (潮湿的) earth is added to it. From it the water comes out again as rain or snow, falling on either the sea or the land. There is, as might be expected, a more intensive evaporation per unit area over the sea and oceans than over the land, but there is more rainfall over the land than over the oceans, and the balance is restored by the runoff from the land in the form of rivers. Liquid water only exists

A:in the center of the earth. B:on the surface of our planet. C:in a very narrow range of temperatures. D:in the coastal areas of the earth.

{{B}}第三篇{{/B}}

A:in the center of the earth B:on the surface of our planet C:in a very narrow range of temperatures D:in the coastal areas of the earth